June 30, 2009
Coleman Concedes to Franken
One Small Step for Politics, One Giant Step for Comedy
So Coleman finally conceded after the Minnesota Supreme Court favored Franken's right to be seated. That's fine, and the 312-vote margin of victory seems about right given the closely divided state-by-state numbers in November's election.
But I'm more excited to see the words "Saturday Night Live" next to "senator". No one seems able to resist bringing up Franken's start at SNL, despite the fact that he actually wrote political satire later on.
Sure, we've had actors as political leaders for decades. But those were "serious" actors -- which sounds absurd in and of itself, given that we're talking about people like Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Neither is really an artiste, technically speaking
I still don't get how a Harvard-educated man like Franken could have any less politcal credibility than Ah-nuld. But there's no doubt that Franken's status as comedian was problematic. When he started his run, he had difficulty being taken seriously, precisely because he had started in comedy.
Comedy is, I suppose, more suspect given its supposedly "low" nature. But, as I've argued before, comedic speech acts are just as meaningful as "serious" speech acts; they simply work a little differently.
At any rate, I'm really hoping Franken's victory paves the way for more comedians to become world leaders. I've long been predicting that Eddie Izzard will become a political player at some point. And maybe someday those "Stewart/Colbert" bumper stickers won't be a joke. I love the idea of President Stewart and Vice-President Colbert.
A girl can dream...
And...let's see...oh, we could do some great things. Tina Fey as Secretary of State; Mike Judge as Secretary of Education; Seth Macfarlane as Secretary of Labor. Oh yeah, this is getting good.
Alex Borstein as Chair of Council on Women and Girls! GLBT liaison Wanda Sykes! Will Ferrell standing in for the real president Bush! I'd like to get John Oliver in there...maybe he could do something at the UN. Hell, I think I'd just install the "Daily Show" correspondents and writers in the cabinet. And Kal Penn could just stay in his current position as Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison.
Really, the only problem would be choosing from the many smart, funny people practicing their art.
Awesome.
