Though this comes from Al Franken’s podcast website, it’s not precisely one of his own podcasts. Rather, as he explains it’s a sketch he co-wrote and performs, which he made for the “What the Hack” podcast that deals with the issue of technology privacy. He does into the full story of how it came about, so I won’t repeat it here – but it has pretty amusing background that goes back to when he was in the Senate and wanted to do something like this for a committee he served on.
The premise of the sketch is a Senate committee hearing about privacy, where the two witnesses are Alexa and Siri answering questions exactly like Alexa and Siri would. And the sketch itself is (for my taste) hilarious. Franken plays the voices of Bernie Sanders, Chuck Grassley, Sherrod Brown, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell and himself. Playing the voice of Alexa is one of Franken’s compatriots from his days on Saturday Night Live, Larraine Newman. But best of all -- and this is joyously wonderful -- the voice of Siri is played by Susan Bennett. Who is Susan Bennett, I hear you ask? She’s the real voice of Siri!! But my favorite thing about the sketch (because this thing is weird, but a smart, “of course!” thing to do) is probably that every single time the name “Alexa” or “Siri” is mentioned during the hearing, we hear (just like in real life) Alexa or Siri recognize their name, react to it and beep. I love that idea enough on general comedy principle, but all the better it leads to some pretty fun, convoluted humor, as well. Though the audio says it’s 21 minutes, that’s the full podcast. The sketch and Franken’s introduction is only 12 minutes.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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