If by "comedian" you mean "someone with all the humor of a eulogist with post-partum depression,"

then yes, WaPo, Al Franken is a comedian.

Even before he got political, I noted the total vacuum of humor in his *ahem* "comedy."

Take a look at his old SNL clips.

It's hard not to be funny on SNL.

It's even harder not to get at least some sympathy laughs from the SNL audience.

But more often than not, in the sketches where Franken was the focus ("Stuart Smalley" anyone? Anyone?) the audience was as silent as the running in Silent Running.

He and Janeane Garofolo should get married and have ugly, miserable children together.

Al Franken is to humor what Ted Bundy is to coeds. And his stint with Air America demonstrates that he is to talk radio what Helen Keller was to cheerleading.

Why should we expect he'd be any less of a disaster in the job he's now seeking?