Blogs and Stories
Al Franken's Reverend Wright
When Al was a precocious four-year-old, there was a city worker digging a ditch in front of the house who became annoyed as young Franken counted aloud the successive number of each shovelful.
At 13, he earned money as a caddy at a country club golf course. One golfer was playing poorly and became cranky with his caddy.
Golfer: “You must be the worst caddy in the world.”
Al: “That would be too big a coincidence.”
As a 14-year-old, he was going out on his first date, and his father, Joe, realized he had never explained the birds and the bees to his younger son. Beginning with a gentle inquiry, Joe discovered that Al didn’t appear to have a grasp of the facts. After carefully explaining the differences between the sexes, Al was confused and upset. “You mean women don’t have penises?” Joe tried a different approach, but his son became even more upset. Joe began to start all over again before Al told him he was joking.
Tom Davis is a four-time Emmy winner for his writing for Saturday Night Live. He wrote for the show for fourteen years, including the first five seasons with the original cast. He and Al Franken were comedy partners in the team Franken & Davis for more than twenty years. His memoir, 39 Years of Short-Term Memory Loss will be published by Grove Atlantic in March.
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Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Detractors? Noooooooooo. What is this world coming to? De ... Tractors preventing the publishing of a book of memoirs?
Nice 'fro. Is that what inspired Beyonce's 'fro in 'Goldmember'?
"So here is some collected Franken Lore that will not be public knowledge until March:"
Tina Brown, Tom Davis just dissed you. Apparently The Daily Beast doesn't count as 'public'.
OTOH, it sounds rather exclusive if it's actually like a private club ...
Anyhoo, loved the Franken stories here, and will look foward to the book in March.
A bit desperate to attract readers are we? From the headline you'd expect stories of all sorts of perverse/illegal/anti-american things going on backstage, and what's in the article: basically what gets said about people at a typical wedding toast: he was precocious, smart, look at his glasses, etc etc. How is this news-worthy at all?
I look forward to the book. . .I have a copy of the original SNL book from the 70s, complete with autographs from Frank and Davis, Gilda Radner and Bill Murray. It is my most prized possession.
It's a comedy piece.
Will Franken bring levity to the Senate? God, I hope so. Even a quick Jagger impression would be welcome.
IfI lived in Minnesota I would have voted for Al Franken for all the times he made me laugh so damn hard I cried. I can still see him & Tom Davis on SNL doing a skit that ended, many times, with Al saying in his best cheesy tv announcer voice, " . . .and me, AL FRANKEN". You had to be there, I guess.
Imagine that. A friend with no desire to betray for money. Says something about good mental health.
Maybe 2009 is The Year of Al Franken!!
And here I thought Franken & Davis were lovers. Silly me... just because they announced it on national TV.
this was nice reminiscent between to friends !!!!!!!!!!
I loved those Franken and Davis sketches, especially the one that was a satire of a beauty pageant. Al Franken was a contestant and he paraded around in a bikini-like thing, looking so ridiculous; the sketch used humor very effectively and made its point, as I recall. Franken and Davis wrote some of the more pointed or political material in those days.
Speaking as a pretty well-informed Minnesotan, I resent all the talk from partisan sources outside the state who are trying to paint Franken as a lightweight, a buffoon, or worse. Don't believe it! Those who have paid attention know how intelligent, intellectually curious and well-informed he is.
That was a fun read, well written, and such a good reminder that none of us should take ourselves too seriously, life is just too short!
that "joke" about the caddy is the oldest golf joke in the world.
Al Franken is one of the few reasons I regret no longer voting in Minnesota. I'm afraid people don't understand that comics, particularly politically-oriented ones, tend to be SMARTER than the average Joe...with the vast exception, of course, of Larry the Cable Guy.
My husband knew Al Franken in college, and he tells a story about receiving a phone call at 3 AM from Al, who was apparently having a self-confidence crisis; Al asked my husband if he, Al, was funny. My husband's response was, "Not at 3 in the morning." This was great dinner table chat for many years, until just about a month ago. My husband was at his parents' house just north of NYC when who should come on the answering machine but Al Franken. After identifying himself, and inviting potential donors to his cause to a dinner with Bill Clinton, Al asked if the person he was calling (my husband's mother) was related to my husband. At this point, my husband picked up the phone and he and Al had a lovely chat about children, crises of confidence, and raising millions of dollars for the lawyers who would be battling in court about the outcome of the election in Minnesota. Full circle.,
I just think its about time we got a professional comedian in the Senate. Maybe Al can straighten those amateurs out. I am a big fan not only of Franken's wit but his politics. It's great to have somebody who can eviscerate the shallow intellects and non-sequitor arguments of the Limbaugh-Hannity-OReilly crowd.
Thank you.
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