Zimmerman Lawyer Tells Awful Knock-Knock Joke

George Zimmerman's attorney wasn't going to let the prosecutor have all the fun with his profanity-laced opening statement yesterday. Don West decided to make a splash in his opening as well—with the world's most awful knock-knock joke. After urging the jury to hold the joke against him rather than Zimmerman, he said. "Knock knock. Who's there? George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman who? All right, good, you're on the jury!" The response: crickets.

West later apologized, CNN reports. "No more bad jokes, I promise that," he said. "I was convinced it was the delivery." But the moment of attempted humor could be a big deal; Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz thinks Zimmerman could use it as grounds to request a mistrial. "The victim's family is sitting in the courtroom with tears in their eyes and he's telling a knock-knock joke?" Dershowitz told NewsMax TV, according to Fox News. "If a student ever did that in a mock court in my class, I would … ask him are you in the right school? Maybe you want to be a stand-up comedian. ... And, by the way, if you do, come up with better jokes." (More George Zimmerman stories.)