Through the middle decades of this century, Faulkner's excellence was Mississippi's shield against national ridicule.

He fathered children with multiple women that led to him being the subject of national ridicule.

As the extent of Gadsden's problem was discovered, television cameras descended, conspiracy theories brewed, and Gadsden County became an object of national ridicule that haunts it still.

Mecham was showered with national ridicule.

The explanation quickly became the butt of national ridicule, prompting television crews and opposition politicians to visit the office to request tastings of the pricey purified water.

He's going to make Meriden the object of national ridicule.

In September 2007, after national and international ridicule over the expense of this project, the Alaska government ultimately chose not to build the bridge, and will spend the appropriated funds elsewhere.

Among these agreements was one on the reform of the Canadian Senate, an appointed body that is an object of national ridicule.

By the early part of March observers were noting that the F-35 and its procurement had become an object of national ridicule.

Nonetheless, the city and its Mayor have become "a focus of national ridicule," as Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said the other day.