Al Franken was just on Charlie Rose, and as he always is when discussing the loathesome Bill O’Reilly, he was pretty damn funny. When discussing his new radio show that he just agreed to in the past few days, he stated that his first goal was to “get sued by some right-wing jerk to get media exposure for my new show- The O’Franken Factor.”
I almost choked I was laughing so hard.
HH
If it weren’t doomed enough already on its face, Franken says he will have a co-host who has radio experience and have interviews. Translation: I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Plus he has a one-year contract. This guy’s not lasting…
Jon Black
If thats indicative of the best material he has- that one year contract will be about ten months too long. The only person less qualified to host a radio show than franken is O’reilly; and even then its near tie. Some one bring back Jim Healy.
Jon Henke
You know, Franken may be a fairly funny guy if he prepares in advance, but radio is a very very different medium than that to which he is accustomed. Will he do well? I don’t know, but if that comment is any indication, I sort of doubt it. It strikes me that he’s a bit too focused on infighting with O’Reilly and Limbaugh, rather than larger issues. That would get boring quickly.
Of course, he may not do that at all.
I’m having trouble recalling the name, but there was another comedian with no radio experience who hosted a widely distributed radio talk show some years back. He failed…not because he wasn’t a funny comedian, but because he just didn’t understand the mechanics of radio.
Slartibartfast
I don’t watch O’Reilly, and will pay just as much attention to Franken. Who says I’m not fair and balanced?
Franken was probably the least funny of the SNL crew. He had his moments, but they were rather more sparse than makes for good comedy. Still, he’s funnier than O’Reilly.
HH
He was back on SNL doing his “one man camera/satellite crew” schtick that was old back in the mid-’90s. Before that it was the umpteenth Stuart Smalley sketch with his buddy Gore.
Hey, maybe Al can go on the air joking about who Bush killed today… gotta love that lefty humor…
Ken Hahn
I’m probably just stupid or have a deficient sense of humor, but I’m still waiting for Franken to say something funny. Only reaction I can raise is .
greg
Jeez, John, i usually agree with you on most things, but you really thought Franken’s line was funny?
Granted, choosing between O’Reilly or Franken is like when Miami and Florida State play each other and i hope somehow they both lose, but still.
lowercase h harry
HH- Franken’s definitely lefty political, but he doesn’t make jokes like that. In fact, he just got back from an eight day USO tour in Iraq and Afghanistan. He may disagree with the Bushies, but like most liberals, he supports our troops 100%.
Gregory Litchfield
I’m with lowercase h harry here (assonance!). Franken is a big, fat liberal idiot, but he’s no fairweather patriot. The guy still goes out and does USO shows for our men and women overseas, so he can’t be all that bad.
But yeah, I don’t find him very funny, either. Even when he’s being apolitical. Stuart Smalley used to be smirkworthy, but once the novelty faded it just wasn’t amusing anymore.
HH
Read the link, I wasn’t talking about troops. He said Bush had O’Neill killed.
drew
No, HH he said O’Neil had been murdered and said nothing else. Franken is a professional wise-ass and everyone knows it, so give it up please.
Jon H
HH writes: ” Plus he has a one-year contract. This guy’s not lasting…”
That makes sense, given the highly speculative nature of the endeavor itself.
If Franken signed a 3 year contract, but the liberal radio enterprise as a whole craps out in a year, they might have to pay him for the remaining period of the contract.
Better to take baby steps at first. If it looks like it’s going to survive, they can do longer-term contracts after a year.
Plus, contracts written now would be based on projections. The parties might not want to lock themselves into a long-term contract based on projections that might turn out low or high. It’d suck for Franken to get stuck in a low-paid 3 year contract based on projections that turned out to be too low.
HH
Uh, yeah, he was implying that some random street thug killed him… right…
I understand the nature of contracts… it’s just clear for me for other reasons besides that that he’s not entirely committed nor “ready for prime time.”
Jeff
Franken’s cool and he’s pretty witty. He’ll do fine on radio. What I find interesting is that for years liberals had to put up with this notion that we had no sense of humor. But every time Franken cracks a political joke, someone’s in his face. Come on guys, what happened to all that business about taking a joke? Coulter calls us traitors–and she’s not joking.
We managed to make it through Clinton–you can survive a few O’Neill cracks.
drbithead
The conservative talk show hosts often overuse their “shut-up” switches or interruptions to control the flow and it is bare-knuckle debate to be sure, but cogent discussion from the left (what little of it there is) is respected. However, liberal talk shows already exist, pioneered by Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey and carried on by the likes of Jerry Springer, Howard Stern, Jenny Jones and others, and they are often bare-knuckle, period. Liberals are not interested in intelligent debate; you either accept their (socially corrosive) presuppositions and agree with them or you are disdained, and that does not make for interesting broadcasts. Al Franken will be off the air within a year unless he converts to the lowest-common-denominator freak show format.
Joe
Al Franken is another liberal loser who has absolutely nothing to contribute to society. He is just a waste of space…His show won’t last…jsut like a liberal wacko…all dressed up and nowhere to go…no real contribution to anything…not an original idea or thought of their own…only criticism of others…what a useless group…