SNL video’s short online shelf-life not a sign of Franken humor-management

Sen. Al Franken was famously contained during the long period of limbo between Election Day and his swearing-in, suppressing his wit by keeping mum in an effort to seem more senatorial. So when a video of Franken impersonating the late Sen. Paul Simon surfaced last week and then quickly disappeared, it suggested more humor-management. Not so, says his spokeswoman.

The clip was 18 years old yet couldn’t have been more timely — or uncanny. It showed Franken portraying Simon during a Senate Judicary Committee hearing on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, just as the current Franken was playing himself, as a real senator, during hearings on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Earlier all that was available online was the transcript of the sketch. Then on July 17 the Economist’s Democracy in America blog noted that “NBC has finally re-released the video.”

The clip was posted at Hulu.com, a site that NBC co-owns. But by July 19, the video had been removed. Did Franken use the power of his office to get the network to make unavailable his past violation of the senatorial solemnity?

“No,” responded Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh to a Minnesota Independent inquiry.

NBC won’t comment on who decided to post the Franken-as-Simon video — or to take it down. Sharon Pannozzo, the network’s East Coast entertainment publicity director, said by email that the length of time NBC shows remain posted at Hulu varies, and brief appearances — some as short as 24 hours — are “very common.”

That leaves fans of Franken’s screen humor to scan the likes of YouTube, where SNL clips are quickly removed but random gems like a recently uploaded scene from the 1976 movie “Tunnel Vision” sometimes reappear.