I never thought Al Franken was amusing as a comedian.
I considered him a dull, plodding abomination as a radio talk show host.
As a Senator, I’m willing to bet he’s gonna be just another partisan liberal dung heap.
But MAN! That guy can freehand draw a map of the US like nobody’s business:
Seriously, if I didn’t hate him on a deeply personal level, I’d give him a standing ovation and say “DUDE! That was freakin’ AWESOME!”.
I’m conflicted. That is pretty good. Best part about the video – it’s sped up and put to music.
I guess, when you’re an ugly, lonely, hateful kid, you sit in your room and learn to do stupid things like draw the map. It’s a shame he didn’t instead spead that time learning about the Constitution.
not freehand, its a hippie trick. What he did was put a thin sheet of paper over a real map and then traced it. Its not possible Franken has the intellegence to pull of that freehand.
He totally forgot the barrier islands.
He is now officially more qualified to be POTUS than Barack Obama. Congratulations, Al!
I thought Al was fairly funny as the baggage handler in “Trading Places.” Pretty much been gigasuck ever since, tho.
#3 – I thought about that, but some states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, & West Virginia are grotesquely distorted. Plus the order he does it in makes it look like this is something he’s been practicing and memorizing for a long time.
See also #2
It reminds me of Dustin Hoffman as Rain-man, doing complex math in his head, but not remembering which way to turn a faucet to shut the water off.
Definately. Yeah, Definately.
So he’s a TRAINED ape!?!
He only drew 50 states. His master is gonna be mad that he missed the other 7 !!
He forgot Mexico.
I’m with #3 and call BS. Even a tracing job can be, and perhaps should be, deliberately distorted to make it look more “human”
The only thing funny/clever that I ever heard come out of Franken’s pie hole was an SNL joke that I attribute to the writers:
Q: Did you hear about the rabbi who never charged for performing a circumcision?
A: He only took tips.
Amazing. I actually respect Al Franken for something now. That was badass. He should probably stick to stuff like this and avoid Congress.
MarkoMancuso says: – LOL!
Everyone else LOL!
I was going to say, we know Obama didn’t help him or there would have been a lot more states on there.
Pretty impressive though, even if he practiced, which we must assume, and if there wasn’t any slight of hand help.
He kinda failed on our great state of idaho…
How can we tell what he’s going to be like as a senator when he hasn’t been one for even six months?
Meanwhile, check out my story http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-16211-Salt-Lake-City-TV-Examiner~y2009m9d10-Ace-of-Spades-HQ-prematurely-calls-Obamas-speech-a-dud
So he does have a skill.
He can probably draw every
pore in Obama’s back side from memory also.
Sorry, I meant, “ass”.
Everybody is usually good at one thing. Guess that’s his.
How very senatorial! I feel much better now about him being a senator. Can he do Vargas girls?
(Goes and sits in corner with giant dunce hat on being from Minnesota, not qualified to comment, curls into fetal position and has a little cry…)
I call shennanigans. The map was drawn before hand in pencil very lightly so the audience and camera could not see it.
Does Al Franken go around saying…… I’m an excellent map maker I’m an excellent map maker, I get my map making supplies at K-mart.
#21 ussjimmycarter says:
Dude! I am going to have to get a coffee proof monitor!
His best talent is still vote-rigging
It would have been good if he hadn’t drawn part of Canada.
Fail.
Seriously, guys, he actually drew all the states freehand. If you watch the video and practice it a few times, you could be doing at least as well as him inside an hour.
As part of my qualifications working in the engineering spaces of an aircraft carrier, I had to be able to diagram half a dozen different fluid piping systems from memory, including pipes, tanks, boilers, condensers, filters, pumps, valves, and drains. It’s not impossible, just dull & time consuming.
The way he draws the map screams “memorized” to me. He starts with Minnesota, which is three straight lines with only one curvy line that you’d have to learn to draw correctly. And once it’s finished, Wisconsin, Iowa, & N & S Dakota are already partway done.
A lot of state borders only have 1 tricky line – or an oddball sticky-up part – to learn. Half the border lines are straight.
All it takes is time & desire. And not nearly as much of the former as you’d suspect.
You are all overlooking the most important part of this. It doesn’t matter if he is tracing or not. What matters is that he is doing this WITHOUT A GRANT FROM THE NEA!
Does it matter to anyone that the map the assclown drew was wildly inaccurate? His Georgia has a coastline about 200yards long. His version of South Carolina is the size of Delaware.
The guy is a douche. Were he talented, I’d label him a talented douche. Alas, my “honesty” fetish renders me unable to engage in such bullshittery.
He’s been doing this for more than 20 years. I caught an old Saturday Night Live at 2am one night, and there he was, freehand drawing the states, explaining how Dukakis could pull out a victory over George H.W. Bush.
I can’t stand Al Franken, but I’ve got to admit that he really can do this, and he’s been practicing doing so for a long, LONG, time.
Here’s a clip of him doing it on Letterman, WAY back in 1987.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn2ofGwDd4A&feature=related
If you can suffer through the first part, he attempts (and succeeds) to draw the map in under two minutes, starting at the 7:23 mark (out of 9:37 total).
ccoffer – doesn’t matter to me. I just think it’s a cool parlor trick.
Granted, not as cool as squirting milk out your tear duct, but cool nonetheless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1zgXfBxTUo
seriously, im not that impressed
free-handing anything geometric is challenging, but when doing something like this, its all about perfection of method
notice the way he draws, the order he uses, he is doing the exact same thing a magician does, following a simple guideline for a trick, to awe the crowd
but people who know the trick, or can see through it, wont be impressed, while i myself have never done it, not plan to (plenty of premade maps) i find it hard to enjoy when i know the secret
@Harvey
aw damn, my comment was all for not
also, i feel for you with those diagrams, i like drawing, but mapping out wiring, tubes, etc. killed me, and contributed a great deal to my choice to ditch my first career path, technical drawing is like the programming of the art world, entirely too boring for me to do without risk of suicide
I never doubted that Al Franken was an idiot. Now I suspect he’s an idiot savant.
Maybe he’s an Autistic savont. That would explain a lot actually.