S18.E32: Al Franken, David E. Sanger, John Heilemann, Lis Smith

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Guests: Al Franken, David E. Sanger, John Heilemann, Lis Smith

Original air date 2020.10.30

[GoldenGirl90]

Um... is Al Franken drunk? 

[Caseysgirl]

What’s the matter with Al Franken?  He’s not making a whole of sense.

[Broderbits]

22 minutes ago, GoldenGirl90 said:

Um... is Al Franken drunk? 

I don't care if he's drunk, stoned, or just giddy! Anyone that can make me laugh and disrupt Bill in the middle of his "what if he won't leave" tirades is most welcome right now. I need all the moments of relief I can get.

[deirdra]

1 hour ago, GoldenGirl90 said:

Um... is Al Franken drunk? 

I wish he had imparted some of his knowledge instead of wasting the whole segment repeating his unfunny "joke" while interrupting Bill's weekly rant.

[Robert Lynch]

8 hours ago, deirdra said:

I wish he had imparted some of his knowledge instead of wasting the whole segment repeating his unfunny "joke" while interrupting Bill's weekly rant.

I couldn't get anything out of Al at all. He wasn't at his best here.

With the aged puffy face and weight gain, he looked like Bill Barr in some shots.

[Caseysgirl]

It’s really too bad that Al Franken didn’t have his game on tonight because, as I think Bill was hoping, he could have been a great insider source about the political game. Instead,he foolishly tried to be amusing ( he wasn’t) and completely derailed a comeback as perhaps a reputable “ talking head” for the networks. He ended up looking like a buffoon.

[iMonrey]

Agreed, Al Franken was off his game this week. I don't know if it's age or if he and Bill just weren't connecting. Maybe a bit of both. I didn't get the whole microwave thing either. It's a good thing he wasn't on the panel because the two that were were great.

[bobbyjoe]

Wow, remember when Bill used to talk about conservatives living in a bubble?  Tonight I realized how much Bill is living in some weird (libertarian?) bubble that doesn’t make much actual contact with the real world or the real news.  

On the small scale, Bill is paid to be a political commentator for a living and he doesn’t even know what OAN is? The network that Trump calls on all the time in his press conferences because they fawn over him and parrot his propaganda?  You’d think that not just as a political commentator but as a comedian that Bill would know about, let alone have some good comedic material, on OAN.  Has Bill ever even watched a Trump press conference?

On the bigger scale, wow, that bothsider final New Rules rant was really something.  Oh sure, Bill, let’s get right on reconciliation with white supremacists and people who have made it clear they’re willing to violate every rule, law, and norm of the country and of decent behavior to get what they want.  Bill’s proposed first order of business is to compromise with people who have done everything possible to never, ever compromise with anyone else? Yeah, Bill,  I’m sure they’ll just be standing right there ready to hold the left’s hands and sing Kumbaya.  Seriously, Bill, WTF?

Edited October 31, 2020 by bobbyjoe

[sugarbaker design]

27 minutes ago, bobbyjoe said:

Bill is paid to be a political commentator 

He is?!?!  I thought Bill was a stand-up comic that's paid to host an HBO show where pundits and celebs share their opinions on the political scene.

[GHScorpiosRule]

I stopped watching this show months ago. I think it’s been almost a year.

I read the comments though and think the last New Rules I enjoyed was when he put in the Southern Accent and said “we the rebels now!”

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by GHScorpiosRule

[Lifesabeach]

I have always liked Al Franken but his time on here was really cringe inducing.  Was it just an act, was he stoned or what?   I was happy when he was introduced and then happy when he walked off.  Would have been nice to get some political insight or something.  And what about Lindsay being a shoplifter?  So weird 😳

[BrownBear2012]

3 hours ago, bobbyjoe said:

Wow, remember when Bill used to talk about conservatives living in a bubble?  Tonight I realized how much Bill is living in some weird (libertarian?) bubble that doesn’t make much actual contact with the real world or the real news.  

