Al mention in new Al Franken book
Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 3:08 am
There's an Al reference in Al Franken's controversial new book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right."
I know not everyone on here is a fan of political humor, so in an effort to spare those who may not want to buy the book, I don't think I'm depriving Mr. Franken of his $24.95 if I quote this little passage.
In one chapter, he explains how out-of-date the FBI's computer systems were, specifically their internal search engines.
QUOTE They can't search for \"al Qaeda.\" To search for al Qaeda, they first have to go through every \"Al.\" They go through me, they go through Al Gore, they have to read every Weird Al Yankovich lyric.
By my count, this is the second time Franken has mentioned Al in one of his books. According to an Ask Al, Franken jokingly claimed in his book "Why Not Me?" that he approached Al with appearing on the cover. I guess Franken gets a kick out of there being another famous Al around.
Those who follow Franken's career may recognize the new joke from his June 2002 appearance on Conan O'Brien. In fact, I was watching that particular episode just before sending out that month's edition of the Songography, so in a sort of comedic epiphany, I thought it would make a funny, yet appropriate, lead-in.
Yes yes, I know Franken misspelled Al's last name, but I blame his copyeditor for not looking up the correct spelling. Franken did mispronounce Al's name as "Yankovich" on Conan, so chalk it up to one those nagging little misconceptions of Al's name (I'll at least cut them some slack for forgetting the quotation marks).
But anyway, if you're not turned off by political humor, I do recommend picking up this book. Don't let the misquoting and misrepresentation by a certain newsgroup troll scare you away from Al Franken. Franken is one of the smartest satirists out there.
I know not everyone on here is a fan of political humor, so in an effort to spare those who may not want to buy the book, I don't think I'm depriving Mr. Franken of his $24.95 if I quote this little passage.
In one chapter, he explains how out-of-date the FBI's computer systems were, specifically their internal search engines.
QUOTE They can't search for \"al Qaeda.\" To search for al Qaeda, they first have to go through every \"Al.\" They go through me, they go through Al Gore, they have to read every Weird Al Yankovich lyric.
By my count, this is the second time Franken has mentioned Al in one of his books. According to an Ask Al, Franken jokingly claimed in his book "Why Not Me?" that he approached Al with appearing on the cover. I guess Franken gets a kick out of there being another famous Al around.
Those who follow Franken's career may recognize the new joke from his June 2002 appearance on Conan O'Brien. In fact, I was watching that particular episode just before sending out that month's edition of the Songography, so in a sort of comedic epiphany, I thought it would make a funny, yet appropriate, lead-in.
Yes yes, I know Franken misspelled Al's last name, but I blame his copyeditor for not looking up the correct spelling. Franken did mispronounce Al's name as "Yankovich" on Conan, so chalk it up to one those nagging little misconceptions of Al's name (I'll at least cut them some slack for forgetting the quotation marks).
But anyway, if you're not turned off by political humor, I do recommend picking up this book. Don't let the misquoting and misrepresentation by a certain newsgroup troll scare you away from Al Franken. Franken is one of the smartest satirists out there.
