Mr. Bush drew devastating reviews for cracking second-rate jokes, grinning nervously and looking downright mirthless.
There's the archeologist with the arched, combable eyebrows, the neutrino guy with the in-on-the-cosmic-joke grin, the evolutionary biologist whose age-etched face emerges from the shadows as a play of silvery crescents, the superstring theorist with a bad-cop glower, the neuron whiz who looks like a bartender you'd spill your troubles to.
"He raised fees to get a birth certificate, which would have been expensive for me," Mr. Obama joked, grinning.
The first was Anwar, an Italian-Somali man in his mid-thirties who seemed like he was constantly on the verge of breaking into manic hysterics, making jokes and grinning even while nurses plunged needles into his arm.
The first was Anwar, an Italian-Somali man in his mid 30s who seemed like he was constantly on the verge of breaking into manic hysterics, making jokes and grinning even while nurses plunged needles into his arm.
He shook his finger — "Not allowed to take photographs!" — then broke into a huge grin: "Just joking!" I heard variations on the same joke several times in Slovenia.
He's quick to flash a broad grin and joke about how awful the food and conditions were in detention, but the experience clearly left its mark.
"I'm only joking, man," McGregor grins before posing for the obligatory selfie.
Mr. Alda is all supplicating hands and bared teeth as he tries to conceal his anxiety behind a wall of jokes and a skull's grin.
Mr Bush is all winks, jokes, flapping hands and puckish grins.
