How many vice presidents does it take to shoot from the lip?

Ask Vice President Joe Biden, who this week experienced a sweat-inducing "did I really say that?" moment after he lamely tried to turn U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts into a punch line while standing next to the president of the United States.

Instead, Biden found himself the target of an arctic blast of reaction from President Obama.

Ouch. Not only did his line about "my memory is not as good as Justice Roberts" - a reference to Roberts flubbing the words to the oath of office when he administered it to Obama Tuesday - earn him groans from the crowd of White House staffers he was swearing in Wednesday. It earned him a YouTube moment - and a firm put-a lid-on-it presidential grip on Biden's arm.

It's nothing new. "Shoot from the lip" Biden hasn't exactly been a stranger to the gaffe-o-meter this week.

The former Delaware senator apparently had told his wife, Jill, that he was offered a choice of jobs: secretary of state and vice president. Or at least that's what she said on Oprah Winfrey's TV show Monday. That put him in shushing mode - and ended with a release in which Biden said it was, well, a misunderstanding.

While the genial vice president is known for verbosity - he even jokes about it - the week's goings-on have some political insiders wondering and joking if the talkative, congenial Biden can get a handle on his "foot in mouth" syndrome before he makes more headlines.

Comedians appear to be still finding their footing when it comes to ribbing the popular president, but some - like Andy Borowitz, in a Huffington Post commentary - are gratefully turning to the VP for rich material. Especially in the wake of the Dick Cheney years.

"In the first major initiative of his presidency, President Barack Obama today dispatched Vice President Joe Biden on what he called 'an important and special mission' to Antarctica," Borowitz wrote Wednesday. He said the news came as a surprise to Biden, who "was in the middle of making a joke about Chief Justice John Roberts: Here's how John Roberts sings the national anthem, Mr. Biden was saying, 'Oh see can you say.' "

But some media seized on the moment as evidence of trouble ahead. "That didn't take long," huffed the conservative Washington Times, whose writer Jon Ward called it "an unsubtle dig at the chief justice" and the second time in a week that Biden had gone "off script."

Political analysts say Biden's headline-making moments are, at least for now, being taken with a grain of salt - but they caution he'd better be more careful or become punch line material.

"At what point does the vice president merely become a sideshow to a new president who spoke in his inaugural address of casting off childish things?" says Republican strategist Karen Hanretty. "Biden has said he wants to be the last person in the room when important decisions are made, and I wonder ... can you be the last man in the room if you can't keep your mouth shut?"

Others are tougher.

"He's an embarrassment," said GOP strategist Patrick Dorinson. If the vice president keeps making news on this front, he predicts, "Biden's reputation is going to suffer, because people are going to realize he's not that sharp, that he thinks he's going to be this big shot."

But Democratic strategist Phil Trounstine says it's understandable that conservatives may be anxious to get some political traction - what with that popular president and his inaugural celebration this week.

But they should relax, he cautions, because Biden's slip-ups are small compared to the last VP, and they're bound to be more entertaining.

"The Roberts thing was sort of a typical Joe Biden 'shoot from the lip' kind of quip," he said. "Obama knows the guy; he knew what he was getting in for."

While the Biden remarks did get noticed - and in some cases, raised eyebrows - "I just don't think it's a problem," Trounstine said. "If Joe Biden starts getting into getting into public conflicts with Hillary on foreign policy or saying things that create genuine problems, that is a different thing."

But right now, he said, Biden just "adds a little spice to the mix. He's definitely the un-Cheney."

"And if the Republicans want to make an issue out of it," said Trounstine, they better remember: "This guy hasn't shot anybody in the face yet ... and I don't think he will."