Barack Obama Wins First Ever Nobel Prize for Not Being George W Bush

In a surprise move this week, the Nobel Foundation announced addition to its usual lineup of Nobel prizes, the Nobel Prize for Not Being George W Bush to United States President Barack Obama.

"For his extrordinary efforts at being Not George W Bush, the Nobel Committee awards President Barack Obama this prestigious award. Though he has not been in office a year, President Obama has proven without a doubt that he is most definitely Not George W Bush and has every intention of continuing on his present course," said Nobel Committee Chairman Jorg Blanlund on Friday.

The Nobel Commission elaborated on their purpose in creating such an award. "We feel it important to recognize world leaders who live up to the ideals of being Not George W Bush. We felt that, as good as the Nobel Peace Prize is, it still fails to recognize essential attributes and contributions to human society and associated with being Not George W Bush such as multilateralism, diplomacy, being able to properly pronounce the word "nuclear" when discussing disarmament, not becoming creepily informal and touchy with foreign heads of state, and not making his or her citizens embarassed to claim him or her. Basically, it goes to a world leader who doesn't make him or herself look like an ass every five minutes whilst simultaneously restoring dignity to world politics."

Many critics have pointed out the fact that the name of the prize contains that of a US President, and that the Nobel Prizes are supposed to be international. "Of course we expected this criticism," said Jorg Blanlund, "This prize is eligible to men and women of all nations, and we feel the prize's name is actually quite appropriate because George W Bush was not only embarassing to the United States, but to humanity in general. We're already actively looking at candidates for next year's prize in such countries as Iran, North Korea, and of course, France. These are all countries who are in dire need of non-embarassing leadership and we fully expect someone less embarassing to spring forth any year now."

The creation of the Nobel Prize for Not Being George W Bush marks the first new Nobel Prize category since the short-lived and controversial Nobel Prize for being Unlike Richard M Nixon awarded to Jimmy Carter.