Al Franken is man enough to admit that he cries - often.

"I'm a crier," Franken told the crowd at a Minneapolis Barnes & Noble on Sunday at a stop on his book tour. "I'll cry at a McDonald's commercial."

A Minneapolis-based Fishbowl spy was at the event (technically in the wealthy Minneapolis suburb of Edina), during which the Air America host/SNL alum/possible Senatorial candidate read from his book, The Truth (With Jokes), tearing up during a chapter describing his late father's battle with cancer. Franken, who grew up in Minneapolis, got choked up "at least two or three times" according to our source, explaining that close friends of his parents were in the audience.

It's no secret that Franken can get wobbly at times; in June there was a minor flap when his acceptance speech at an awards dinner ran long, during which he got got choked up talking about American soldiers in Iraq. He's been known to cry during readings and on the air (even if he does re-use that McDonald's commercial line).

He did cop to reusing an anecdote (tangentially) about Bill O'Reilly - from our spy:

He said that his wife doesn't like him going to Iraq so she always says "Bill O'Reilly doesn't go to Iraq," and he says "Honey, that's not fair. Bill O'Reilly doesn't have any talent." Then he admitted that he reuses that one, and did so with Sean Hannity on Air America show. (Ed. -Can't find transcript, though found evidence of reuse here and here).

Al Franken-inspired tidbit after the jump: lyrics to "It's All Right To Cry" from Free To Be, You And Me. It's all right to cry, little boy. I know some big boys that cry too.

"It's all right to cry"
Free to Be, You And Me

It's all right to cry
Crying gets the sad out of you
It's all right to cry
It might make you feel better

Raindrops from your eyes
Washing all the mad out of you
Raindrops from your eyes
It's gonna make you feel better

It's all right to feel things
Though the feelings may feel strange
Feelings are such real things
And they change and change and change

Sad and grumpy
Down-in-the dumpy
Snuggly, huggly
Mean and ugly
Sloppy, splappy
Hoppy, happy!
Change and change and change

It's all right to feel things
Though the feelings may feel strange
Feelings are such real things
And they change and change and change

It's all right to know
Feelings come and feelings go
It's all right to cry
It might make you feel better

Spoken: It's all right to cry, little boy
I know some big boys that cry too