Tina Fey isn't the only former Saturday Night Live star to come out on top after the US election campaign. While Fey's uncanny parody of Sarah Palin was credited with helping scupper the Republican's credibility, another former SNL cast member, Al Franken, today looks poised to be declared the winner of the tightest Senate contest of the elections, narrowly taking Minnesota for the Democrats after a ballot recount.
Prior to his run for the Senate, Franken was best known as a political satirist, rising to prominence as a regular writer and occasional performer on SNL from the late 1970s to the mid-90s. His most famous performance was his impersonation of Mick Jagger – complete with lip curling and bum-wiggling dance moves – that made it on to the US music show Solid Gold. Another of his SNL creations was the character Stuart Smalley – a spoof on people who become addicted to therapy for addiction – who went on to star in his own movie.
More recently, Franken became a star of liberal radio – as a talkshow host on Air America Radio's flagship programme The Al Franken Show – and took on the rightwing media attack dogs in books such as Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations and his documentary God Spoke. In the 2006 film, Franken accuses George Bush of blowing the global outpouring of sympathy and goodwill the US received in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. He manages a sly personal dig at Bush by asking the president whether he's ever manufactured crystal meth.
His Senate campaign was warmly greeted by many in the media but inevitably attracted the ire of the likes of Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly. Franken blew a raspberry in the face of his critics by returning to SNL to perform a parody of John McCain's controversial campaign ads. The sketch featured the Republican candidate recording his approval for ads that accuse Barack Obama of supporting "tax cuts for paedophiles" and healthcare for Osama Bin Laden, and of "fathering two black babies". US Senate debates may never be the same again.
