Exclusive: Robert Gibbs Responds to Politico’s ‘Laughtergate’ Exposé

As we reported earlier, Politico has published part 2 of their yearlong expose´ of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs‘ comedic chops. Using state-of-the-art word count technology, they have determined that Gibbs is about half as funny as he used to be.

I asked Gibbs for his reaction to Politico’s report, and to criticisms of Tuesday’s Sarah Palin “handgate” gag. Here’s what he had to say.

On the subject of the Politico story:

I read the story and both laughed and cried.

Responding to criticisms, such as this one, of the Sarah Palin joke he did on Tuesday:

All I would say is this – everyone should have a sense of humor, its needed more than ever in Washington.

I tend to agree with Gibbs on both counts. Far from a “disgrace,” his Palin jibe was about as good-natured as it gets (it’s not like he accused her of attempted murder), and the Politico story is, itself, a sad joke.

As Apoliticus points out, Politico leaves out pertinent details in its new story. By their own count, Gibbs’ new LBI (Laughs Batted In) average is still higher than his three immediate predecessors combined.

Their methodology, such as it is, is pretty flawed, too. It’s obvious that Gibbs is prone to cracking wise, but scanning transcripts for the word “laughter” can hardly be called “analysis.” There’s no way to tell who is causing the laughter. Did Politico check to see if there had been a corresponding decrease in instances of the word “Lester?”

Granted, the Politico piece makes some fair, if not new, observations, but it doesn’t seem like a simple laugh count really supports any of the conclusions. It’s almost as if they just needed something to propel a rote critique of the Obama administration into delicious Drudge-bait.