Bras, batteries and Bachmann: S&P downgrade is ripe for jokes
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The economy looks headed for the dumps. Unemployment is high. Standard & Poor’s has branded the U.S. with a AA+ credit rating.
Calling all jokesters.
“Congress and obama feverishly searching Wal Marts for AA+ batteries to run the country,” tweeted New York photographer Tom Contrino.
“In bra sizes, going from AAA to AA is a good thing,” Brooklyn resident Jessica Misener tweeted helpfully.
‘’AAA to AA’ is a trending topic,” tweeted ArsenalOffside of Greenville, S.C. “Lots of people needing a tow truck to get to their 12-step meeting, apparently...”
Other messages floating around the Twittersphere: “S&P downgrades Michele Bachmann to Sarah Palin” and “Turns out it was S&P that downgraded Pluto to dwarf planet.”
On ‘The Daily Show,’ during a segment titled “Rise of the Planet of the AAs,” host Jon Stewart also took jabs at S&P.
‘The ratings agency is Standard & Poor’s,’ he said. ‘Who’s going to listen to a company whose name translates to average and below average? This is a big nothing burger.’
“Standard & Poor’s has warned there’s a one-in-three chance we could be downgraded again in the next three years,” said Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. “We could go from AA+ to FU.”
The comedian also took a stab at Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, joking that he “had suggested he might be leaving and getting a job in the private sector, but thanks to his economic policies there are no jobs in the private sector.”
The economy is so bad, Leno said, that “Angelina Jolie is now adopting kids from America.”
On Tuesday, an airplane flew past the S&P offices in Manhattan trailing a bold banner: “THANKS FOR THE DOWNGRADE. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRED.” Apparently, a single mother and investment banker from St. Louis was behind the stunt, according to the New York Observer, which also has photos.
[For the Record, 5:10 p.m.: An earlier version of this post misspelled Greenville, S.C., as Greensville.]
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-- Tiffany Hsu
