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	<title>The Washington Independent &#187; comedy</title>
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	<link>http://washingtonindependent.com</link>
	<description>National News in Context</description>
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		<title>A Younger, More Shirtless Al Franken</title>
		<link>http://washingtonindependent.com/50323/a-younger-more-shirtless-al-franken</link>
		<comments>http://washingtonindependent.com/50323/a-younger-more-shirtless-al-franken#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:08:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Weigel</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog (deprecated)]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Al Franken]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[comedy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Minnesota]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[senate]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://washingtonindependent.com/?p=50323</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>Now that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is safely ensconced in his job for five and a half years, more videos from his earlier, funnier career are starting to leak out. This one is from the forgotten &#8220;Tunnel Vision&#8221; (1976), a sketch comedy film about a failing TV station (after the <a href="http://washingtonindependent.com/50323/a-younger-more-shirtless-al-franken" class="read_more">More...</a></p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Now that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is safely ensconced in his job for five and a half years, more videos from his earlier, funnier career are starting to leak out. This one is from the forgotten &#8220;Tunnel Vision&#8221; (1976), a sketch comedy film about a failing TV station (after the jump).</p>
<p><span id="more-50323"></span></p>
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<p>–</p>
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		<item>
		<title>A Plan for World (Comedy) Domination</title>
		<link>http://washingtonindependent.com/6491/a-plan-for-world-comedy-domination</link>
		<comments>http://washingtonindependent.com/6491/a-plan-for-world-comedy-domination#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:54:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Harry Shearer</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Commentary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy/Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slot 1/Top Stories]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slot 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aig]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bailout]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bruce mccall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chris buckley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[comedy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[conan o'brien]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[craig ferguson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[david letterman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[financial meltdown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jay leno]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[matt groening]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sandra bernhard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[steve carell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[too big to fail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[treasury]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[world domination]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.washingtonindependent.com/?p=6491</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[<p>He doesn’t know this yet, but I’m putting in a bid to purchase <a href="http://www.washingtonindependent.com/author/mccall/">Bruce McCall.</a></p>
<p>I like and admire Bruce, but that has nothing to do with my plan.  I happen to know that he’s up to his ears with a mortgage on his condo. Since that mortgage has <a href="http://washingtonindependent.com/6491/a-plan-for-world-comedy-domination" class="read_more">More...</a></p>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div id="attachment_6498" class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 218px"><a href="http://www.washingtonindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/comedians.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-6498" title="comedians" src="http://www.washingtonindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/comedians-208x300.jpg" alt="These guys will all soon be the personal property of Harry Shearer. (Flickr: Trainman74)" width="208" height="300" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">These guys will all soon be the personal property of Harry Shearer. (Flickr: Trainman74)</p></div>
<p>He doesn’t know this yet, but I’m putting in a bid to purchase <a href="http://www.washingtonindependent.com/author/mccall/">Bruce McCall.</a></p>
<p>I like and admire Bruce, but that has nothing to do with my plan.  I happen to know that he’s up to his ears with a mortgage on his condo. Since that mortgage has long since been securitized and sold to a Singapore bank that’s about to fail, I can swoop in and get the whole package on the cheap.</p>
<p>Hey, vultures gotta eat, too.</p>
<p>As fine a purchase as that will be, it’s just the opening move of my plan.</p>
<p>I’ll leverage my Bruce property to the hilt, and go on a comedy and humorist buying spree &#8212; Joy Behar, Steve Carell, Chris Buckley, Sandra Bernhard, Craig Ferguson.  They’ll all fit nicely into my portfolio.   Leveraging them will net me Dave, Jay and Conan. Maybe even Matt Groening.</p>
<p>This isn’t about the hang, interesting as that prospect might be.  My purpose is to create a corporate humor leviathan. Maybe we’ll call it American International Comedy, or AIC.</p>
<p>Old-school thinkers might surmise that my ultimate goal is to create a kind of monopoly, and raise everybody’s price &#8212; what you might call the Mike Ovitz approach.   But this is now, and what I’m after is simple: a comedy combine that’s too big to fail.</p>
<div id="attachment_2754" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width: 160px"><a href="http://www.washingtonindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/debt.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2754" title="debt" src="http://www.washingtonindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/debt-150x150.jpg" alt="Illustration by: Matt Mahurin" width="150" height="150" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Illustration by: Matt Mahurin</p></div>
<p>That’s only the beginning.  More leverage brings more talent, and more connections to media leviathans worldwide &#8212; how many countries does Ricky Gervais entertain?  How many state-owned TV networks have millions tied up in &#8220;Simpsons&#8221; reruns?</p>
<p>There’s no point in being too big to fail unless you can tiptoe or tapdance right up to, or just over, the edge of the cliff.</p>
<p>We’ll invest everybody’s earnings in perfectly wonderful financial instruments that the humorists themselves will invent.  Then, boom!  Or, strictly speaking, whatever the opposite of boom is.</p>
<p>Sure, there will be those outliers who think the government has no business bailing out a collection of laughmasters.  Do they understand how much property Will Ferrell owns in Mexico?  If all those haciendas get dumped on the market at once, ay caramba!</p>
<p>Once the government gives us a multi-billion-dollar bridge loan &#8212; cynics will call it a “bridge loan to nowhere,” but let them laugh &#8212; the feds will own 80 percent of all of yoksters, and we can relax.</p>
<p><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Just like, let’s say, FEMA. </span></p>
<p><em>Harry Shearer is the host of the weekly radio show “Le Show,” the co-writer of &#8220;This Is Spinal Tap&#8221; and a musician and actor. His new album is “Songs of the Bushmen.”</em></p>
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