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The Joker’s Political Humor Abides

What do you get when you cross some vaguely political content with a few bawdy pics and a bunch of corny, crowdsourced groaners?

Those on Capitol Hill who probably just replied, “My roommate’s tumblr,” get half-credit. But we were actually talking about the long-standing Georgia rag currently known as The Joker.

The “magazine” has undergone various iterations in its lifetime, beginning — as best we can tell from the fuzzy pics in the online archive — as a pennysaver/Grit-style publication called the Savannah Joker. The periodical appears to be the irreverent brainchild (The Jester is a family-friendly sibling) of Mark De Vivo, owner of DeVivo Marketing, and was, at one point, the self-proclaimed “Worst Magazine in the USA.” Team DeVivo eventually thought better of that, adopting the current “America’s Politically Incorrect Humor Magazine” position between issues 48 and 49.

The 16-page production (#203) we procured from the Sunshine Travel Plaza in Woodbine, Ga., hits all the cultural high points: swimsuit-clad woman on the cover, randy jokes and anecdotes cribbed from a subscriber-fed “Joke Blog” (a joke about mother-in-laws titled “Mixed Emotions” submitted on Jan. 18 is featured on page 10 of the issue), all fleshed out by a “news of the weird”-style roundup of UPI stories (an undated account of an overflowing urinal in the men’s room of the House daily press gallery made the cut).

The commentary — we use the term loosely, as there appears to be no original reporting whatsoever in this purely aggregated pub — ranges from a “Who’s on First”-like exchange about the ridiculousness of how the unemployment rate is calculated to a parable featuring a weary traveler, an IRS genie, a poorly worded wish and a transformation into a feminine hygiene product (the moral: “If the U.S. government offers to help you, there’s going to be a string attached.”).

Back issues appear to have been even more politically motivated. Or so we assume given splashy covers announcing “Win a Date with Newt!” (#38) and “Clinton Comes Clean” (#52). We’re genuinely sorry we missed those.

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