There Is No "Comic Relief Act" That Makes It Illegal To Crack Jokes At TSA Grope Station
At TSA News Blog, Lisa Simeone notes that the First Amendment has not been suspended so the hamburger clerks working airport "security" can call actual cops to throw you in jail for joking that that's a "bomb in your pants," etc.:

It is simply false to claim that someone is violating a law if he/she makes a joke -- about bombs or anything else -- at the airport security checkpoint. I repeat: it's false.

There is no law prohibiting you from cracking a joke. In fact, there's something called the First Amendment that you may have heard of. It prohibits the government from infringing on your right to freedom of speech.

Of course, that doesn't stop the blue-shirted crusaders from telling you you're breaking the law, or from calling the cops, who should know better but who usually side with the thuglets, as they did in the recent case of Frank Hannibal. Which is why Hannibal is suing and will almost surely win -- if his case ever even goes to court, which it probably won't because the TSA and the cops will settle because they know they're wrong.

But here we go again with those pesky facts (from a Jonathan Turley USA Today column):

Across the country, travelers are greeted with signs and announcements at airports warning them not to make jokes about bombs or weapons. It has become commonly known that making such jokes is a federal offense. It isn't. There is no Comic Relief Act that makes joking a violation of the U.S. Code. It is an urban legend intentionally created by threatening arrests and twisting existing laws. Even actual prosecutions are rare. In the meantime, there is not a single case of a terrorist warming up his victims with a lead-in joke.

Turley continues:

Government websites such as the TSA's expressly warn that "jokes ... are not tolerated" and "can result in criminal or civil penalties." However, federal law prohibits giving false information "willfully and maliciously, or with reckless disregard for the safety of human life." This is an anti-hoax -- not an anti-joke -- law designed to punish people who want to cause panic with false reports. Most joke cases involve people who clearly indicate at the time that they are joking.

...Ironically, news media reports of such abuses only reinforce the urban mythology -- sending the message that even obvious jokes can be grounds for arbitrary arrest. Even when proven unlawful, the arrests deter citizens by threatening them with the loss of money and time in court.

It is time to tell the public the truth about airport jokes. If we are going to criminalize bad humor, we should have the good sense of passing a law first.