One Thursday afternoon, Al Franken joined dozens of other fans to watch Paul McCartney rehearsing for a forthcoming appearance on "Saturday Night Live":
"He's playing 'Hey Jude' and I'm beginning to tear up and think about what's happened to my life since I've been sixteen, where'd my life go, and everybody else in the place is beginning to cry. So Saturday, the music rehearses after dinner or during dinner and we stop blocking and they do the music rehearsal. So again it's McCartney and again the place is jam-packed with people. He plays 'Hey Jude' and the same thing happens. People start crying and I get kind of misty.
"And then I see a set. We're doing the Gap Girls [sketch] that week, and every time we do the Gap Girls we have the set that has thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of Gap clothes in it, including a shelving of jeans, and they always put a guard in front of it so nobody would take any of the clothes. And I'm looking at the guard and the guard is crying...
"So we get to dress [another rehearsal] and 'Hey Jude,' and the audience is going like, 'Unbelievable! He's playing "Hey Jude," I can't believe it.' I'm looking at the guard, who's still very moved...
So what was Al thinking? "I'm thinking I'm not going to have time on Sunday to go shopping and I need some jeans! So on-air, the Gap set was dark and the guard was totally focused on McCartney singing 'Hey Jude,' so I just started looking for some 34-30 jeans..."

[Franken later told "Dan the prop guy" that he had taken two pairs of jeans. "I was willing to pay for them," he explained, "I just didn't want to spend the time shopping."]

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