I consider myself a “joke wrangler.” I collect jokes, and I wrangle and “tweak” them into shape, and I like to think that I have a joke for every topic. I can often reconstruct a joke from just the set-up or just the punchline. I once participated in a radio show in which a group of us in the studio invited callers to complete a joke before we could “step on” the punchline; very often, the caller didn’t even get past the first sentence or so of the premise or “set up.”

Folks like me who are joke collectors know that there are some classic jokes that exist in different variations that purport to be different jokes but are essentially the same joke with a few “wrinkles” rearranged. I thought of this when I heard of Joe Biden’s remarks in his appearance Wednesday at a Santa Monica fire station with California governor Gabby Nuisance to brief reporters on the raging, massively-destructive and deadly fires in that state.

It was also a clear case of life imitating art.

As is so predictably characteristic of Joe Biden, he made it about himself and his family. It also echoed his remarks to first responders and survivors of the fires in Maui a year ago, when he used the occasion to go into detail about a fire in his home that almost cost him his precious Corvette.

On Wednesday Biden informed the assembled media-types of the “bad news” that his son (who he didn’t name but was clearly speaking of the well-known crackhead, whoremonger and influence-peddler painter and oil-and-gas expert Hunter Biden) had been notified that his California home had “probably burned to the ground,” but “today, it appears that it’s still standing.”

So Hunter Biden and family may have been a whole lot luckier than those who died or saw their own homes, pets, cherished belongings, and businesses reduced to ashes by fires still raging and still wreaking destruction. I’m sure all those who were victims of the fires or were threatened by the encroaching conflagrations took great joy in hearing that the president’s son’s house had been spared.

Pres. Biden then deftly pivoted to juxtapose that with the declaration that “the good news is, I’m a great-grandfather as of today!”

It struck me as merely a variant of the classic joke in which a doctor informs his patient, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that you have advanced, inoperable cancer and have two weeks to live.”

“Oh, no!” says the patient. “What’s the good news?”

And the doctor says, “The good news is, didja notice my receptionist? The gorgeous blonde with the humongous knockers? I nailed her last night!”

Either version is an example of stunningly graceless insensitivity and callous tone-deafness in the face of ongoing, heartbreaking tragedy. The only distinction in Biden’s version is that, as Joe Biden himself is so very fond of saying, “It’s no joke.”

Author’s Note: Stu Tarlowe has, since 2010, contributed over 160 pieces to American Thinker. He also publishes a Substack newsletter, Stu’s Stack o’ Stuff, which in addition to political opinion offers highly personal commentary, often a bit of history, and occasional jokes and dog stories; of more than 300 subscribers, only a mere handful even read or pay attention, but Tarlowe keeps scribbling anyway.

Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr, unaltered.