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MUST READ: “MICHAEL GERSON: FRANKEN’S HUMOR SATIRE OR VULGAR?”
By Michael B. Brodkorb | June 17, 2008
“In the razor-close and nationally important Senate race in Minnesota, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman is presented with a unique political problem. Should he raise in his ads the issue of comedian Al Franken’s offensive vulgarity? Or would this risk a backlash against Coleman for coarsening the public conversation? Remember that when Ken Starr detailed Bill Clinton’s most repulsive antics – stained dresses and such – it was Starr who was accused of sexual obsessiveness.
Franken’s defenders explain that his edginess is the result of being a ‘satirist’ – a term he embraces. ‘My work, dare I say, is provocative, touching and funny,’ Franken has explained. ‘It sounds immodest, but I now have a brand name in political satire.’
Satire has been called ‘punishment for those who deserve it.’ Writers from Erasmus to Jonathan Swift to George Orwell have used humor, irony and ridicule to expose the follies of the powerful, the failures of blind ideology and the comic weakness of human nature itself.
So what is Franken’s ‘provocative, touching and funny’ contribution to the genre?” Source: Pasadena Star News, June 16, 2008
Click here for the complete column.
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12 Responses to “MUST READ: “MICHAEL GERSON: FRANKEN’S HUMOR SATIRE OR VULGAR?””
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June 17th, 2008 at 1:06 PM
Really?
George Bush’s former speech writer, who was named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals by Time Magazine, prefers Norm Coleman to Al Franken?
Consider me shocked!
What Next? Karl Rove thinks Al Franken is not ready to be a senator?
June 17th, 2008 at 1:26 PM
Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Liar by Al Franken is one of the most insightful, witty, and entertaining pieces of political satire written in the last 20 years! Okay, the Playboy piece was a little over the top and not that funny, but looking at Franken’s satirical writing over the years, you have to admit the guy knows his craft!
June 17th, 2008 at 1:59 PM
OMG you two have GOT to be kidding!
I saw Franken in “concert” a good number of years ago. The audience was ready to throw him out because… wait for it… HE WASNT FUNNY!! Literally you could hear a pin drop! And this was on a college campus.
He does NOT know the satirist craft! He is BORING and tedious! Insightful? HA!
June 17th, 2008 at 2:03 PM
“Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Liar by Al Franken is one of the most insightful, witty, and entertaining pieces of political satire written in the last 20 years!”
I guess that might seem to be the case for someone who hasn’t read anything published by anyone other than Marvel in 20 years.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:13 PM
What if Franken had published an article in Playboy arguing that both the population and food shortage problems could by eating babies.
Would that have disqualified Franken from holding office in the eyes of Gerson or our current batch of Republicans?
June 17th, 2008 at 2:31 PM
coleman does not need to bring up franken’s obviously vulgar satire, comedey, whatever–there will be plenty of surrogates to keep that in front of the voters and coleman can just advertise his achievements. and franken will just advertise his achievements. the voters can decide which achievements they like better.
in my opinion, the race will be more decided by debates where i expect coleman to rip franken, based on franken’s past performances when he disagrees with people.
June 17th, 2008 at 2:52 PM
But what would Coleman talk about in a debate?
Repeating, “I am NOT Al Franken” for an hour will leave many to wonder if he has any accomplishments or ideas of his own to put forth.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:17 PM
coleman can just advertise his achievements
I am a Bush-Cheney Lapdog
I am a whore to the special interests
My wife is hot
What would he say for the rest of the debate ansel?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:08 PM
Remember what Republican MALE Vice-Presidential Candidate George Herbert Walker Bush said about Democratic FEMALE Vice-Presidential Candidate Geraldine Ferraro?
June 17th, 2008 at 9:42 PM
and maybe Franken can list his top 10 accomplishments:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Bit player on a hit show….30 years ago.
June 18th, 2008 at 9:46 AM
[...] know I posted this earlier in the week, but Michael Gerson’s column about Al Franken’s graphic satire is in the Washington [...]
June 19th, 2008 at 8:02 PM
Here is an interesting take on the Gerson article. Although I had heard Strom Thurmond was very sexually active, I was surprised to hear that he had sex with a woman in a car, a woman who was on her way to the electric chair. Somehow that makes the joke about him having sex with a vomiting woman seem much more likely. Good satire is based in reality.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/oppose-bushs-vulgar-lies_b_108169.html