By Julian Sancton

Bloomberg Businessweek

April 27, 2012

At the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Saturday, le tout Washington will pretend it is two things it’s rarely accused of being: glamorous and funny. It will rely on such Hollywood stars as Charlize Theron and George Clooney for the glamour, and on speechwriters (and host Jimmy Kimmel) for the funny. But when the clock hits midnight, the Capitol will turn back into one fat, unfunny pumpkin.

There are, however, a handful of outliers—members of Congress who don’t merely know how to deliver a joke (as Barack Obama has arguably done better than any president in memory) but also how to craft one on the spur of the moment. We’ve assembled the admittedly short list below. To analyze the comedy stylings of these Beltway yuksters, we called on Jeff Nussbaum of West Wing Writers, who is rumored to have written humor for everyone from Leon Panetta to Hillary Clinton...

Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)

Was named “Funniest Senator” by Washingtonian magazine several years in a row.

Nussbaum: “Who would have thought that Kansas would be such a fertile breeding ground for funny senators? But it has produced two of the funniest: Bob Dole and Pat Roberts. His humor is a perfect combination of wry and dry.”

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Watch Senator Roberts' produce endless laughs (view from 74:54 to 80:43) during his appearance at last month's "A Century of Service" event to honor BPC founders and former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker and Bob Dole.

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Read the full Bloomberg Businessweek article here

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Century of Service