Is It Just Me, Or Is Al Franken Really Not Funny

self

[FreedomPoster]

The Stuart Smalley stuff was ago, but that was years OK. Today, Al Franken is a humorless twerp with an obnoxious Leftist agenda.

I hope he hosts a liberal talk radio show/network. It's sure to lose tons of money for the financial backers.

[PGalt]

About as funny as a Franken Feinstein ticket running California.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Actually, he is pretty funny, but looks aren't everything.

[new cruelty]

Gore thinks he is funny.

[Non-Sequitur]

That "Operation Chickenhawk" part where he had Newt Gingrich, Dan Quayle, Rush Limbaugh, George Will, Pat Buchanan, and Phil Gramm in a platoon in Viet Nam commanded by Oliver North had its moments.

[FreedomPoster]

Yipes!

The Stuart Smalley stuff was OK, but that was years ago.

More coffee now.

[Moby Grape]

You are right about the left..all you have to do is say Bush is an idiot, and they elevate you to their elit enlightened list of in-the-know types....Of course, truth (which is like the sign of a cross to a vampire to a liberal), is that Bush scored higher on verbal skills than did Bill Bradley...Bush has an MBA from Harvard, while Al Gore flunked "God" in college...Bush can actually FLY a jet fighter, while Al Gore bravely opertated a type writter in Nam....Bush became governor then president, while Al Franken gets bit parts in movies.

[SerpentDove]

Federal law requires that this be posted on any thread mentioning Al Franken:

[TankerKC]

Did anyone ever see the one where Franken and Davis "came out" on SNL? Davis was talking and Franken chimed in that he could not keep their secret any longer. Franken said that he and Davis were gay lovers. The skit was funny, but the best part was when this curly haired kid with round glasses stood up in the audience screaming, "I hate you daddy! I hate you!" The skit was in the '78 - '79 time frame.

[Moby Grape]

I don't think the skit is funny (each to his own)...and apparently, neither did the public..SNL nearly canceled when Franken was on the show.

[new cruelty]

I remember that skit. I thought it was pretty funny.

[SerpentDove]

I'll be one of the lone dissenters on this thread. I thought Franken and Davis were very funny and creative, WAY back when.

Now the sight of Al Franken makes me sick.

[WorkingClassFilth]

"Is It Just Me, Or Is Al Franken Really Not Funny?"

No, it's not just you...

Franken originally came from Minnesota so we're treated to his zany doings once in a while from the local media. I caught him on MPR last year sometime and the interview was a lumbering affair where the woman interviewing kept doing obligatory chuckles when he said anything. 'I ate roast beef for dinner' (ha-ha-ha) or, 'my flight from LA had turbulence' (ha-ha-ha). This kind of fawning in the coverage of the idiot is nearly as grating as his witless doo-doo and ka-ka quips.

On his own, his lusterless 'jokes' are the usual over-simplifications of the slander variety or the standard fall back scatological and sexual crowd pleasers.

Unfortunately, for him and us, some dolt in his early development probably saddled him with the notion that he was one of the funniest children ever born. I can well imaging that he 'looked' funny, but I doubt his basic schtick has changed much since his bedtime antics in 1958.

You're also right that his 'comic' performances on SNL were stupendous only in the fact that they were devoid of humor. Now, I'll grant that I'm probably not suited to being the final arbiter on matters of humor (I still laugh at the Stooges in routines I've seen dozens of times), but as a youthful twerp watching SNL, I seriously questioned the sensibilities of the show's producers and directors. At the time I actually thought that his 'humorous' contribution to the show was in being such a pathetic failure at being funny and, thus, a foil for all the rest of the cast. He used to be paired with an equally humorless cadaver who was tall and thin. Thankfully, that scarecrow's career was cut short somewhere along the line. However, Franken, like the namesake monster, is seemingly kept alive long after natural laws would dictate death.

But, hey, he IS a leftist and no matter what your sins, you are accepted in that congregation as long as you do you part for the struggle. His part, of course, is to 'humorously' defecate on any and all conservative ideas, values and traditions. I have no doubt that he will be blessed in manifold ways by the Right Reverend Bishop Robinson if he hasn't been already.

You are right though; he is a bore, but he is mildly funny to look at.

[Betteboop]

Not funny--never has been, never will be!

[trustandobey]

Al Franken is a BORE! His book on Rush was so very hard to read, and not just because I love Rush. He could not keep to the subject, had no facts and is not a writer or comedienne. Maybe he should try anchoring on the networks.. that doesn't require talent either.

[TheGeezer]

I've noticed that when comics begin to secrete political opinions, it's because they've stopped being funny and need to try to make a living somehow else.

The anger that motivates comedy can also destroy the comedian.

I call it celebrity blindness. With pride fed by adulatory acquaintances and fans, an entertainer who more often than not is uneducated or undereducated assigns to himself or herself philosophical authority. This results in spewing of political ideas that are not consistent, insightful, or even valuable. Able to think critically of everyone but himself/herself, they utter things which are not beneficial to anyone except, perhaps, manipulative politicians.

Ironically, if a once-successful entertainer wisely invested income during the years of success, and can succumb while independently wealthly to celebrity blindness, that former celebrity can use the wealth to influence politicians and parties in an attempt to actualize useless ideas. The politicians and parties absorbing the money from politically quackish entertainers waddle into a bog of silliness. Unable to deny a voracious monetary appetite, the victim politician/party allows the wealthy quack to dictate policy and to influence platform construction. The result? Parties most vulnerable to shallow stupidity buy most eagerly into incompetent ideology.

I submit for your contemptlation Babs Streisand and the Democrat Party. (Oops! Did I mispell contemplation?)

[skinkinthegrass]

He almost got SNL canceled....You may be right that just because he throws cheap shots at conservatives he is able to be rewarded by liberal media types....there is no other explaination....I mean this guy has all the talent of a cabbage.

You know the Vegan Liberation Front will protest your comparison...there are so many things a properly coached cabbage can do....unlike (unfunny) Al Franken.

[driftless]

Even in the days when I was a Dem, I never thought that Franken was particularly funny. His stuff with Tom Davis on SNL was usually pretty lame. The best of their stuff was only mildly amusing. The thing is libs are usually self-parodies, and the funniest thing about them is their attempts to make people believe liberalism is a serious ideology. Okay, so even that is not very funny, just tedious.

[skinkinthegrass]

I've noticed that when comics begin to secrete political opinions, it's because they've stopped being funny and need to try to make a living somehow else....I submit for your contemptlation Babs Streisand and the Democrat Party.

concise and to the point...great read... :)

[driftless]

If you are a Stooges fan, you are more than qualified to be an arbiter on matters of humor...knucklehead! nyuk, nyuk!