Stop the car. Amid Wednesday's budget speech ramblings about corporation tax, stamp duty and child benefit, did George Osborne make a funny? An actual joke?
By jove, we think he did! Introducing a new type of tax relief for the UK film industry, Gideon noted, to profound guffaws from the Tory benches: "It is the determined policy of this government to keep Wallace and Gromit exactly where they are."
Thus, in a single vaguely witty aside, Gideon summarised his policy, became a top Twitter trend, and – crucially – had a dig at bug-eyed Ed Miliband, who supposedly looks like Wallace.
The whole thing almost approached humour. Indeed, the whole thing was so well choreographed that we wonder whether Osborne wrote the policy simply to make the joke.
Laughter is a delicate art, though. In response to the cutting of the top rate of tax, Miliband later had his own stab at stand-up. David Cameron, he joked, could now "afford to buy his own horse" in a lame reference to Cameron's use of the dobbin Rebekah Brooks had herself borrowed from the Metropolitan police. Boom boom.
Back to the usual banter, then.
