Al Franken
Senator and comedian
I had to ask people about this, because I couldn’t think of anything, and the consensus seems to be: a general lack of self-awareness.
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Identity & self
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What most recently made you cry?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's The Q&A has retained this Proust-derived prompt from at least 2007 through 2026, and ABC independently put it to the Obamas in 2011.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
The boozing. I started on rum as a child.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 June 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 243 →Always saying yes to people. For example, I’m doing this.
Lack of confidence masquerading as perfectionism.
Eugene Levy
Actor and writer
The inability to laugh before 11 a.m.
More from Frank Bowling
View profile →Recently, as people began to understand what I am trying to do in my painting.
A detective. Or a writer. Or a poet.
As a nice old man.
In the 1950s I went to the Chelsea Arts Club’s New Year’s Eve ball at the Royal Albert Hall dressed as a Christmas pudding, with swimming trunks under my costume and holly in my hair.
Trying to exercise authority over one.
In 2001, when my eldest son died.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Keith Richards, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, Shobna Gulati, Daryl McCormack, Nick Frost, Whoopi Goldberg
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
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