On the small scale, Bill is paid to be a political commentator for a living and he doesn’t even know what OAN is? The network that Trump calls on all the time in his press conferences because they fawn over him and parrot his propaganda?  You’d think that not just as a political commentator but as a comedian that Bill would know about, let alone have some good comedic material, on OAN.  Has Bill ever even watched a Trump press conference?

On the bigger scale, wow, that bothsider final New Rules rant was really something.  Oh sure, Bill, let’s get right on reconciliation with white supremacists and people who have made it clear they’re willing to violate every rule, law, and norm of the country and of decent behavior to get what they want.  Bill’s proposed first order of business is to compromise with people who have done everything possible to never, ever compromise with anyone else? Yeah, Bill,  I’m sure they’ll just be standing right there ready to hold the left’s hands and sing Kumbaya.  Seriously, Bill, WTF?

Bill lives a life of luxury in Beverly Hills. He has his bubble of other comics and use to spend his free time back in the day at the Playboy Mansion and at sex clubs in LA. He has great disdain for millennials, women, children and marriage...yeah...he can relate to the "everyman/woman"...NOT.

[cali1981]

Whatever was going on with Franken he tried to steer Bill away from his "he won't leave" mantra.  As Franken said after Biden is sworn in Trump will be escorted out of the White House.  He would have no presidential authority and, besides, the Joint Chiefs are not likely big fans and would not react to any orders from the non-president. The other thing to consider is that Trump is a coward and a delicate flower ego-wise. He couldn't bear the optics of being thrown out of the White House so, yes, he will leave, maybe not graciously,  but he will leave. 

 

[Pike Ludwell]

Why does everybody screw up the what to do if he won't leave question? Just say government forces would swoop in, carry trump out and the Biden administration would peacefully walk in. As to what government forces? Do some research - probably the military - so many in there hate him. Then just for kicks add that Trump should then be charged with sedition. Have some fun with it! Don't be afraid of your own shadow.

Edited November 1, 2020 by Pike Ludwell

[FoundTime]

Oddly enough, I thought Al Franken's point with the whole microwave thing was less that a seven-year-old and a four-year-old could operate one, and more that it would thus free up their parents from meal prep and then they could make phone calls into battleground states. Honestly, if I've got more of a handle on this than a professional public speaker, SOMEthing's wrong 😉 

[angelamh66]

Franken did come off strangely but I think it’s because he and Bill were not connecting. I understood the Franken attempts at jokes to be the following... 

The microwave thing was definitely in reference to freeing up parents to phone bank for Biden. 

The shoplifting thing was a veiled reference to the rumors that Lindsey Graham is gay and South Carolinian republicans don’t like that. Franken just thought he was being clever saying shoplifting instead of homosexuality and Bill was not picking up on it so it really fell flat. 

[Tachi Rocinante]

6 hours ago, FoundTime said:

Oddly enough, I thought Al Franken's point with the whole microwave thing was less that a seven-year-old and a four-year-old could operate one, and more that it would thus free up their parents from meal prep and then they could make phone calls into battleground states. Honestly, if I've got more of a handle on this than a professional public speaker, SOMEthing's wrong 😉 

That's what I took away from it, except Franken presented his point in the most inane way possible.

[Victor the Crab]

23 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

He is?!?!  I thought Bill was a stand-up comic that's paid to host an HBO show where pundits and celebs share their opinions on the political scene.

Bill's a shock comedian who's trying to pass himself off as some genius pundit who thinks he's the smartest person in the room, where in fact he's clearly the dumbest, as Friday's show can attest. He had no idea what OAN was, while his much superior HBO colleague John Oliver did a main story about them this year. He's quite the embarrassment.

