The Al Franken Show - Regular Features

Regular Features

In addition to general political discussion, the show featured several recurring comic relief segments. These included:

Wait Wait… Don't Lie To Me!

Every Friday afternoon, Franken hosted a mini-game show with fellow judge Joe Conason. The contestant listened to a series of audio clips from earlier in the week, and was asked to identify whether each statement made is the truth, a lie, or a "weasel" (defined as "a statement that is technically true, but intended to mislead"). The title was based on the National Public Radio show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Contestants received a copy of The Al Franken Show Party Album regardless of their performance, though Franken referred to the CD as both the prize for winning and consolation prize for losing. In the spirit of the lying theme, Franken frequently stated that the game won ever increasing numbers of Peabody Awards—over one hundred by the end of the show—which itself was a humorous dig at Bill O'Reilly, who incorrectly boasted that his former show, Inside Edition, won two Peabodies. The segment's theme music was the 1980s Fleetwood Mac hit song "Little Lies".

Hate Email of the Day

Franken picked his favorite hate email and read it on the air, often noting spelling and grammatical errors, and usually concluding with "We take your criticisms very seriously."

Boring Correction

Taking great pride in the veracity of the information cited by his program, Franken invited his audience to bring any factual errors to his attention so they could be addressed. Franken would then issue a live on-air "Boring Correction" where, to a jaunty tune and the sound of typewriter in the background, he corrected the error. Most of the time, the "boring correction" addressed a hypertechnicality rather than a substantive error.

"Resident Dittohead" Mark Luther

The show regularly featured a segment with Mark Luther, Franken's childhood friend and self-proclaimed dittohead. Franken would play a clip by Rush Limbaugh, take issue with Limbaugh's facts or logic, and argue about it with Luther.

Good Ribbin'

A correspondent would travel to some of the best southern barbecue hot spots in the country, to talk with people who love barbecue and hate Franken's show. Patrons were invited to tell the audience what they were eating and then argue with Franken.

The Fifteen Second Debunk

An audio clip was played, and then debunked by another audio clip from the same person. Although the two clips were usually less than fifteen seconds, they were preceded by very lengthy introduction and followed by a lengthy outro.

Nigel Chestley

Franken played a BBC correspondent who sometimes reported on international news, and other times simply provided an update on the Queen's long running drum solo.

Senior Moment

Franken played Enid Davenport, a crotchety old woman who offered an extremely confused perspective on the news (she preferred to call the segment "A piece of my mind"). This character was somewhat reminiscent of Gilda Radner's Emily Litella from Saturday Night Live.

The Slide Whistle

Franken played a slide whistle along with the highs and lows of President Bush's approval rating since taking office. The whistle started with a moderate note, raised to a high note to reflect the time period following 9/11, then steadily sunk to lower notes as Bush's popularity decreased (with occasional blips of higher notes in between). This was a popular segment surrounding State of the Union addresses.

Right-Wing Non-Lie of the Day

Franken would play a clip of a conservative telling a "non-lie," which would usually last for about ten seconds. On The Very Best of the O'Franken Factor, featured non-lies included Rush Limbaugh saying he was looking at an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal and Bill O'Reilly reading the definition of the word "conundrum."

Some other skits no longer occurred regularly after Katherine Lanpher left the show. These included:

• The Oy Yoy Yoy Show, in which Franken played "old Al" and responded to a litany of depressing news items by saying "Oy", along with a constant expression of concern for Israel
• Mastication Theater, in which Franken and Lanpher would perform a skit while stuffing their mouths with food