programming with functions

is functional programming at least most of what it's cracked up to be? nothing is everything it's cracked up to be, so is FP at least most of what it claims to be?

i know whats-his-face says you should learn LISP because it turns on god-mode for programming and LISP has a bunch of functional...paradigms, i guess, but functional programming seems like a lot of super-academic handjobbing and hobnobbery.