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
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Failure & regret
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
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.
I’m judgmental.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2025 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 252 →Being judgmental.
Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
English interior designer and television personality
I am crucified by my modesty: it’s terrible.
Jane Asher
English actress and author
Minding not being liked.
More from Chris McCausland
View profile →A lot of awful gigs. You can’t become a successful comedian without dying on your arse more times than you can remember.
My college years when I was 17 to 19, before the responsibilities of adulthood, just doing the things that I was good at and liked – computers, maths, further maths (I was a geek).
Hard-working, resilient, irritating.
When I was losing my sight, I couldn’t see where I was going, and I went into an undertaker’s thinking it was a barber’s. I asked the undertaker whether he had many waiting.
I was thrown out of a club by bouncers when I walked into somebody and told them that I was registered blind. They said: “Don’t give a fuck – you don’t belong in here.” As a straight white man, it gives you a taste of what other people have to contend with.
To Kill a Mockingbird – I was meant to read it for an exam and I didn’t and I cheated. I was allowed to use a laptop to type my answers because I couldn’t see my writing, so I hid an electronic copy of the book on the laptop.
More on identity & self
Also answered this
Herman Wouk, Judd Apatow, Michelle Visage, Bobbi Brown, Courtney Pine, Katie Melua
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