Friday, October 22, 2004

Al Franken is Really UnFunny

I saw on television the Al Franken radio show the other day (basically, they filmed him in the studio).
He wasn't funny. He read off the news and all of the things he hated about Bush with a dour, sour attitude. He didn't have Rush Limbaugh's ebullience, or the loud obnoxious wrath of Michael Savage. He just seemed bitter and angry.
This is not a good thing for the liberals. Part of the reason that conservative talk radio has done so well is that the radio personalities have, well, personality. Al Franken simply vents his spleen in a monotone voice without developing any qualities to attract people.
Even the little skits he did were... boring.
There was the "Oyoyoy show," where he took on the personality of an old Jewish curmudgeon (now there's a stretch) with a heavy New Yawk accent (actually, it could have doubled as an excellent Michael Savage impersonation), lamenting different ways that Bush might draft his dermatologist son. The whole thing was done in a monotone. Then he portrayed some sort of southern woman whose goal was to disenfranchise Democrats. Again, in a monotone.
In neither case did he come off as humorous (as, say, Jon Stewart or practically anyone else on The Daily Show might have), just as annoying.
I think that another issue is subtlety. Franken tends to hit people over the head with a hammer, and spell out (in a monotone voice) exactly what the message he's trying to convey is:
Franken's radio partner (I don't know her name): "So, any advice on how to make certain I get to vote?"
Franken (as the aforementioned Southerner): "Why would I want to do that? You're not a Republican. I don't want you to vote."
Oh, so Republicans want to disenfranchise Democrats? Thanks, that was almost a little too subtle for me!
Of course, part of the problem may be that Franken has the charisma of a log and looks as if he was the model for Julia Sweeney's "Pat" character on Saturday Night Live.
Of course, his show could still be wildly successful. I mean, if radio personalities needed charisma, then would Garrison Keillor still be on?

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