Questions Nobody Is Asking

The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

Questions Nobody Is Asking
“Are There Any Canadian Movies on Netflix?”–headline, Globe and Mail (Toronto), Oct. 11

2nd Prize Is Two Bailouts
Columnist Joe Nocera explains a joke for the benefit of humor-impaired New York Times readers:

Do you remember that moment in the first Austin Powers movie when Dr. Evil, back in action after being cryogenically frozen for 30 years, gets his hands on a nuclear warhead? “If you want it back,” he snarls to a group of world leaders who have gathered in a secret United Nations bunker, “you will have to pay me”–here he pauses for dramatic effect–“one million dollars!” The assembled leaders burst into laughter because it was such a pathetically small sum.

And didja hear the one about the Norwegian bailout of the European Union? It’s called the Nobel Peace Prize!

A New York Sun editorial notes that Norway for decades has refused to join the EU. Why the Sun left out the obvious Groucho Marx reference we’ll never know.

For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”