The last notable joke he endured was April Fool's Day 2002, when two Quebec radio DJs phoned him, pretending to be Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

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At the start of the third Haughey government in 1987, a grim joke made the rounds: would the last Irishman to leave please turn out the lights?

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Mr Paisley also said that an assertion by Culture Minister Michael McGimpsey's that IRA decommissioning had started with the IRA move last October was "a joke".

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Mike Bird, a Conservative on the authority for 22 years, who was voted out as leader of the council last October, said the running of the authority had become "an absolute joke".

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The deniability at the start of that last sentence is an inside joke.

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"I joke that at my outpost I'm the last to hear rumors, " she says.

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Johnson did have his moment in the spotlight on TV primetime last year when sharing a stage with the likes of Romney in the Republican primary elections, he cracked a joke that made headlines.

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