Satire

Before The Onion, Weekend Update and The Daily Show, Sahl's shtick satirized the news of the day. It's the 50th anniversary of the comedian's first appearance at the "Hungry I" nightclub in San Francisco. Before Sahl, tuxedo-clad borscht belt comedians made tame jokes about your mother in law. After Sahl came the dark, satirical wit of comedians like Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen and Bill Cosby.

Triumph, a regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, is a puppet and the creation of Robert Smigel. Smigel also created the animated short TV Funhouse on Saturday Night Live. Triumph has a new CD, Come Poop With Me, featuring such tracks as "Underage Bichon" and "Lick Myself." He's appeared on Hollywood Squares and on the MTV Video Music Awards, where he almost came to blows with rapper Eminem.

Enter MeFranken's new book is Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Franken recently made headlines when the Fox News Channel tried to sue him over the phrase "fair and balanced," which Fox claimed as its own. Fox lost, and Franken got lots of publicity for the book, which is now a bestseller. Al Franken is an alumnus of Saturday Night Live, where his most memorable character was the simpering self-help sap Stuart Smalley.

He was the Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2000, and was known for his satirical coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. He's now starring in Comedy Central's Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.

Writer, actor, director, comedian and host of Le Show, Harry Shearer. He's starring in the new folk music mockumentary A Mighty Wind, directed by Christopher Guest, who also directed Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman. Shearer also starred with Guest in the classic heavy metal parody This is Spinal Tap. Shearer's public radio show is now in its 19th year.

He's just published When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism. It's a coffee table book of post-Sept. 11 political posters, with slogans such as "Political Correctness is Dangerous...Demand Real Security" and "Put a Flag on Your Car...It's Literally the Least You Can Do/Empty Gestures Don't Win Wars." For nine years, Maher was the host of the TV talk show Politically Incorrect" which aired first on Comedy Central and then on ABC.

Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller, authors of the new book, Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (Little Brown and Company). The book is a history of the late-night comedy mainstay, which first aired in 1975. Shales and Miller interviewed the shows' producers, writers, cast members and guest hosts, including Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Al Franken, Will Farrell, Tom Hanks and many more. Tom Shales is the Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic of The Washington Post and a movie critic for NPR's Morning Edition.

Satirist Al Franken has a new book that spoofs how-to-succeed books. His new book is Oh, The Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or, Failing That, Happiness (Dutton). Franken is former co-producer of Saturday Night Live where he created the self-help guru Stuart Smalley. He's also the author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.

Rob Siegel and Carol Kolb of The Onion. It's a weekly national newspaper and Web site. The satirical tabloid-style dispatch has headlines like "Lowest Common Denominator Continues to Plummet" and "U.S. Vows to Defeat Whoever It Is We're at War With." Siegel is The Onion's editor-in-chief and Kolb is the senior editor. The Onion began in 1988 as an alternative weekly newspaper and went online in 1996.

Author Jonathan Franzen joins Fresh Air to discuss his latest novel, The Corrections. The story revolves around the lives of three children who live far away from their aging parents. The parents' health problems have made it difficult for them to take care of themselves. The children then have to decide how willing they are to change their own lives to care for their parents.

Will Ferrell is a regular cast member of Saturday Night Live. Last weekend the show began the new season in a somber tone, opening the show with Mayor Giuliani surrounded by a group of New York fire fighters, police and EMT workers. Ferrell has portrayed President George Bush on the show as well as Janet Reno, Alex Trebek and Robert Goulet; his other send-ups include musical middle school teacher Marty Culp, and Spartan cheerleader Craig.

Satirist and host of the public radio program Le Show, Harry Shearer on how he's been dealing with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on his show.

Shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, Onion editor Rob Siegel and writer Todd Hanson produced two issues of the paper which featured articles including "U.S. Urges Bin Laden to Form Nation It Can Attack," and "Security Beefed up at Cedar Rapids Public Library."

Editor and writer Walter Kirn's new novel Up in the Air (Doubleday) is about 35 year-old Ryan Bingham, a well-traveled business man who has a goal of accumulating one million miles in his frequent flyer account. Kirn is the literary editor for GQ and a contributing editor to Time and Vanity Fair. His fiction and non-fiction work has appeared in The New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine. He also the author of two other novels, and a selection of short stories.

Satirist and host of the public radio program Le Show, Harry Shearer considers the upcoming Presidential inauguration of George W. Bush and has some parting remarks about President Clinton.

Robert Smigel (SMY-gull) is a writer and creator of animated comic episodes for Saturday Night Live, including “X-Presidents” and “The Ambiguously Gay Duo.” His newest effort is the new Comedy Central series “TV Funhouse,” described as a broken kid’s show for adults. The Funhouse combines real animals, puppet animals, short films and animation (Wednesday nights at 10:30). Smigel has also written a new comic book based on the X-presidents filmed shorts (called “X-Presidents”/Villard Books).

Christopher Buckley was George Bush Sr.’s speechwriter from 1981-1983 when Bush served as Vice President. The son of William F. Buckley, he is the author of the political satire, "Thank you for Smoking" which poked fun at everything and everyone associated with the tobacco industry- from anti-smoking advocates to tobacco company executives. Buckley is the editor of Forbes’ FYI Magazine. He’ll discuss the presidential campaign from the perspective of a Bush supporter.

Host Garrison Keillor of Minnesota Public Radio's "A Prairie Home Companion." His new book has caused quite a stir. "Me: by Jimmy (Big Boy) Valente as told to Garrison Keillor" (Viking) satirizes Minnesota's new state governor, and former professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura. The governor, who plans to write his own autobiography, called Keillor's book "cheating" and proposed gradually eliminating state funding for Minnesota's public radio and TV. He also singled out Keillor saying he'd like to see his W-2.

Satirist Harry Shearer. His new book is "It's the Stupidity, Stupid: Why (Some) People hate Clinton and Why the Rest of Us Have to Watch." (The Library of Contemporary Thought, The Ballintine Publishing Group). He'll discuss the Impeachment proceedings.

Satirist Al Franken, former writer for Saturday Night Live, and creator of Stuart Smalley (author of "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!"). His new book is "Why Not Me: The Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency" (Delacorte Press). It's the story of America's first jewish president, himself, Al Franken!