Al Franken as Bullfrog…with Cows and Hotdish

This week’s issue of New York magazine features a must-read article on Al Franken, the premise of which is whether politics and comedy can co-exist.

Writer Ariel Levy describes Franken as a "cartoon bullfrog." Photographer Chris Buck
wonderfully captures Al standing in a barn with cows and Al standing
before a campaign event buffet where it looks like he just took a
spoon-whack of that Minnesota classic, wild rice and cream of mushroom
soup hotdish. [For the record, Norm Coleman would look equally ridiculous in both photos.]

The article anecdotally describes the fine line Franken must draw
between his old satirical self and his new serious U.S. Senate
candidate self. My favorite story and one that best captures Franken’s
dilemma is about New Ulm and and the town’s iconic statue, Hermann the German:

"’I was in New Ulm, Minnesota, to do a Senate district dinner, so I do it in this
park where they have a statue to Herman [stet] the German. Now, Herman the German was
an actual historical figure.’ He waits a beat. ‘I guess.’ And then he gives me a
big laugh. ‘They told me he was, like, a Hun or something, and there’s this
beautiful statue there to Herman the German. So I just thought of the dumbest
joke, which was I grew up in St. Louis Park