It wasn’t even close.

Once again, the standup routines of Barack Obama and then Jay Leno at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night demonstrated that the most dangerous job in comedy is following the president of the United States—especially when the latter has better writers. [trounces]

And who exactly were those writers?

Obama—aided (as presidential political guru David Axelrod acknowledged to me when the show was over) by the razor-sharp jokesters from The Daily Show—came armed with fresh and funny material that prompted some of the biggest laughs…

Two of our favs:

“I’ve learned this year politics can be a tough business, but there are times where you just can’t help but laugh. You know what really tickles me? Eric Massa. Apparently Massa claimed that Rahm came up to him one day in the House locker room, stark naked, started screaming obscenities at him. To which I say, welcome to my world.”

“It’s been quite a year since I’ve spoken here last — lots of ups, lots of downs — except for my approval ratings, which have just gone down. ..But that’s politics. It doesn’t bother me. Beside I happen to know that my approval ratings are still very high in the country of my birth.