Friday, Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, sent a letter to the SEC asking it to investigate trading in shares of investment banks in the last few weeks to see if anythingfunny was going on.
It isn't that Mr. Nolen is anything less than wildly funny, but Mr. Simon's best comedies always profit from being played for truth, and I suspect that "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" would have been even more effective if the reason why Max gets bombed every night after work had been made a bit clearer.
His monologue was charming and funny and he can sing. (MacFarlane has released an album of standards.) Although his animated shows push the boundaries of taste more than almost anything on TV, MacFarlane showed he can be funny without resorting to abortion jokes.