Behar: ‘Illiterate’ Palin Returns ‘Like Jock Itch,’ Guest Accuses Palin of ‘Anti-Semitic Jokes’

April 29th, 2011 8:12 AM

 On Thursday’s Joy Behar Show on HLN, host Behar quipped that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has returned "like jock itch," after playing a clip of Palin on Fox News Channel making fun of CBS anchor Katie Couric. Behar: "I give Sarah Palin credit. She's out of favor. She's out of the limelight. And then, suddenly, she's back like jock itch, and just as snarky as ever."

After commentary from her panel members for the segment, the HLN host ended up cracking that Palin is reminding people that she’s "illiterate" because the former Alaska governor also alluded to her own answer to Couric’s question about what she reads. Behar: "I think that she learned from being on Saturday Night Live that the way to reconstruct your image is to take the joke on yourself. But all she's doing is reminding us that she's illiterate."

Panel member and actor Josh Gad then oddly suggested that Palin has a history of making anti-Semitic jokes as he chimed in: "I miss her anti-Semitic jokes so much."

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the segment from the Thursday, April 29, Joy Behar Show on HLN:

JOY BEHAR: Well, that didn’t take long. Just one day after Katie Couric officially announced she was stepping down from her anchor post at CBS, Sarah Palin mocked her departure in a Fox News interview. Take a look.

SARAH PALIN: Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, I think I read that in a newspaper, one of many newspapers that I read online. Yeah, and I hear that she wants to now engage in more multi-dimensional story-telling, versus, I guess, just the straight-on, read-into-the-teleprompter-screen storytelling. So more power to her. I wish her well with her multi-dimensional storytelling.

BEHAR: You know, I give Sarah Palin credit. She's out of favor. She's out of the limelight. And then, suddenly, she's back like jock itch, and just as snarky as ever. Here with me to discus this and other stories in the news are comedian Judy Gold; Josh Gad, actor and star of the great Broadway musical Book of Mormon; and Rachel Sklar, editor at large for Mediaite.com. Judy, she is still holding a grudge, Sarah Palin.

JUDY GOLD, COMEDIAN: What is that, three years ago?

BEHAR: Let it go, Sarah.

GOLD: She probably read it in Cricket or the Daily Reader that Katie was, what I don't understand is we haven't heard from, you know, Sarah in a while, and then she comes back with something really thoughtful and intelligent. So that's great.

BEHAR: But she slams her for reading a teleprompter. Isn't that better than reading the notes off your hand?

GOLD: Exactly. Sarah Palin was a newscaster. What, is she supposed to memorize the news?

RACHEL SKLAR, MEDIATE: I think it's pretty funny that Sarah Palin is calling attention to the thing about which she was fully humiliated by Katie Couric. It was like, uh, nice try.

JOSH GAD, ACTOR: She essentially is mocking herself by saying, yeah, I read it on the Internet, and I read newspapers digitally. And you're like, no, you don't read anything, sweetie.

BEHAR: Well, she learned, I think that she learned from being on Saturday Night Live that the way to reconstruct your image is to take the joke on yourself. But all she's doing is reminding us that she's illiterate. (JUDY GOLD LAUGHS) Okay, next up-

GAD: I miss her anti-Semitic jokes so much.