Al Franken is a comedian and Democratic politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate between 2009 and 2018. We sat down to talk about his political and comedic influences, the funniest senator, Donald Trump’s stand-up comedy skills, and other topics.

This interview is a shortened and edited version of the original interview published previously on MaxRaskin.com.

The Funniest Senator

MR: Would your colleagues in the Senate tell you jokes?

AF: Yes.

MR: Is that annoying?

AF: It was really annoying for a couple of them.

MR: Is there anyone who’s actually funny?

AF: Yeah. The funniest senator is Lindsay Graham.

MR: Really?

AF: Disappointing, isn’t it?

MR: That’s surprising.

AF: He’s very funny.

MR: What’s an example?

AF: When he was running for president in 2016, I was next to him in the Senators men’s room and said, “If I was a Republican, I’d vote for you.” And without hesitation, Lindsey said, “That’s my problem.”

Donald Trump and Hot Pockets

MR: Do you think Trump is funny?

AF: That’s an interesting thing. That’s a very interesting question.

MR: Does he make you laugh?

AF: Oh, yeah.

MR: Do you think he’s intending to make you laugh?

AF: He’s intending to make his audience laugh. And I’ve said this about him — I’ve never seen him laugh. But he’s got talent — if that’s what you call it — to riff. A big part of the reason he cruised through the nomination in 2016 is that he completely sucked the oxygen out of anybody else. And the way he did it was doing these rallies. The rallies would be him up there basically riffing for an hour and a half, which is a talent.

MR: Would you ever watch them?

AF: Of course. They’re really entertaining. And of course, CNN would just cut in, so no other Republican candidate had any oxygen whatsoever. The only coverage they got was when Trump attacked them. So I’ve made the observation that he’s like a stand-up. And he could riff and then he’d figure out what worked. I’ve said that “Build the wall, and Mexico is going to pay for it,” was his Hot Pockets.

MR: From Gaffigan?

AF: Yeah, Jim Gaffigan, a great comedian. I think they told Trump to talk about immigration and he came up with that and it became his Hot Pockets. And then it became a policy because he had riffed on it. I campaigned a lot for Hillary during 2016. And she would tell me that she and Huma would watch his rallies and laugh. 

School Ties

MR: How did you end up going to a private high school?

AF: I was born in 1951 and in 1957, Sputnik went up. Americans were terrified because the Russians were now ahead of us in space and had nuclear weapons. So my parents marched us into our living room, sat us down and said, “You boys are going to study math and science so we can beat the Soviets.” And I thought that was a lot of pressure to put on a six year old. But my brother and I were obedient sons and we studied math and science. My brother was the first in the family to go to college. He went to MIT and graduated with a degree in physics and became a photographer.

When he was at MIT, he called my parents unbeknownst to me and said, “Alan should go to Harvard, not MIT, because they’re all nerdy here. And he should go to a private school… he should go to Blake.” So my dad comes to me, and says, “Alan” [in a gravely New York accent], my dad was from New York and inhaled a pipe for 50 years, “Alan, you’re going to take a test to get into a school for smart kids.”

So, we go down to Blake, it’s a beautiful campus, and I take this test. Two weeks later he goes, “Hey, you passed the test.” So we went down there to meet my ambassador at the school for smart kids. And I meet this kid, like a week before the school starts, and he’s a mouth breather. He’s kind of stupid. I didn’t know it was a school for boys, I thought it was a school for smart kids … so, I wasn’t so smart.

He goes, “Okay, well we start the day with chapel.” And I go, “Okay, I guess that’s okay.” And then you have to wear a coat and tie. Okay, I guess that’s okay. There’s sports, you have to play a sport everyday … okay, that’s okay … I like sports.

“No girls.” And I went, “What the…” And then I go down to the parking lot and my dad is waiting for me. And I go, “I’m not going here.” And he goes, “We already paid the deposit.”

MR: For the girls?

AF: No, there’s no deposit for girls. That’s illegal. No.

He’d already paid the deposit for the school. And I, like an obedient kid, went there for three years.

Fathers of Comedy

MR: I want to talk about some of the influential comedians in your life. I read somewhere that you liked Dick Gregory — is there anyone else that really stood out to you?

AF: Well, Lenny Bruce, Godfrey Cambridge. Carlin. Satirists, right?

MR: What about guys like Alan King?

AF: Oh, you’re talking about the Borscht Belt?

MR: Did they influence you?

AF: Oh, absolutely. It took me a while — till I was 40 or something — to figure out that I became a comedian because I loved watching TV with my dad and laughing. And he loved the Borscht Belt comedians.

MR: Would you watch Carson?

AF: Yes. We watched Carson, and we watched Ed Sullivan. So there was Henny Youngman and Shecky Greene. Buddy Hackett was my dad’s favorite.

MR: Were there any albums that stand out in your mind that you would listen to over and over?

AF: Oh, Newhart and Cosby. That’s when I was a kid. I’m a big Bob and Ray fan. Do you know Bob and Ray?

MR: No.

AF: Go to “Slow Talkers of America” on YouTube.

MR: Do you still listen to comedy today?

AF: Of course.

MR: Is there a place in New York you like going to? Do you go to the Cellar?

AF: I actually worked out at the Cellar to develop the act on what I’m doing now. I haven’t gone in a few months because I’ve been working so hard on election stuff.

MR: Do you have a standing invite there?

AF: Yeah.

MR: Is there anyone now that you enjoy watching or listening to?

AF: Just a whole bunch of them. Mulaney is, of course, as good as they are. Patton Oswalt. Louis C.K. — he just got nominated for a Grammy again. Amy Schumer.

MR: Do you watch SNL now?

AF: I do every once in a while. Schumer’s monologue on that was really funny. She was great.

Getting Clean for Gene

MR: What were your parents’ politics?

AF: It’s funny, my dad was a Republican until 1964.

MR: He didn’t vote for Goldwater?

AF: My dad influenced my politics a lot. We used to watch the news every night. We’d watch Cronkite, or Huntley-Brinkley, but mainly Cronkite. And in 1963, when they were putting dogs, and fire hoses, and billy clubs on, demonstrators, my dad pointed at the TV, and I never forget this. He said, “No Jew can be for this. No Jew can be for this.” So, Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act. My dad became a Democrat. We lost the South, but we gained my dad. And then he became more and more progressive and lefty. 

Therapy or No Therapy

MR: Do you go to therapy?

AF: No comment. Yeah, I do.

MR: Why do people feel uncomfortable talking about going to therapy?

AF: I don’t know. I did say “yeah” fast.

MR: But at first you said, “No comment.”

AF: It was a joke. It wasn’t “no.”