Innocence By Disassociation

September 21, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Comedy, Election 2008 

For some reason or other Politico seems to be determined to make a big deal out of the charge allegation suggestion claim that former Saturday Night Live writer and performer and current Minnesota Democratic Senate nominee Al Franken came up with the idea notion script language concept for last night’s cold open of the long-running comedy show, and passed it along during a phone conversation with SNL head writer Seth Meyers SNL founder and producer Lorne Michaels.

Here’s how the finished product looked last night:

I’m not exactly sure what Politico is out to prove.

I would have thought it a no-brainer that Mr. Franken, an outspoken Air America alumnus Democratic liberal who worked at SNL for some thirteen years, would be in touch with Lorne Michaels who would, in the normal course of events, pass along any of Mr. Franken’s ideas to Mr. Meyers.

And I don’t see exactly where the conflict of interest arises for a Democratic Senate candidate to pass along an idea that mocks the Republican Presidential candidate.

It seems clear to me that this is in fact an attempt by Mr. Michaels (most likely with the collusion of Mr. Meyers) to pass the blame for a lame and laboriously developed cold open back to Mr. Franken who already has a reputation for tendentiously lame and laboriously developed material.

Aside from the not inconsiderable pleasure of watching Darrell Hammond increasingly come to inhabit Senator McCain, there were only a couple of laughs that were so telegraphed you could see them coming all the way down Sixth Avenue.

All that I can figure out.  What I can’t figure out is exactly why Politico thinks this non-story required two —count ‘em two — “well placed sources” and is worth two —count ‘em two— pages of its readers’ time and attention.  (There’s even an option where you can listen to it being read to you.)

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