To rebut, Hizzoner, clad in armor, gallantly rode in on a burro á la Man of La Mancha, promising “to raise the unraisable tax.” Oh, and he began by lighting up a cigarette, much to the roar of the audience! This unforgettable vignette was the highlight of The Inner Circle’s $500-a-plate benefit, which lampooned everything from The Office of Homeland Security’s Orange Alert (will somebody puh-leeze tell me what accessories go with orange?) to Mayor Bloomberg’s (in)famous smoking ban, to fat kids suing McDonald’s for what? Being fat?

For over 80 years, the Inner Circle has poked fun at bigwig politicos and taken potshots at pop culture, with no end in sight. A coterie of multi-talented Inner Circle journalists included Shelly Strickler, Kristi Witker, Mary Alice Williams, Bob Liff, Ernie Anastos, Marvin Scott, John Slattery, Maggie Haberman, Mary Murphy, Molly Gordy, Salvatore Arena, and even police commish Ray Kelly’s son and Fox News reporter, Greg Kelly (who taped a segment for the musical while embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq!). They strutted their theatrical stuff (or lack thereof) in “What’s He Smoking?” Ribbing the best of them, teasing the rest of them, and making a few of them wish they were dead. The belting reporters posed as the ubiquitous Al Sharpton, Hillary Clinton, Hans Blix, Eliot Spitzer, John Ashcroft, Saddam Hussein, and good ol’ Dubya himself.

Act One unfolded at the “Smokey Bets Café,” where cast members whined (to the tune of “All That Jazz”). Sample lyric: “Bloomberg’s gonna make us pay for our sins: ten percent for sex and twenty more on gin.” Act Two (dubbed “Bush Comes to Shore”) featured several high-profilers, including Sheila Stainback’s lyrics biting back Martha Stewart, Chelsea Clinton played by Molly Gordy, and Michael Jackson played by Juliet Papa. (“My nose of silly putty, when exposed to heat, it peels. But when it droops, I plaster it, so’s I look like Brooke Shields!”)

When audience members weren’t laughing (or singing along), they were dining on such delectables as duck tape pâté, Ray Kelly greens, Manhattan chowderheads, smoked turkeys (as in City Council gobblers), “pie tacky,” Bloomberg biscuits (they have no dough), and, of course, “Bloomberg Whines.” Orange Alert sherbet, anyone?