It’s pretty funny listening to the folks who are mad at Paul McCartney — sorry, Sir Paul McCartney — for cracking a joke at former President George W. Bush’s expense the other day.

McCartney received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from President Obama at the White House last week. The prize is sponsored by the Library of Congress, and after accepting the award, McCartney said, in part, “. . .  after the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is.” The Fox News crowd, of course, went cross-eyed nuts, and several Republican members of Congress followed suit, grumbling that McCartney should be ashamed of himself and go stand in a corner or something.

Other than the obvious question of which constituency the Congressmen think they’re appealing to with their criticism (cranky old conservative music haters with a short fuse?), what I want to know is this: 1. Are these people at all familiar with McCartney or his well-known leftie views, or, moreover, with the Beatles and their overall effect on culture? I mean, the right demonizes the 1960s and all the changes that took place, right? So why is it a surprise to them that one of the members of the irreverent rock band that was one of the main catalysts for that decade’s tumultuous changes — and who never left any doubt about his progressive politics, to put it mildly — would say something mocking about Dubya? I say more power to him, and thank God the boy hasn’t lost the sense of humor that was one of the Beatles’ most appealing aspects.

I also promise not to gripe the next time a major right-wing songwriter who changed worldwide culture receives the Gershwin Prize and says something snarky about a liberal president. Huh? Oh yeah, there are no major right-wing songwriters. I forgot. Final verdict, then: Let the yahoos squirm.

• Sir Paul McCartney and a president other than G.W. Bush