The Unlikely Odyssey of Al Franken Quiz

Answer: a free vial of crack

"Hand in a gun, get a free vial of crack" is the actual quote in the book. Franken, always being the comedian, wrote the book as a dig at the Republican party during the times of the 1990 election. It was in reference to what many politicians use as a point of reference in their campaigns, that is the problem with illegal guns being used against the citizens of our country.

It is a form of gun control that many politicians from both republican and democratic parties agree with, however, most politicians likely would not agree with Franken on his making of it part of his comedic schtick.

Answer: Pol Pot

Jokingly of course, he claimed he was all for Pot until he saw "The Killing Fields" and then felt like a schmuck, his words. Always using satire, Franken obviously never worked for Pol Pot. It was used to mock how the system of politics uses public figures to endorse political figures.

Franken most likely used Pol Pot in his joke due to the fact that Pot was the Prime Minister of "Democratic" Kampuchea, since Franken was himself a Democrat. However, Kampuchea was never a democracy. The word was frequently used by dictators who wanted the rest of the world to believe that it was ruled by the choice of the people, when instead it was run by a dictator. Cambodia is the same country as Kampuchea. At the time of Pol Pot's rule the country was not a democracy. This was from 1975 until 1979. He ruled Democratic Kampuchea for four years. He led the Khmer Rouge, which was the Communist movement in Cambodia.

Answer: Pat Robertson

It was Robertson who agrees with Jerry Falwell by his statement, "I totally concur". On September 13, 2001, is the date Falwell was at "The 700 Club". Falwell tells the listeners that the "curtain of protection" had been lifted by God. Franken has been taking jabs at Robertson since his early days while being at "Saturday Night Live".

Answer: Sergeant Major of the Army's "Hope and Freedom" USO Tour

The tour originally began in 2002 and it covered military personnel in southwest Asia. This tour was during the holiday seasons for the years 2003 until 2010. Franken participated on the tour for four years beginning in 2003 until 2006.

Al Franken was considered a celebrity entertainer. His show was performed much in the way earlier comedians like Bob Hope performed. Franken was known to go out into the Green Zone where he would meet wounded soldiers. The Green Zone was a 10 kilometer square around Baghdad, Iraq where it was still somewhat considered safe, but it was not in the Red Zone which was outside of the 10 kilometer square area.

The book was released on May 30th, 2017. It goes into great detail about Franken's starting in comedy, to his times at SNL, and the times before, during, and after his being a senator of Minnesota.

Answer: Ronald Reagan

This was said during Reagan's 1976 presidential campaign tour. It was in repsonse to Reagan being opposed to mandatory helmet laws, but against the legalization of pot because, as he said, it promoted brain damage. Franken asked Reagan if riding a motorcycle without a helmet could cause brain damage faster than smoking pot. Reagan's response was that it depended if he was on an airplane and if so, and the pilot was inebriated, he could tell he was drunk, whereas, if the pilot was high from smoking pot that he couldn't. I'll explain later.

Franken, being member of the SNL team at the time, was allowed to be on tour with his older brother who was a photographer on the press bus covering Reagan's New Hampshire presidential campaign tour. Franken, using logic, asked Reagan what his stance was on wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle. At a local country store, Reagan said that he opposed mandatory wearing of a helmet because he felt it crossed the line and limited the rider's individual freedom.

Later that day at a local junior high school, Reagan said that he was in opposition to legalizing marijuana because it caused brain damage.

The campaign eventually moves on to Darmouth College where non-members of the press were allowed to ask questions. Franken - always trying to get a laugh - thinks he has Reagan in a bit of a precarious situation by asking, "Can't riding a motorcycle without a helmet cause brain damage a lot faster than smoking marijuana?" Regan's response is quite comical, and he responds by saying "Well... if I was on an airplane and the pilot was drunk, I could tell. But if he was high on marijuana, I couldn't." Those there thought Regan's response was perfect, and it brought many laughs from the crowd.

Moments later the younger Franken was kindly removed from the bus. The meeting of the two eventually led to Franken getting Reagan's press secretary on an episode of SNL.

Evidently it was Franken who was implying that having a motorcycle accident and receiving head injuries from it was considerably more serious than smoking marijuana, and the slow process of harming the brain from that experience. Franken was a supporter of the legalization of pot during his time in politics.

Answer: Helen Thomas

Yes, it was said to have been Helen Thomas, in yet another satirical lie. Franken had to write as a footnote in the paperback version of the book, "The Helen Thomas thing is a joke." Many people thought he was way out of line in regards to this quote, indicating that was this really funny.
Helen Thomas was on the White House press corps covering ten U.S. presidents. She first started when John F. Kennedy was president, and lasted all the way to the Obama presidency.

Answer: Ann Coulter

He states that when Coulter was confronted about facts in her books, she said to look at the footnotes. However, she used no footnotes; she used endnotes. Franken has some fun with this. One of the problems with endnotes is that since they aren't actually at the end of a page, but rather in the end of the book, and that because of that most people would not try to fact check what was written. Evidently there is more of a possibility that some or much of the information could be somewhat inaccurate or totally not true. Supposedly, it potentially allows a lazier reader to maybe not read the endnote at all.

Answer: Ted Cruz

Evidently Cruz is the type of person that would microwave fish in the breakroom, and would tell your boss that you were "gambling" by joining a March Madness office pool, that is, according to Franken. Another one..."I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz". Franken dedicated a full chapter in his book, naming it "Sophistry". For those not knowing who Dwight Schrute is, he is usually regarded as Michael Scott's number one supporter on the TV comedy, "The Office".

Answer: Jeane Kirkpatrick

This is Al Franken at his best. This ruse can be found in Franken's 1996 book, "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations". In it Franken writes a letter (supposedly) to the New York Times that was supposedly written by Kirkpatrick herself, when, in fact, it was written by Franken. To this day many people believe that this "affair" actually did happen. Kirkpatrick was an American diplomat known mostly for her time working for the Reagan administration.

She started out as a Democrat but later changed stripes and became a Republican.

Answer: senior citizens

In his books and speeches, he argues that instead of wasting America's youth, we should send waves of senior citizens into battle. Why waste the entire lives of the young, when the old population has already had their better years? Not only because they only have their worst years left, but because it would give the WWII era another moment in glory. Plus, older Americans already get up at 4:00am, while the rest of America sleeps until noon.