Al Franken, who rocketed to fame on "Saturday Night Live" and then entered politics as a U.S. senator from Minnesota, has penned a new memoir detailing the highs and lows of his life on Capitol Hill.
"Al Franken, Giant of the Senate," out on May 30th, is being touted by publisher Twelve Books, as "the story of an award-winning comedian who decided to run for office and then discovered why award-winning comedians tend not to do that.
"[It’s] a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect.
"It's a book about what happens when the nation's foremost progressive satirist gets a chance to serve in the United States Senate and, defying the low expectations of the pundit class, actually turns out to be good at it."
Franken, a Democrat, also discusses "our deeply polarized, frequently depressing, occasionally inspiring political culture, written from inside the belly of the beast," according to the publisher.
"The honorable gentleman from Minnesota takes his army of loyal fans along with him from ‘Saturday Night Live’ to the campaign trail, inside the halls of Congress, and behind the scenes of some of the most dramatic and/or hilarious moments of his new career in politics."
Franken made a splash this week at confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
The former TV comic grilled the Republican jurist about the case of a trucker who filed a federal complaint after being fired for abandoning his cargo when his vehicle broke down in subzero temperatures. Gorsuch ruled in favor of the trucking company.
"I had a career in identifying absurdity, and I know it when I see it," said Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" performer and writer. "And it makes me question your judgment."
One of Franken’s most memorable characters on "Saturday Night Live" was that of the advice-giving mensch Stuart Smalley, whose catch-phrases included: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me" and "That's just stinkin' thinkin!"
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