It was, certainly, the funniest presidential campaign that I remember – although I am very young, and also do not remember presidential campaigns terribly long after they finish. During the last campaign there was nothing, save recurring amazement that Al Gore was married to a woman called “Tipper”.

This time around however, the jokes almost fell out of the sky. Some of the most amusing moments – Joe the Plumber, “pig in lipstick” – were nonintentional, although it was not for the want of professional humourists trying. Tina Fey’s uncanny impression of Sarah Palin gained her the kind of fame a Saturday Night Live player has not had since Mike Myers broke out with Wayne’s World.

One sketch, in particular, became a key moment. Fey/Palin is struggling in an interview and has already asked if she can “use a lifeline” on a particularly tricky question. She blithely struggles on for another minute or so, speckling her answers with homey “Well, y’knows!” and “Gosh darnits!” until her interlocuter notes, “Mrs Palin, it seems to me that whenever you become cornered, you just become increasingly adorable.”

USA Today said that the biggest challenge for Republicans was “making voters forget the Tina Fey factor”.

The other First Lady of US comedy – Sarah Silverman – was stirring things with her “The Great Schlep” campaign. The idea was to get young, liberal Jews to visit their reactionary grandparents in Florida, educate them about Mr Obama, and persuade them to vote.

In a series of escalatingly tenuous similarities between African-Americans and Jews (“‘Yo!’ is ‘Oy!’ spelt backwards, is perhaps my favourite), Silverman combines sincerity and sarcasm in telling the Jews to vote for “The goodest person we’ve ever had as a presidential candidate”. As Florida went to the Democrats we can only conclude that in the battle of the Sarahs, Silverman won.

And if we are to credit the funny ladies of the campaign we must not forget the sterling satirical efforts of Paris Hilton. Having been dragged into politics by Mr McCain comparing Mr Obama to celebs such as Britney Spears and herself she “decides” to run for President. “I’m not from the olden days, and I’m not promising change, like that other guy,” Hilton said, in a swimsuit, “I’m just hot.”

The main comedy was unintentional, and it was from Mrs Palin. Or more specifically, Mrs Palin and mooses. Let’s face it – moose are funny. They’ve got a funny name and a funny face, they walk in a funny way and you can hang a hat and an umbrella on their antlers, which is funny. Ultimately, it is all over for your super nuclear-button cool when the first-word association everyone has with your name is “moose”.

As the Republicans found to their cost, in 2008 it is far easier for an African-American with the middle name Hussein to get to the White House than it is for someone who has gotten all tangled up in moose.

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