The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11pm / 10c.

This afternoon, when it came to get lunch, I didn't think about it. I just ordered hummus and falafel. At the time, I couldn't articulate it; it just felt right. And it was delicious falafel. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thoroughly and innocently and thoroughly. There was nothing else in the world that I'd rather have been doing at the time then savoring that warm, moist falafel in my mouth.

And then I happened upon this reminder from The Smoking Gun, and suddenly it all made sense…

On this date five years ago, the Fox News Channel host was named in a sexual harassment lawsuit brimming with lurid details about vibrators, phone sex, threesomes, masturbation, Caribbean shower fantasies, a Thai sex show, falafel, stewardess trysts, vehicular coupling, and Al Franken.

10/13! Never Forget! Support Our Khubz!

[Franken] has been otherwise subdued since he came to Capitol Hill nearly three months ago. But today, Mr. Franken had the standing-room-only hearing room chortling on multiple occasions.

Aw, man! This is gonna be good!

"'If men were angels, then there would be no need for government,' I think that's Madison," he said.

Eh?

Oh, hang on, this next bit is gonna be hilarious!

Mr. Franken also appeared to [be] sharing something amusing on a BlackBerry with Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, and Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota’s senior senator.

Wait a minute. Didn't he steal that bit from Lenny Bruce?

Alright, I'm sorry. I apologize. This wasn't really that funny or even that interesting. I was scrambling around, looking for something — anything! — to throw up onto the blog, and I found this thing about Al Franken, and I figured, What the fuck? Things he does and says must be considered funny by people by nature of the fact that he used to be a comedian. So, I will just regurgitate this boring drivel onto the blog, and nobody will know the difference. I shouldn't have, but I did. I apologize.

Gee, I wonder if any other blogs ever do stuff like that?

But I'm apparently too dumb to claw my way through the byzantine* logic behind his conclusions…

If you chance to like this sort of thing, then this is undoubtedly the sort of thing you will like. It certainly works very well with audiences who laugh not because they find something to be funny, but to confirm that they are — and who can doubt it? — cool enough to "get" the joke.

What you will not find, in any of this output, is anything remotely "satirical" about the pulpit of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, or any straight-faced, eyebrow-raising (and studio-audience-thigh-slap-triggering) mention of, say, The New York Times's routine practice of captioning Al Sharpton as "the civil rights activist." Baudelaire wrote that the devil's greatest achievement was to have persuaded so many people that he doesn’t exist: liberal platitudinousness must be a bit like that to those who suffer from it without quite acknowledging that there is such a syndrome to begin with.

Fair enough. Fair enough. Just, I'd be a little more convinced if any of that made sense. Or if it was at all clear that he had ever watched more than two episodes of The Daily Show with which to reference. Or took into account that creating "satire" does not preclude one from having a world view or political bent.

In general, I'm a fan of Christopher Hitchens. But I prefer the Hitchens who knows from whence he speaks to the Hitchens that just decides to vamp on an unpopular theme for a dozen or so paragraphs to keep his reputation as a contrarian before calling it a day and hitting the liquor cabinet. (Remember his "Look at me!" treatise against vagina-bearing comedians?)

Now, I don't wanna give the impression that there's no room for criticizing Stewart, Colbert or Franken. (Actually, I have a lot of problems with Franken and his party-line Democrat attitude.) But this article, to me, comes off as shallow, uninformed and silly.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go throw poop** at a poster of Dick Cheney.

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^{* I have no idea what that word means. I just mashed my palm onto the keyboard and that came out.}

** Don't worry. It's not my poop.

That's pretty impressive; you've got to admit. I doubt that I could even name all 47 states* from memory.

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^{* Relax, Agents of SIWOTI. It was a joke. I'm fully aware that there are 57 states in the union.}

And, ya see, he got nary a single laugh out of this crowd of angry conservatives.

I'll bet you they would have appreciated his old brain tumor bit more.

(via Boing Boing)

"I'm running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform," he joked… "I don't have a chance," Pitt predicted.

Wait, what? Seriously, what? Was this even in the realm of possible things that could happen? Hasn't that city suffered enough indignations these past few years? (And I'm not even just talking about the whole Anne Rice association thing.)

Apparently, those people are real gluttons for punishment… extra spicy Cajun-style punishment…

The Brad Pitt for Mayor Campaign is picking up steam. WDSU NewsChannel 6 has learned there's a movement in the Crescent City trying to get the actor elected…

"Totally cute, I'm really excited about my Brad Pitt for Mayor T-shirt," said [some idiot who's not even from New Orleans]…

What started off as a crazy idea, is getting crazy response, especially now. "Brad Pitt is someone who's really done a lot for the City of New Orleans and the more people are talking about it. It sounds less and less crazy, especially with Gov. Schwarzenegger and Al Franken about to be sworn in as the U.S. Senator from Minnesota," said [t-shirt seller Josh] Harvey.

I think this guy is confusing "less and less crazy" with "everything else is getting more and more stupid."

In his defense, it's a common mistake.

The Daily Show's coverage of the Sotomayor hearings continue after the jump.

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11pm / 10c.

The Senate Judiciary Confirmation Hearings of Sonia Sotomayor have also served as a bit of a coming out party for newly-minted Senator Al Franken (D, Laughsylvania). And seven long, jokeless days into his term, the senator finally gave us Franken acolytes (aka Frankolytes) exactly what we were waiting for: his opinion on a constitutional right to privacy! OH, and also he told his first joke on the floor of the Senate!

After a lengthy questioning period, Franken asked fellow Perry Mason enthusiast Sotomayor to name the episode where everyone’s favorite fictional lawyer actually lost a case to longtime rival Hamilton Burger. Like a good Supreme Court nominee, Sotomayor tried to squirm her way out of answering the question, and Franken totally nailed her, in a strictly Senatorial fashion…

First off, I was under the impression that everything said in Congress is a joke. ZING! You like that one, Franken? You can have it.

Secondly, I'm more terrified than tickled. I expect every member of the highest court in the land to have a Wikipedic knowledge of not only Perry Mason, but every single piece of fiction related to the law. You should see Scalia's one-man performance of My Cousin Vinny.

For the record, the episode Franken is asking about is The Case the Deadly Verdict, Season 7, Episode 4. President Obama, I await your appointment.

And then Matt Tobey sent me this…

Weird!

But, no. That's not it.

Oh, wait! This is it…

I just think it's so adorable watching him go through the motions of an activity that he doesn't really understand.

He thinks he's people!