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FRANKEN’S COMMENTS ARE BAD ENOUGH, NOBODY NEEDS TO TAKE THEM OUT OF CONTEXT (IN FACT, NOBODY IS)
By Michael B. Brodkorb | February 4, 2007
Below is a quote from Andy Barr, political director of Al Franken's Midwest Values PAC:
"It's deeply unfortunate, kind of pathetic, and completely unsurprising that Sen. Coleman and his Republican allies are already dragging out decades-old quotes and taking them out of context to suggest that Al is a homophobe and a crack addict. Now who’s the comedian?" Source: The Big Question, Star Tribune, February 2, 2007
How am I taking this quote out of context?
"He [Al Franken] recalled writing a skit called 'Seamen on Broadway' that was rejected from the Hasty Pudding show 'by some preppie so they could take some other preppie's skit.' Franken started to smile again, but his tone was serious, too serious. 'It's not preppies, cause I'm a preppie myself. I just don't like homosexuals. If you ask me, they're all homosexuals in the Pudding. Hey, I was glad when that Pudding homosexual got killed in Philadelphia.' The smile became so broad it pushed his eyes shut. He couldn't stand it any longer. 'Put that in, put that in,' Franken laughed, leaning over the desk. 'I'd love to see that in The Crimson.'" Source: Harvard Crimson, April 16, 1976
I described the above horrible comment from Al Franken as a joke. In my opinion, it's not a funny joke as I don't think murder is laughing matter.
Mr. Barr is living in a political fantasy land if he thinks it's just Republicans raising questions about Al Franken's past comments.
Finally, Franken's past comments are bad enough – nobody needs to take them out of context to score political points. In fact, nobody is.
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8 Responses to “FRANKEN’S COMMENTS ARE BAD ENOUGH, NOBODY NEEDS TO TAKE THEM OUT OF CONTEXT (IN FACT, NOBODY IS)”
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February 4th, 2007 at 7:36 PM
It is acceptable to make derrogatory comments towards homosexuals (Al Franken) or condescending comments about Blacks (Joe Biden) if you are a liberal.
February 4th, 2007 at 10:25 PM
You may be right. But you took your bite out of this apple, and, is increasingly the case with anything posted on here, people failed to listen/care.
A year ago, this site was a force to be reckoned with. Now it shares a reputational foothold with Checks and Balances, a tiny step above irrelevancy.
February 4th, 2007 at 10:46 PM
It is apparently acceptable to turn a comedian’s jokes into political statements, if that comedian is a liberal.
Is it therefore acceptable to turn Arnold Schwartzenegger’s movie role lines into political statements? How about this one?
// I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman. //
Oh, wait. That was while he was a politican.
February 4th, 2007 at 10:49 PM
// My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave. //
No, that was when he was a politican too.
February 5th, 2007 at 6:27 AM
His entire campaign will be this slogan – “Everything I said before? I was just kidding…”
February 5th, 2007 at 10:29 AM
to quote a mentor of mine… “It must’ve been one hell of a context… “
February 5th, 2007 at 10:53 AM
The author’s first remark in the column:
“It was hard to tell whether Franken was serious or not.”
The article ends:
“”Don’t forget to put ‘Kill all preppies’ in the article,” he smiled.
It was hard to tell if he was serious. ”
Franken (at age 24 when the Crimson ran the story) was clearly making some overly sarcastic and semi-absurd jokes. Why isn’t there an uproar over his ‘Kill all preppies’ remark? Because he was joking (comedians tend to do this) and he also referred to himself in this article as a preppy. Jeesh.
I personally didn’t even know preppies existed before 1982, but that’s another story entirely.
February 5th, 2007 at 2:00 PM
Here is why Democrats can jokingly be homophobic and easily get away with it, they are in fact deep down not homophobic and their votes are in our favor. Republicans cant jokingly be homophobic because most of the time they arent joking or because they vote against the rights of gay people so them joking doesnt really sit well with the people who the joke pertains to.
God, who knew Id say the day NORM COLEMAN accusing Al Franken of being homophobic… How did Coleman vote when it came to the FMA, oh yeah, for it, hypocrite