Sorry about the delay here. I let myself in for a bit more than I bargained for, and Jonah’s got the research assistants all busy shelling peanuts for Cosmo. On to the priest-rabbi-imam joke.

A priest, a rabbi, an imam, and Barack Obama are in a plane when the engines fail and the plane begins to go down. Opening the emergency locker, they find only three parachutes.

This was obviously challenging for readers. We did our best, but the general standard here was, I am bound to say, lackluster. A distressingly large number of readers were more keen to make an anti-imam joke than an anti-Obama one. What’s everyone got against imams? I can’t imagine. Sample:

The priest says, “I will forgo a parachute, out of Christian sacrifice for others.” The rabbi says, “To please G-d, I will forgo a parachute.” The imam smirks and says to Obama, “Get a load of those idiots. This is why we will win in the end.” Grabbing all three parachutes and leaping, Obama says, “Say hello to your 72 virgins for me.”

There was also a sub-genre in the Islamophobic category, playing on Wonder Boy’s fear of being tagged a Muslim:

Obama grabs all three and straps them on. “What about me?” asks the priest. “I’m leaving you Hope,” says Barack. “And me?” asks the rabbi. “To you I leave Change.” “And what about me?” implores the imam. Jumping from the plane and pulling three ripcords, Obama replies, “Do I know you?”

The winner, just because it was so nicely mean-spirited (mean-spiritedness wins my heart every time):

The priest says: “I have been celibate all my life, but I recently fell in love with a wonderful woman and I told her that I would leave the priesthood and ask her to be my wife. Please let me have a parachute so I can fulfil my promise to her.” The rabbi says: “Well, I have been happily married for twenty years and it would be a tragedy if I died without being able to say goodbye to her, so I deserve a parachute.” The imam says: “Well, I have been married for forty years to the most loving and supportive woman in the world. She has been my rock and inspiration and I could not bear the thought of her grief at my death, so I deserve a parachute.” The three then turn to Obama: “What about you?” they ask. After thinking for a minute, Obama responds: “I too have a wife. You guys take the parachutes.”