Critic John Patterson of The Guardian says that "the script's literary values are close to nil, and its political jabs... are often to infantile."

And most of all there is the war, which looms epic in his mind, making the political jabs that consume campaign days seem trivial.

Funny too often turns into fluff, the critics say, and we're accused of avoiding hard-hitting political jabs.

But even with all the claims of bipartisanship by both sides tonight, Senator Biden took the opportunity to take a final political jab at the White House.

Then, apparently unable to resist a political jab himself, he added, "I didn't see any of the others go out there."

While it is hard to take this personal back stabbing seriously, Mr. Laurents achieves some gravitas by landing a few political jabs.

In this campaign, humor watchdogs - people who tote and slot every late-night political jab - have detected that the jokes are increasing, and growing harsher.

While the program obviously aided hundreds of thousands of poor New Yorkers, it was used as a political jab to Chávez' enemy Bush.

But "Ashley Montana" seems like a collection of stray thoughts, punning word games and political jabs that he couldn't fit comfortably into his more serious work.

That was at least three political jabs packed into one.