Not everybody gets satire, which is why knock-knock jokes and blooper shows were invented.</p><p>Still, even some of those quick to catch on to the gag were less than amused when an anti-light-rail group calling itself Citizens Opposed to Workable Solutions came on the scene recently.</p><p>Me, I thought it was kind of clever. Group calling itself COWS aims to keep KC backward by opposing light rail &#8212; not brilliant, but cute.</p><p>However, some fellow members of the local media were irked when COWS members, leading a steer named Tex, interrupted a media event Thursday in a Kansas City parking garage.</p><p>&#8220;The mayor&#8217;s press conference this morning was a joke, literally,&#8221; snorted a writer for KCTribune.com, and she was &#8220;pretty angry.&#8221;</p><p>Also annoyed with the actors pretending to be protesters at the event hosted by Mayor Mark Funkhouser was KMBC&#8217;s Micheal Mahoney, who was said to have pursued them as they carried signs, one of which read, &#8220;Cows! Not Rails.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;He was all in our faces,&#8221; Lee&#8217;s Summit actress Tina Morrison said. &#8220;He was yelling at us and demanding documentation and driver&#8217;s licenses about who we were.&#8221;</p><p>But as far as mayoral communications director Joe Miller was concerned, things couldn&#8217;t have worked out better.</p><p>Anything to bring attention to the pro-light-rail campaign backed by his boss.</p><p>&#8220;You knew the TV couldn&#8217;t resist the chance to show pictures of the mayor and the cow,&#8221; Miller told me.</p><p>Sure enough, all three of the stations covering the event ran video on their newscasts that night.</p><p>However, what we won&#8217;t know until next week is just how effective that and other Miller-inspired publicity stunts will have been in the light-rail campaign.</p><p>All are an attempt to reach the type of voters who Miller and Funkhouser think will favor the light-rail starter line.</p><p>&#8220;Folks in my generation get it,&#8221; says Miller, 40. &#8220;My gut tells me that these are going to be the kind of voters who are going to want to vote for progress.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s a tight race, we hear. Could go either way.</p><p>But unlike light-rail opponents, the official campaign in support of light rail has steered away from billboards and commercials on radio and TV.</p><p>Political consultant Pat Gray favors direct mail instead. He&#8217;ll try some other things, such as texting to reach young people.</p><p>Still, Funkhouser wanted a role. Acting somewhat independently, the mayor&#8217;s office is pushing ahead with its own quirky bit of promotion, with Miller moonlighting for the light-rail campaign.</p><p>On Friday, Funkhouser poured beers for customers at a River Market tavern to stress how a light-rail system would make it easier to experience Kansas City&#8217;s nightlife. No need for a designated driver when you can ride public transit instead.</p><p>More stunts are ahead.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got something planned virtually every day until Election Day,&#8221; Funkhouser told me.</p><p>I doubt any of them will top all that led up to the COWS press conference the other day.</p><p>It was Miller&#8217;s idea to form a phony group pretending to be against light rail. It would mock opponents by making silly arguments against light rail.</p><p>To pull it off, Miller set up a Web site and, with ballot issue campaign money, hired members of a local comedy troupe, Full Frontal Comedy, to pose as the Citizens Opposed to Workable Solutions.</p><p>&#8220;He or someone on the mayor&#8217;s staff had seen some of our shows,&#8221; Morrison said, &#8220;and hired us to write some sketches.&#8221;