Why Franken Isn’t Funny
Looks like Al Franken’s ridiculous comments on race weren’t just a slip of the lip. He’s been preparing them for weeks. This from the New York Times Magazine article on Franken, appearing on March 21:
[Franken] and his team of writers have been compiling files on a range of topics that is utterly Frankenesque. The Bush tax policy will be ''a huge story for us,'' says Ben Wikler, Franken's producer. Then, too, Franken unleashes a hilarious, X-rated Strom Thurmond impersonation that has been playing in his head and that he desperately wants to make work: ''I want to do Thurmond a lot, from the grave or wherever he is. And I want him to be more honest in death than in life. I mean, here's a guy who basically said, 'I'll fight to the death for segregation' and had a daughter who was black.''
I think this tells us exactly why Franken’s show hasn’t been funny so far (besides the content, I mean) It’s not spontaneous. Nor is it timely. This is a daily talk show about politics, material needing to be ripped from the day’s headlines. And Franken is working with a “team of writers” to create his punch lines, weeks in advance of him delivering them. Plus he’s “desperate” to make certain political points work. And after all of that, all he can come up with is:
“I screwed colored girls! I screwed Puerto Rican girls! I screwed them all! The pecker don’t know no color!”
You have to think executives at Progress Media might be starting to think they placed their bets on the wrong horse.
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