Katie Couric does a 'Palin' at Princeton

In the spirit of fun Monday, Katie Couric made a "Palin" joke, the kind now standard among comics. After all her interviews with Sarah Palin began the fun, so she capitalized on it, along with Helen Thomas, the famous female face of journalism.

Yesterday afternoon Katie Couric gave the Class Day address at Princeton. She brightly said, “Since I’ve been called a cougar lately in the tabloid press—today I’m very happy to be an honorary tiger.” She went on to say, “Coming here was a real no brainer! After all, I can see New Jersey from my house.” Couric declared it quite an honor to be asked to speak, which she maintained was especially difficult following Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld. Couric isn’t the only one continuing the fun about Palin, because there are blogs devoted to Palin jokes and stand-up remarks caused discussion and political diatribes, depending upon what side of the political fence one hangs out. Here are a couple of excerpts from late night monologues before the election upon which good fun was first made, and now continues:

•Since Sarah Palin became the vice presidential nominee, there's been an actual spike in the sales of her style of eyeglasses. Gone way up. Yeah. Yeah, with Palin's glasses, you'll be able to see everything, except what the hell your teenage daughter's up to. ... Conan O'Brien (NBC)

•I gotta admit, [Palin, the governor of Alaska] looked very comfortable at the podium. 'Cause it's kinda like Alaska: you look out on that [Republican] convention floor, nothing but white as far as the eye can see. … Jay Leno (NBC)

Now Couric continues the fun with her remarks, likely reminding everyone that she was the “tough” interviewer who asked Palin about her foreign policy experience and got the response about Palin being able to see Alaska from her house. This recent Princeton episode with Katie Couric follows up the Helen Thomas Award dinner of the American News Women’s Club where Katie was roasted by a bit of political commentary on the historical verdict of Couric’s Sarah Palin interview: Thomas declared:

"The ballgame was over after that." Couric,” she insisted, "saved the country."

On the same occasion, McCain-Palin adviser Nicolle Wallace also joined the jokes by saying that if Palin can see Russia from her house, well, Couric can see New Jersey from hers –then continued "but that's as close as you media elites get to Jersey."