Mitt Romney is going for laughs next week — intentional laughs, this time.
The former Massachusetts governor and current GOP presidential candidate will appear on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" next week as the lead guest on Tuesday's episode, NBC said Thursday.
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The announcement comes on the heels of a major gaffe on the part of Romney senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom, who told CNN that Romney's campaign would "hit a reset button" in the general election against President Barack Obama should Romney win the GOP nomination, comparing the proposed campaign tactic to a popular children's toy.
"It's almost like an Etch A Sketch — you can kind of shake it up, and we start all over again," Fehrnstrom said.
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Since then, Romney has become the butt of many jokes in the public, not least of all from his rivals in the campaign, who've used the gaffe to paint Romney as a flip-flopper a la John Kerry.
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Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum brandished an Etch a Sketch during a campaign event in Texas on Thursday, hinting that America might be better off re-electing Obama if Romney wins the nomination.
"If we are going to be a little different, we may as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk in what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate for the future," Santorum told the assemblage at a San Antonio speech.
Tuesday will mark Romney's fourth appearance on "The Tonight Show" and his first appearance since Dec. 2010.
No word on whether he'll try his hand at Etch a Sketch comedy. But if he's smart, he won't try to shake things up too much.