Point: It's inevitable that after Bush is gone, the late night hosts will be at a loss for a new target. There is just no one in the public eye with such a position of authority that can ever beat George W. for incompetence jokes. And as much as much as we've paid lip service to the idea that The Daily Show and Colbert Report can continue on due to the cleverness of its writing, there is definitely, 100%, no doubt that there will be a dearth in material that was once evident all around us.

If only because it is harder to make fun of hope than it is of crippling fear of our future. Says one writer from the satirical Onion:

"For me, comedy is essentially about personal horror, and transforming that horror into something people can laugh at." Hanson went on, "People always say, 'You should do a book.'"

And now, for the comedic good news:

Counterpoint:

Wouldn't The Onion, even in some small way, miss one of comedy's most cherished targets in presidential history? "Oh, God, no," says feature editor Joe Garden. "It's been a nightmare trying to figure out what to do with him [in the paper]." From the Onion's standpoint, Barack Obama's nomination and his rock-star celebrity were good news, "simply because he has people interested in politics, which lets us satirize something people care about," says Garden.

Sure, Matt Drudge and Limbaugh and all the conservative hatemongers might see a bump in ratings post-election. But conservative humor is scarcer and harder to find than the liberal counterparts. Why? Because so many of those ivory-tower, "elitist" individuals that happen to go into the comedy field are liberals. Like Hollywood, the compass always skews left.

And so what if there will be less blatant material? There will always be something to mock in our political climate, and if the writers of these shows and papers have to roll up their sleeves and dig deeper for their sources, the payoffs will be well worth the wait.

Otherwise, what is the alternative? A culture of Larry the Cable Guys? No thanks.