Comedy certainly is subjective. But regarding Wanda Sykes' comments at the recent White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner, the debate theoretically could be allowed to go no further than this: If you find yourself, in any way, favoring of the comedic merits of kidney failure, you're on the wrong side of the argument.

Sykes is a comedienne, and anyone who knows anything about Sykes knows that when you get a dose of her stand-up chatter, you're not exactly getting a Noel Coward level of subtlety or sophistication. But she makes people laugh.

Her "jokes" at the correspondents' dinner, though, clearly had people nervously tugging at their collars in discomfort. Often at these dinners, invited comedians engage in good-natured ribbing of the sitting U.S. president, but unabashed Obama supporter Sykes instead set her sights on one of the president's biggest detractors, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

With a mixed crowd reaction -- and with Obama by all appearances laughing at the jokes -- Sykes compared Limbaugh to terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden, and recommended that Limbaugh be investigated as the possible 20th 9-11 hijacker.

Then, in light of the host's stated desire for Obama to "fail," Sykes said, "I hope his kidneys fail, how about that?"

Classy.

Some defending Sykes have said that she merely was dishing out invective with the same politically incorrect gusto that Limbaugh employs on his radio show -- essentially giving him a taste of his own medicine.

But that doesn't mean the medicine is any less bitter.

Sykes did herself a disservice with such atrocious, over-the-line blatherings. A woman who has won many entertainment awards for funnier material debased herself by poorly attempting to exploit organ failure for laughs.

And Obama certainly did himself no favors by sitting on the dais and smiling throughout Sykes' routine, as if giving her loony views tacit approval.

"That's way, way beyond reasoned debate or comedy and Obama's reaction to it was astonishing," wrote dinner attendee Toby Harnden of the London Daily Telegraph . "Obama laughing when someone wishes Limbaugh dead? Hard to take from the man who promised a new era of civility and elevated debate in Washington."

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tried to calm the waters earlier this week by weakly denouncing Sykes' words on behalf of the administration, saying "there are a lot of topics that are better left for serious reflection rather than comedy."

"Art," Andy Warhol observed, "is anything you can get away with." Well, Sykes got away with it, but there's nothing artful about how she did it.