Franken’s friends say the show’s success at political satire came from his memorable parodies of politicians.

“When Al is more known for doing his impression of a candidate than the candidate is, that’s something,” said Dave Mandell ’92, who worked with Franken at SNL and Comedy Central. “Say what you want about the great stand-ups of our time, whatever comedian you love, has that comedian ever mentioned the Congressional Quarterly [in his comedy]?”

But beyond his political impersonations, Franken was best known for his role as Stuart Smalley, a 12-step program junkie who gave motivational advice.

The character was turned into the feature film “Stuart Saves his Family” in 1995.

And Franken did not just stick to SNL, branching out to co-write the successful drama, “When a Man Loves a Woman,” about an alcoholic woman and her husband.

He was also featured as a commentator for CNN’s coverage of the 1992 and 1996 Democratic National Conventions, as well as the host of Comedy Central’s Indecision ’92.

And in recent years, Franken has become a successful humor writer, melding his comedic talent and political interests into the best-selling political satires Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Why Not Me?

But Franken’s successful career has also seen its share of failures. His attempt at a prime time television show in 1998—”Lateline”—was cancelled after only a few weeks on the air.

Franken says the show, which was a political parody of a nightly news program, was not given a fair shot by the network.

“I really felt that NBC didn’t give us a chance—they kept moving us around and made it hard for people to find it,” Franken said. “I still have a bitter taste in my mouth.”

Behind the Laughter

But friends say it is not Franken’s list of accomplishments or his few failures that define him or his career.

“The best thing about Al is he doesn’t waste time,” Mandell says. “There’s a lot of comedy writers who will talk about the philosophy of comedy and what you’re trying to achieve until you want to kill yourself. Al and I would talk about what the piece was and then he was just very happy to start writing.”

Mandell, who says he owes his career to Franken, describes the key factor that has made Franken successful for so long as a “built-in fearlessness.”

“As a performer, Al’s not afraid to look stupid, he’s not afraid to be ugly, he’s not afraid to go over the audience’s head,” Mandell says.