Everyone pretended to take the event very seriously, which made it even funnier.

VOA: special.2009.08.14

He is African American and gay, and he says that at first, he did not take the nomination too seriously.

VOA: standard.2010.02.18

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said the Palestinian authorities take very seriously the allegations in the Goldstone report regarding possible violations by Hamas.

VOA: standard.2009.11.04

"I think the most important thing we can politically is to force the leaders to take seriously the problems we are facing."

VOA: standard.2009.12.06

But sometimes I would say, the government does not take security seriously enough unless it happens.

VOA: standard.2009.07.30

"The Americans should take seriously what is going on," "The whole situation is deteriorating.

VOA: standard.2009.11.18

You'd walk up the first day, see your mates wearing a dress, have a couple of laughs and then go and take it seriously so an audience doesn't have to."

VOA: standard.2010.04.08

"When the request came through for us to consider re-forming to play, we felt that the immense scale of what had happened in Victoria and the really necessary kind of giving from other quarters to help people meant that it was something we should take very,very seriously,".

VOA: standard.2009.03.14