It's not a joke; these are real blues musicians, some of them (Joe Louis Walker, Donald Kinsey, David Honeyboy Edwards, Otis Clay, Pinetop Perkins) quite well known. And yes, the blues has often had to struggle and compromise to reach a wider audience.
At its peak, the program offered up to 99 weeks of coverage. It's been scaled down gradually ever since. Two states with high unemployment, Illinois and Nevada, had offered 73 weeks of benefits. California had offered 63 weeks, and most others offered 43 to 63 weeks.
9/25/2016 Update: Still no update; same as below. There are NO FEDERAL unemployment extensions these days. There are no EUC08 benefits available for 2016. In fact, some Republican-led states offer 20 or fewer weeks of unemployment benefits, which you can see on the map and chart below.