NEW YORK?Where?s the funny in Barack Obama?

That question, which dogged TV humorists throughout the presidential race, has gained new urgency now that Obama is headed for the White House.

His victory last week signaled imminent hardship for comics who lampoon political leaders for a living. The laugh-a-minute 2008 campaign is history, and soon there?ll be no President George W. Bush to kick around in comedy sketches or talk-show monologues.

Adding to the jesters? plight: Obama will soon be sworn in as the next Punch-Line-In-Chief.

Here is a man who inspires admiration, excitement or, maybe, suspicion. What he doesn?t inspire (in any measurable quantity, so far) are cheap laughs.

?A dignified, thoughtful, charismatic, smart man who doesn?t run at the mouth,? summed up Craig Ferguson, host of CBS? ?Late Late Show,? in the aftermath of eight go-go Bush years for comics. ?Is it a challenge to our creative juices to find something funny about Obama? God, yes!?

Right after the election, some TV wags were even waxing nostalgic on the air, however tongue-in-cheek.

Bush will be missed

On Comedy Central?s ?The Daily Show,? Jon Stewart said he was already missing the Bush administration?and his own George W. Bush impression, which had served him so well at the anchor desk.

?As a comedian,? NBC?s Jay Leno echoed to his ?Tonight Show? audience, ?I?m going to miss President Bush. Barack Obama is not easy to do jokes about. He doesn?t give you a lot to go on. See, this is why God gave us (Vice President-elect) Joe Biden.

?When one door closes, another one opens up.?

True, as a six-term US senator and lately as Obama?s running mate, Biden has cemented his reputation for blurting out remarks before they?re vetted by his brain. (Item: Biden declared that ?Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television? to address the nation when the stock market crashed in October 1929?even though Herbert Hoover was president then and TV was barely invented.)

?He?s a little more gregarious, runs around and slaps people on the back, he?s cheery-looking,? said Ferguson, who agreed that Biden is the comics? consolation prize. ?You can at least put him in a sketch.?

?Better if president is stupid?

The host of HBO?s ?Real Time,? comic Bill Maher describes himself as ?a policy guy who tries to stick more to what politicians do than who they are.? But that doesn?t mean he?s immune to the problem Obama represents.

?It?s always better if the president is stupid, or fat, or cheating on his wife, or angry, or a phony. This guy is none of those things. And that,? said Maher with a laugh, ?is really unfair.?

?But, c?mon, on balance, aren?t we all happier that we have somebody who isn?t such an easy target? I mean, comedians have had it really easy for the last eight years.?

Humor often relies on stereotypes and caricature, but comics haven?t yet figured out how to caricature Obama, and so far he has defied any categorical stereotypes?even that of a black man.

Magician-comedian Penn Jillette recalled how ?there have been jokes about Bush that had nothing to do with him being stupid or wrong?just about his being from Texas, since he has a slight Texas accent.

?But if you wanted to do black jokes about Obama, none of them are applicable: It?s as if he were from Texas, but without the Texas accent.?

Obama in the cross-hairs

Jillette ventured an idea for putting Obama in the comic cross-hairs: Crack wise about his notion ?that government can solve a lot of the problems that were previously left to the individual. I would be talking about the audacity of government giving people that kind of hope.?

Ferguson proposed poking fun at Obama?s ?deification? by his more fervent supporters. It?s no long-term solution for comedians, but it might buy them some time.