POLITICO LOOKS CLOSER AT THE RESPONSE TO PUNCHLINES FROM WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY GIBBS..

Their conclusion: The laughter is over..

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"But the laughter has been reduced by half in recent months: In the first six months of the Obama administration, briefings produced an average of 179 laughs per month. Over the past six months, the average has dropped down to 89.

Chalk it up to the close of any administration's initial honeymoon — and the Obama administration's tough second half of 2009, as it wrestled with health care and saw the late Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat filled by a Republican. "

..They did, though, have a hearty chuckle at Gibbs' Palin joke..