Al Franken. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. 2003.

Somewhere between political science, media studies, and humor

Lorien was nuts about this book, going to far as to say that it was worth the hardback cover price. Since my only previous exposure to Franken was as the predictable, mildly funny self-help guru Stuart Smalley, I had no reason to believe he was interesting. This book kills, and it did not matter that I was unfamiliar with most of the right wing media stars Franken eviscerates with the scalpel of his humor, sharpened by a research team of Harvard students.

As Lakoff begins to demonstrate, liberals and conservatives have incompatible logical systems. Even doing what Franken does here, which seems so logical to me—proving that certain conservatives have told lies by demonstrating incompatibility between their documented statements and the best available facts—might not even be sensible to conservatives. A logical system predicated on compassion, factual analysis, & empirical data may in the end be at odds with one based on Christianity, white supremacy, fear, ignorance, and greed. Because Franken is funny, and conservatives have no sense of humor (or at least a sense of humor incompatible with that held by liberals), they are likely to be utterly confounded by the jokes. In that sense, as David Foster Wallace pointed out in a Believer interview, this book is hardly constructive and is frankly "venemous." But it's funny, and I am quietly pleased by the fact that, as Franken points out, everything in the book is either true or a joke, and I can tell the difference most of the time, but the people he writes about will find it infuriating but baffling. Truthfully, I don't know what its political function is or should be, as it is clearly preaching to the polarized and partisan. But once, driving across Pennsylvania without any cassette tapes, I listened to a radio show by some disgusting cretin named "Savage," and I got very depressed, thinking that the left was doomed because it upheld tolerance and the idea of being reasonable. What the left needs is a loudmouthed blowhard asshole, and that asshole is Al Franken.

Some of the chapters undermine the book’s political righteousness/are not funny. The chapter about Paul Wellstone’s funeral accuses the right of hypocritically exploiting Wellstone’s funeral for political ends by accusing the left of hypocritically exploiting Wellstone’s funeral for political ends, thereby opening itself to the accusation of hypocritically exploiting Wellstone’s funeral for political ends. And it’s not funny. The chapter-long digressions of Operation Chickenhawk and Supply-Side Jesus are not funny enough and make only the simplest of political points. Luckily they have bleak tragic endings (if interpreted with liberal logic, triumphant endings according to conservative logic, or at least liberal logic’s distorted representation of conservative logic). And Franken seems compelled to devote a chapter to demonstrating that he too was horrified by the events of September 11th, 2001, which is not funny and which was not funny.

Still, this is a great book, comparable to Stupid White Men, but more focused. And funnier.