Jeremy Paxman is, of course, best known for being one of the most biting, cynical and tenacious journalists on the BBC's books. I would use the word rottweiler or pitbull, but they've both been done to death, and he deserves better than tired old cliches from me.

Paxman's performance with former Home Secretary Michael Howard, when he asked the same question 17 times, is still mentioned in revering tones by young hacks in the newsrooms of Television Centre, marvelling at his determination to get a particularly tricky answer out of a notoriously slippery character (although how many of them heard the story that it was only because he had been asked to fill time is another matter).

What's less well known, however, is his blossoming second career in comedy. Every night, he treats the subscribers to the Newsnight daily e-mail to a gag.

Tonight's is worth sharing:

Finally, among the 1,217 emails in my inbox was the following news of CIA attempts to recruit an assassin. I may have passed it on before, but it's more suitable for repetition than most of them.

After carrying out the relevant background checks and interviews the CIA was left with a shortlist of two men and one woman. Each was approached for the final test by the assessor outside a locked room. First up is one of the men.

The CIA man says: "We must be sure that you can follow orders whatever the circumstances. Inside this room you will find your wife sat on a chair. Kill her."
"You can't be serious," shouts the man. "I could never do that."
"Thank you sir," says the CIA agent. "You're not suitable for this job. Please leave via that doorway."

The second male candidate is more resolute, takes the gun and enters the room. After a long five minutes of silence he walks out shaking his head. "I just couldn't do it - sorry." He too is dismissed.

Finally the agent gives the woman the same instructions, ordering her to kill her husband. The woman enters the room, from which emerge screams, crashes, bangs and groans. Silence eventually falls, the door opens and the woman walks out, wiping the sweat from her brow. "The damn gun was loaded with blanks," she says. "I had to beat him to death with the chair."

Boom, as they say, boom.