At the close of her interview with Joe Biden on Wednesday, Diane Sawyer re-aired a clip from the SNL veep debate. The footage, in which Jason Sudeikis plays Biden, left the candidate in stitches. Viz.:

This, to me, is an awkward exchange. First, politicians need to stop making jokes about hair-plugs, even if they’ve got a few. Second, give me a good belly-laugh any day over the halting, drawn-out, don’t-know-whether-he’s-laughing-or-crying chuckle that consumes Biden for nearly a minute.

Don’t get me wrong: I would take a bullet for Joe Biden. But it sure would be nice to see a politician laugh with the joyful abandon of Bill Clinton back in (say) 1995:

According to Dep. Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, Yeltsin was visibly impaired by a serious cognac buzz at the time of the press conference. Clinton, of course, took the situation in stride, later mollifying a vexed Talbott with, er, a stiff highball of truth:

We can’t ever forget that Yeltsin drunk is better than most of the alternatives sober.

Now that’s what I call straight talk!

In related non-news, a hard-hitting trend-piece published yesterday in the New York Times heralds the umpteenth resurgence of political humor.

Valleywag points to a Time magazine widget listing the results of a poll asking folks who will win tonight’s watch-it-through-your-fingers-like-it’s-The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Vice Presidential debate. The rest of the world gives it to Joe Biden, 83 percent to Sarah Palin’s 17 percent. Even Alaska is on the same train as everybody else (78 to 22). Delaware goes to Biden, unsurprisingly—but at a full 100 percent. When’s the last time an election poll went 100 percent in one candidate’s direction? Even Alan Keyes got a few points against Barack Obama in the 2004 Senate race.