Family Man, Funny Man

At the Capitol and in the Kit Chen, the Saturday Night Live Alum Is Still Going for the Laughs
 

- Sandra Sobieraj Westfall

Date night for Franni and Al Franken, together 47 years, is settling on the couch with sweet potato chips and Diet Pepsi for the show he helped launch 41 years ago: Saturday Night Live. “To have Melissa McCarthy play Sean Spicer,” Franken tells People, “I remember watching that and just going, ‘Whoa.’ Instant classic.”

Franken, 66, would know. The second-term U.S. Senator from Minnesota was a writer and performer on SNL for 15 years. He created one of the show’s most recognizable characters, the syrupy host of a recurring sketch called “Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley.” Now, in a new memoir with the tongue in-cheek title Giant of the Senate, the 5'8" Franken charts his path from comedy to politics and describes how, after Republicans in his first Senate race in 2008 (which he won by 312 votes after an eight month recount) “dehumorized” every joke he’d ever written by presenting them as his sincere beliefs, he’s kept a lid on Smalley and jokes in general. And so, sitting down with People at their daughter Thomasin’s home in Washington, D.C., Franni says of Smalley, “Stuart is in Heaven.” But her husband protests: “He’s not dead! I’ve got the wig. I’ve got the sweater. I just don’t bring him out. I’m self-censoring. I wanted Minnesotans to see that I was serious about the job.”