Sarah Palin Palms a Few Tonight Show Laughs

Former governor of Alaska kicks off Jay Leno show with a jab at herself for writing notes on her hand

By Natalie Finn Mar 03, 2010 5:08 AMTags

Sarah Palin—or any politician, for that matter—would have a hard time of it if she couldn't laugh at herself.

"Hey Jay, we're going old school tonight," the former governor of Alaska told Jay Leno in The Tonight Show's opening bit Tuesday, pointing to the words "Good evening and welcome to the tonight show" printed on her hand.

Aka, "the poor boy's version of the teleprompter," which is what she called it during her interview when Leno asked about being caught with a list of talking points inked on her hand during a recent speech.

"I took notes [when I was a kid], I take notes today, even on the palm of my hand, and just to get the left all whee-whee'd up and get their heads spinning, I'm going to promise to keep doing it!" declared the perennially perky hockey mom.

Palin also addressed that whole Family Guy thing while chatting with Jay tonight...

"What I would desire is more opportunity to follow up on a comment that perhaps I've made," she said, pointing to the Family Guy episode that featured a girl with Down syndrome making a thinly veiled Palin reference as an example of her not getting the chance to talk enough.

"Jay, you've gone through this, too, especially in the last few months," Palin continued as Leno feigned disagreement. "It's like that old saying, a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can even get its pants on in the morning."

It is just like that, isn't it?

Leno also asked Palin about the possibility of abandoning politics (and Fox News!) for her own talk show one day.

"I hear once in awhile this comes open,"she quipped, tapping Leno's brand-new desk.

Palin then proceeded to try her hand at a monologue—"I will know these jokes like the front of my hand," she said—to prove that she's as good a candidate as anybody to take over the next time the Tonight Show hosting chair is up for grabs.

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Like to laugh? Read what E!'s own late-night guru, Chelsea Handler, has to say about things in her blog.