"My basic duty is not to cling to office, nor even more so, to obstruct the rise of people much younger, but to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived," Fidel Castro said on 17 December.

Nothing is more hilarious than people who are ironic at their own expense without realizing it. And considering Castro—the 81-year-old dictator who ruled Cuba and killed off every opposition since 1959—said the above, this has to be one of the funniest statements of 2007.

(Caricature by John Cox.)