We asked you, the readers, to tweet us your nominations for this week’s Sideshow Alley. And what a bountiful week it was …

How about @KellyODwyer walking around a cardboard cut-out of @JuliaGillard? #SideshowAlley

#SideshowAlley chuckin’ the old high speed rail banana to the press monkeys is an indirect but arguable low.

@TonyAbbottMHR implies “carbon cops” regulate consumers — actually only companies with emission permits https://t.co/iqCWlmI

“Captain hindsight” Campbell Newman with his pronoucement re Wivehoe dam during floods #SideshowAlley

We also received our own kicking …

#SideshowAlley Crikey comparison of Fukashima (sic) with Hiroshma (sic)

But the outright winner of the people’s vote was …

no brainer this week — Keneally’s hair #SideshowAlley

Kristina Keneally’s hair, in the stead of actual political news. Guilty: the entire NSW Press Gallery, without exception.

They gave her a head with hair, long, beautiful hair, shining, gleaming, dazzling the nation’s media. And presenting a field day for headline writers …

Keneally’s crop of long hair extensions “surprised the entire state”, The Daily Telegraph reported. Or as a shell-shocked Sydney Morning Herald said of the “mullet”: “Kristina Keneally walked into the chamber with her new hairstyle and nothing seemed to make sense any more.” Parliament was forced to suspend business to debate the startling makeover, as The Tele captured:

“And while she tried to ignore him, her replacement, Premier Barry O’Farrell, couldn’t resist a brush with his old sparring partner during Question Time.

“He yelled for an ‘extension’ from the Speaker when Tourism Minister George Souris cheekily mentioned the movie Legally Blonde during an answer to a question.

“Mr O’Farrell also claimed the bald Opposition Leader John Robertson may face a leadership challenge in the wake of the new look.”

Not a front page, people. Not a front page.

Meanwhile, Julia Gillard had a really bad day this week. Well, according to Channel Seven news, that is …

Newsreader: “Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed, just ask Julia Gillard … Her bad day started when she got locked in the back of her car in Melbourne and was forced to get out the other side.”

Add super: “LOCKED IN. Melbourne.” No doubt a fitting metaphor for the PM’s relationship with the Greens.

Newsreader: “She then launched a book by former police commissioner Christine Nixon but got the title wrong.”

Gillard called the book “Top Cop” instead of Fair Cop. To the polls, people. This prime minister is clearly unfit to govern.

But no one could accuse this news story of not being fair and balanced. After all, as the story ended …

Newsreader: “At least she managed to make someone else’s day a little brighter …”

Insert smiling baby footage here.

*Each week Sideshow Alley will nominate the latest offerings to the service of dumbing down politics by journalists and/or politicians, and at the end of each month we’ll be asking former finance minister and author of Sideshow Lindsay Tanner to write through his pick of the best/worst example. But we need your help — send your picks to boss@crikey.com.au with “Sideshow Alley” in the subject line.