If there was ever a case as to why we shouldn't forgive and accept the president's supporters, as Bill keeps demanding of us, it's this year. That guy was told at the beginning of the year just how dangerous this virus was, and instead told his supporters it was no big deal and that it would go away in the summer heat. So they all went around maskless and not social distance, thereby getting themselves infected and spreading it around to innocent people. And along the way, throwing temper tantrums about not getting a haircut, protesting state governments that instituted lockdown measures to stop the spread, going so far as to plot to kidnap and kill a sitting governor. The end result is that of a country with three percent of the world's population that has 20-25% of the world's coronavirus cases and a cratered economy to boot. So Bill, you go eat a mountain of pig shit and go burn in Hell, where Satan can ass fuck you for all eternity!

I really don't care about Al Franken, at this point. I lost all respect of him over the way he handled those sexual assault allegations against him. Of course Bill the sexist misogynist still loves him and blames Kirsten Gillibrand for everything, the fucking asshole!

[BrownBear2012]

10 hours ago, Victor the Crab said:

Bill's a shock comedian who's trying to pass himself off as some genius pundit who thinks he's the smartest person in the room, where in fact he's clearly the dumbest, as Friday's show can attest. He had no idea what OAN was, while his much superior HBO colleague John Oliver did a main story about them this year. He's quite the embarrassment.

If there was ever a case as to why we shouldn't forgive and accept the president's supporters, as Bill keeps demanding of us, it's this year. That guy was told at the beginning of the year just how dangerous this virus was, and instead told his supporters it was no big deal and that it would go away in the summer heat. So they all went around maskless and not social distance, thereby getting themselves infected and spreading it around to innocent people. And along the way, throwing temper tantrums about not getting a haircut, protesting state governments that instituted lockdown measures to stop the spread, going so far as to plot to kidnap and kill a sitting governor. The end result is that of a country with three percent of the world's population that has 20-25% of the world's coronavirus cases and a cratered economy to boot. So Bill, you go eat a mountain of pig shit and go burn in Hell, where Satan can ass fuck you for all eternity!

I really don't care about Al Franken, at this point. I lost all respect of him over the way he handled those sexual assault allegations against him. Of course Bill the sexist misogynist still loves him and blames Kirsten Gillibrand for everything, the fucking asshole!

Yes! To everything you said! At the begining of the pandemic didn't Bill have Scott Atlas, the current pandemic guru at the White House who is championing "herd immunity"on his show? Bill was all for herd immunity at that time...well, asshole, now it's here! It's clear that Trump has embraced it and that's the strategy for dealing with COVID. Millions more will die and the healthcare system will probably collapse. This Atlas jerk is a radiologist...he's never done one days work in public health or has any knowledge or expertise of infectious diseases or in epidemiology. Yet Bill had him on his show and validated his crazy views on COVID. Bill has changed a lot in the last two years or so...he seems more in line with some of the wack jobs over at Fox or at Brietbart. He's lost all credibility on most things and he is getting lazy or smoking too much weed to do any research or even read. Sad...even sadder HBO just renewed his contract through 2022. I have to think that they just don't know what to do with that Friday night time slot.

[FoundTime]

I actually also blame Kirsten Gillibrand for what happened to Al Franken. The New Yorker did a pretty thorough expose'/takedown of the "case" against Franken. That said, the best spin I can put on his appearance here is that he is seriously out of practice. I don't think there is any real excuse for thinking you can make poorly constructed jokes (again, at best) and come out of it looking good.

The Case of Al Franken

Edited November 3, 2020 by FoundTime
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[Tachi Rocinante]

Even in his "prime", Franken wasn't really funny.

[AuntieDiane6]

Quote

Even in his "prime", Franken wasn't really funny.

I always thought his bits on SNL were the weakest part of the show...

I think Al was devastated when he had to quit the Senate. He wanted a FULL INVESTIGATION but Gillibrand said you've got to go. As he said, the Democrats in Congress just wouldn't speak to him anymore.

It would be ironic if he was drunk on the show.  He and his wife have talked candidly about her battle with alcoholism.