The screwballs have spoken!

It's not on par with predicting that Mats Sundin would end up in Vancouver on the same day the Ottawa Senators put Jason Spezza on the third line.

Nevertheless, it's funny to see that Deadspin had to ask for an end to sports-themed jokes about Muthathar al-Zaidi, five days after someone else said it was not in play as comedy material.

"The pain that the Bush Administration inflicted on Iraqis is such that you probably can't make a sports joke. Please, let's not have any jokes that with an arm like that, the Detroit Lions should give a tryout to Muthathar al-Zaidi." -- this site, last Sunday

Of course, no one listened. Americans can always draw amusement out of bringing democracy to someone else's country.

"Many people submitted multiple versions of what is essentially the same joke and we already posted a couple of them days ago, so you can probably stop making them now. And simply changing the crappy team in the punchline doesn't make it more original. Folks tried the Cubs, the Lions, the (baseball) Giants, the Pirates, the Bills ... basically anyone who roots for a horrible team has, at some point in the last week, made some kind of zinger along the lines of "Boy, maybe [pathetic sports franchise] should sign that guy!" Then they chuckled softly to themselves and shook their head wistfully, while everyone around them rolled their eyes and pretended to look for a lighter ball. (In my mind, this story takes place at a bowling alley.) It's the mid-December 2008 version of the "black box" joke. ("Why don't they make the plane out of that?!")" -- Deadspin, just now

You can't say we didn't try.