Maureen Groppe

USA TODAY

PHILADELPHIA — After Sen. Al Franken’s squeaker 2008 election, the former comedian put his head down and went to work.

Franken declined most national media requests, while focusing on Minnesota.

He resisted encouragements to break out into Stuart Smalley, one of his notable Saturday Night Live characters.

But when Hillary Clinton’s campaign asked Franken to unleash the humor for his Monday night speech at the Democratic National Convention, he was happy to oblige

“They said, 'Will you eviscerate Donald Trump with humor?’ ” Franken told USA TODAY on Tuesday. “So I said, 'OK.’ … I will do anything for Hillary, including being funny.”

He went after Trump Steaks and Trump University — where you learn “directly from success experts like Scott Baio, Mike Tyson, and, of course, a life-sized cardboard cutout of Mr. Trump himself.”

"A little humor goes a loooong way at these conventions,” tweeted nonpartisan political analyst Stuart Rothenberg. “Smart tactic by Franken.”

And Franken reappeared on stage soon after, with comedian Sarah Silverman, who had supported Bernie Sanders and told the “Bernie-or-bust” crowd they were being ridiculous.

“This is what you did,” Franken told Silverman after the hall erupted. “This is the power of comedy.”

While Trump also has a background in entertainment, Franken said there’s a difference between how prepared he was to join the Senate and how prepared the reality TV star is to be president. Franken said he had written about politics and done a “content-heavy” radio show before running for Congress.

“I demonstrated that I cared about public policy and about the granular details,” he said. “I don’t think this guy has shown any interest at all in understanding public policy. I think he’s a classic narcissist who believes he doesn’t have to do any of the work.”

Franken was an early backer of Clinton, although his progressive politics might have seemed more aligned with Sanders. Franken, however, said he doesn’t see much ideological difference between Clinton and Sanders, while “the gulf between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is just as wide as can be.”

In addition to campaigning for Clinton this fall, Franken will also be helping Democratic candidates for Senate.

Democrats need to net four seats to win control of the Senate if Clinton becomes president, and five seats if Trump does. That's because the vice president would have the power to break tie votes in the event of a 50-50 split between the two parties in the 100-member chamber.

Asked to predict how many seats Democrats will win, Franken said eight. But he added he doesn’t prognosticate much anymore because he's no good at it.

“”I thought Cyndi Lauper was going to be a lot bigger than Madonna,” he said.

Al Franken to Democratic convention delegates: We have a fight on our hands