20 Years After the Al Franken Decade

When in 1979 Al Franken announced on SNL that the 80's would be "The Al Franken Decade", I thought he was an arrogant jerk. No more so than, say, Chevy Chase, but it just seemed a bit presumptuous.

Of course, the Al Franken 80's might have been better than the Reagan 80's .. but we'll never know.

SNL was the first time I saw him draw a map of the US, while discussing something else. I wish I could remember what it was, and there's probably video of it somewhere (too bad NBC's video archives are so suckily unsearchable).

But it's cool to see he's still doing it! Consider the following, in which he carries a Q&A on health care while drawing the map.



The average politician doesn't seem all that smart to me. I'm glad the US Senate finally has Al Franken .. or rather, that we now have The Al Franken Senate.

BTW I second Victor Navasky's wish that he allow himself to be funny. Most humor comes from observation and analysis anyway. Most politicians are unintentionally funny - I'd rather have a professional funny man on the job.