Top 5 Palin 'crib notes' video parodies

First came the mildly shocking revelation that the Tea Party convention's headline speaker Sarah Palin had scribbled talking points on her hand. Then came the handwringing analysis, followed swiftly by the jokes. While sly bloggers have Photoshopped Palin's hand to "expand" her list, prominent public figures from Jon Stewart to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs have been "re-enacting" the incident for would-be laughs. Here, the original footage followed by the 5 most buzzed-about Palin "hand-writing" videos.

The Original: In the Q&A session that followed Palin's speech at the National Tea Party convention in Nashville, TN, the former governor can be seen peeking at her hand notes at 00:47

1. The White House weighs in with an awkward gag

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs — not normally known for satirical wit — disorients a crowd with his own version of HandGate, earning more groans than guffaws. An attempt to pay Palin back for her digs at the President's TelePrompter use?

2. Colbert makes his mark

Even Stephen Colbert, who recently hosted the Grammys, sometimes needs to write notes on his palm...to help him remember the basic anatomy of the human hand:

3. MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell struggles to remember her cohosts' names

The veteran newswoman makes an uncharacteristic stab at semi-physical comedy — and gets no help from her cameramen, who decline to give her hand its own close-up:

4. Keith Olbermann talks to the hand

Evidently inspired by the time Palin called herself a "pitbull in lipstick," MSNBC's Olbermann works up a lip-schticky hand routine of his own. — unfortunately, even while "mimicking" a talking female hand, he can't stop speaking in his own blustering, bombastic, basso profundo voice:

5. Jon Stewart does some palm-reading

"The Daily Show" host is rarely lost for words, as this report on what he calls "Amerigasm" proves, but footage of Palin's Q&A at the Tea Party Convention leaves him slack-jawed. Luckily, he knows where to look for a prompt. (His "hand" remarks start about 4:00):

...........................................

SEE MORE OF THE WEEK'S COVERAGE OF SARAH PALIN:

• Sarah Palin 'crib note' scandal

• Could Sarah Palin win in 2012?

• Sarah Palin's book-buying scandal

• 'God's plan' for Sarah Palin