Uncheck radio and checkbox buttons

Uncheck radio and checkbox buttons

What's the cross-browser way to uncheck an <input type="radio"> and <input type="checkbox"> elements?
Whatever I do, it'll do nothing in IE6:

  1. $theElement.attr("checked", false);
  2. $theElement.removeAttr("checked");
  3. $theElement.get().checked = false;

In IE7, checkboxes get unchecked with all these methods but none work for radio buttons. In all other browsers, they all work fine.