No One Tells a Monica Lewinsky Joke Like Monica Lewinsky

When I saw Monica Lewinsky trending on Twitter just now, I couldn't help but to bang on that click button to see what sort of wacky misadventures that wily little scamp was getting herself into this time. Suffice to say I was not disappointed. 

As any comic will tell you, the hardest thing in comedy is to come up with a running joke that works. A bit that will land as well the thousandth time an audience hears it as it did the first. Most gags run their course eventually. They become like that SNL recurring character that you liked at first, but they keep bringing it back until you'd rather see them fictionally murdered on stage before they get trotted out to the Weekend Update desk again. So only the truly greats can keep a sustained running joke. Rodney Dangerfield's eternally funny "I get no respect" bit being the gold standard. Joan Rivers' "Can we talk?" as well. Michael Scott's "That's what she said." Regardless of how you might feel about Jeff Foxworthy, you have to respect how much mileage he got out of "You might be a redneck." 

So in that spirit, let's give it up for the queen of the Monica Lewinsky joke, Monica Lewinsky. This is why she was trending. Responding to a since-deleted source Tweet with this timeless gem:

What's it been now - 25 years almost - since he last blew Bill Clinton. And dammit, you've got to hand it to her. She's still (pardon my verbiage) milking that for all it's worth. No comic has done more with two eyes since Marty Feldman in "Young Frankenstein." This is brilliant, minimalist comedy. That side eye emoji says it better than words ever could. 

"What's he most high-risk low reward thing you've ever done?" Honked on the bone of the most powerful man in the world! "What did you that didn't work out for you?" Made my name synonymous with blow jobs! "Ever do anything you didn't get much out of?" I let the leader of the free world pleasure me with a cigar in the Oval Office and all I got was a job at Revlon to keep me quiet! "Anything you'd do over?" I wouldn't have let him blow his boy batter all over my dress and then save it as evidence! "What do you regret?" Making myself and the President of the United States into laughingstocks! 

Heyyyooo!!!

And good for her. Most of us - myself included - live out our tedious, ordinary lives not becoming famous for anything. Hats off to most celebrated amateur blowie enthusiast in the history of the United States. The woman who, with the help of the man who had the power to unleash armageddon literally at his fingertip, put the noble, beloved blow job into the public conversation and changed America forever. And for the better.

So congrats to Ms. Lewinsky for keeping the joke alive. I can't wait to see what this madcap comic mind will come up with next!