Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| NEW YORK -- Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson brought down the house at Thursday night's Fox News/ Google debate when he joked about how his "next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this current administration." 
 
 The joke killed among the GOP faithful. But was Johnson the first to use it? 
 
 Just today, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh delivered a similar joke on air. 
 
 "My dogs have created more shovel-ready work than Obama has just this week alone," Limbaugh said. "The new puppy. Honest to God. More shovel-ready work for me this week than Obama has created all two and a half years." 
 
 So what does Limbaugh think of the similarity? 
 
 "I guess I've become show prep for the GOP debates now, too," Limbaugh told The Huffington Post in an email. Limbaugh said he thought he used the line yesterday, "but the days run together, so I'm not really sure." 
 
 Limbaugh didn't hear the joke live because he was traveling, but said he's received many emails about it. 
 
 UPDATE: HuffPost’s Sara Kenigsberg spoke to Johnson about the joke shortly after the GOP debate ended. Johnson told her that Jim Villanucci, a former "Tonight Show" writer and current radio host on Albuquerque’s KKOB station, sent him several jokes late Thursday afternoon. "He texted me about eight one-liners that maybe I could use so it was one of those things that, 'wow, that was really funny," Johnson said. He didn't know about Limbaugh telling the joke earlier today. 
 
 WATCH ||||| ORLANDO, Fla. -- Last night, Gary Johnson won some actual, desparately needed buzz for this joke: 
 
 My neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this president. 
 
 Less than 20 minutes later, some gossip circulated: Johnson's joke was a whole lot like one Rush Limbaugh told earlier that day. 
 
 My dogs have created more shovel-ready work than Obama has. In this week alone. 
 
 I asked Johnson about this after the debate. "I didn't listen to the show today," he said. "Someone else encouraged me to tell that joke." Later, he told the Huffington Post exactly which friend sent him the zinger. 
 
 
 
 It's a credible story, because some version of the joke has appeared on bumper stickers since the Tea Party boom of 2009. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Subliminally, I wonder if this was one of the reasons the joke hit so well. There was familiarity, whether conservatives realized it or not. It may have been a year since they last attended large Tea Parties where stuff like this was on sale. Is this bad for Johnson? Hell, when's the last time he had a one-day story, much less a two-day story? 
 

– He still gets points for delivery, but Gary Johnson's well-received joke at last night's debate—"My neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this president"—goes back even further than thought, notes Daily Intel. For starters, Rush Limbaugh used it before the debate on his show. "I guess I've become show prep for the GOP debates now, too," he told the Huffington Post when asked about it. But Dave Weigel at Slate points out that the line has been around on Tea Party bumper stickers and signs since 2009. "Subliminally, I wonder if this was one of the reasons the joke hit so well," writes Weigel. "There was familiarity, whether conservatives realized it or not." Johnson certainly isn't claiming credit. He said he got the line from a former Tonight Show writer before the debate. Click for more.