Lorne Michaels pays tribute to Norm Macdonald in Emmys acceptance speech
Michaels called Norm Macdonald one of the best to ever do "Weekend Update"
TV News Norm Macdonald
The Emmys have mostly been a predictable affair this year. Even the most cringe-inducing sketches pointed out that Ted Lasso and The Crown were sure to clean up. Elsewhere, the Emmys finally got around to pointing out that Mike Pence had a fly on his head at the vice presidential debates 150 years ago—but we digress.
Saturday Night Live didn’t have a lot of competition for the Outstanding Variety Sketch Series category. The only other nominee was A Black Lady Sketch Show, but Lorne Michaels did bring some gravitas to his legacy sketch series’ fifth straight win in the category. Discussing the hardships of SNL’s bizarre, unpredictable pandemic season, the normally stone-faced Michaels was surprisingly emotional, saying that the final show in a pandemic sprint to bring some comedy to a humorless America won the award.
“We began last season with six live election shows in a COVID bubble, with everyone in masks, and a small audience of exhausted first responders,” Michaels said. “No better way to do comedy.”
“Jim Carrey was Biden, Maya Rudolph was Kamala, Alec Baldwin was Trump, and Kate McKinnon was mostly everyone else,” he continued. “The Dave Chappelle-Foo Fighters show was the last of those six shows, and it happened on the Saturday that the election result was announced. Fatigue soon turned to exhilaration, and we went to work. The cast, the crew, the writers, and the entire production team all rose to the occasion. That show won this Emmy.”
Toward the end of his speech, Michaels paid tribute to Norm Macdonald, a controversial SNL figure if you’re former NBC exec Don Ohlmeyer, who infamously ordered Norm’s firing for making too many O.J. Simpson jokes. In Norm’s defense, the jokes were really funny.
“Lastly, ‘Weekend Update’ has been part of SNL for 46 season,” Michael said, putting his notes away. “And here, I’d like to pay tribute to one of the best we’ve ever had: Norm Macdonald.”
While Norm was fired from SNL in 1998, he did return to host the following season, when he mocked the network’s decision in his opening monologue. “I used to do the ‘Weekend Update’ news routine,” Macdonald said. “That’s where I did the make-believe news joke. Then a year and a half ago, I had a disagreement with the management at NBC. I wanted to keep my job, and they felt the exact opposite. So they fired me because I wasn’t funny. Now, with most jobs I could’ve had a hell of a lawsuit on my hands for that, but this is a comedy show, so they got me. It’s only a year and half later and they ask me to host the show. So I go, ‘Hey, how did I go in a year and a half from being not funny enough to even be allowed in the building to being so funny that I’m now hosting the show. How did I suddenly get so damn funny?’”
“I haven’t gotten funnier. The show has gotten really bad.”
59 Comments
Gotta be honest, I much preferred John Oliver’s tribute, moving though Lorne’s was.
Maya RudolfI have a feeling Lorne knows how to spell her name correctly.
The AV Club knows they have a time limit to churn out as much Norm content as they can. They can’t take time to spellcheck famous names like Jacques deGaiteneau
Oh, you must mean Jock D. Gatinno!
He’d like to see Le Tits Now.
No, you’re thinking of Sábado Gigante.
That old chunk of coal?
If they want to write as many Norm MacDonald articles as possible, I suggest maybe not giving seven paragraphs to the one that talks about how Lorne said “and here, I’d like to pay tribute to one of the best we’ve ever had: Norm Macdonald”. There is nothing here that couldn’t have been explained by a single paragraph and a video. As Andy Richter said “that’s like taking someone on a 4 mile hike to show them a turd.“
Every day for the next year wouldn’t be enough.
Are you sure? It’s spelled with a PH in SNL credits. Her father spelled it with a PH. Unless Maya changed it or they chose to spell it with a PH professionally and the family name is actually Rudolf.
Yes.“Rudolph” is the correct spelling. The author corrected it from “Rudolf” at some point after my previous comment.
I’m only one man
I’m only one man.FIFY, slacker.
eh, go completely fuck yourself, lorne. you’re for the birds.
“I haven’t gotten funnier. The show has gotten really bad.”truer words never spoken
“Every season is worse than the last one”
-A commenter on every SNL-related story since the internet was invented
1991-1994 was the high point where they were most culturally relevant and actually putting out spinoff movies that people liked, but YMMV. Wasn’t around for the 1970s seasons but was underwhelmed watching them years later
1992-1994 they were definitely in decline leading into the disaster that was the 1994-1995 season.
Every 90s season was critically panned. Chris Farley and Adam Sandler had hit pieces written on them. And norm talked about how pissed he was about it because the writer was laughing his ass off during the interviews.
In response to RaviShaunKAr, just to be clear, and I cannot see any more than the preview because of fucking Kinja, my opinions are based on my watching the show throughout that entire period (I am 51). IMHO, it was generally great from 87-92 or so and started declining. 1995-1996 was not a whole lot better than 94-95, but with every season after, it was more solid. However, even at it’s peak, SNL has always been more miss than hit with the comedy.
You must be in your mid to late 40s based on this observation. Lorne has said that everyone thinks the best seasons are the seasons when they’re in high school, for me those were the late ‘90s.
The high point of SNL is whenever you personally were the ages of 12-16. In truth, it has always been 90% garbage, with the remainder ranging between “amusing” and “golden.”
agree with your 2nd point – for every Hanukkah Song there are 4 Canteen Boy sketches, and for every Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer sketch there’s….ok that analogy doesn’t work because Phil Hartman was the Joe DiMaggio of that show; oddly enough, my 1991-1994 ‘favorite’ window was prior to high school though
This is true but it’s pretty easy to see the different upward and downward trajectories of the show, and currently we’re definitely in a downward trajectory. You have a few super long-running cast members who likely have a foot out the door (except Kenan who seems like he’d be content doing this forever) amidst a sea of also-rans who have yet to establish themselves. And SNL is doing them no favors by bringing in celebs to do these major impressions, which means either SNL isn’t giving them a chance to shine or doesn’t think they can do it. If they were a sports team, they’d be a team with a bunch of veterans in the last year of their deal and a bunch of young unseasoned players who haven’t made their mark. This era, which let’s say started in 2013 with McKinnon, also wasn’t the best. It was marked by a number of false starts and disappointments, especially Sasheer Zamata and Leslie Jones, who never found a home even though they should’ve been slam dunks (and I should note that both have done great, fun things since). Pete Davidson never found his niche either, even though he had some fun moments. Outside of Kenan’s reliability, the years were mostly carried by McKinnon and Bryant, but saw a changing and often wasted supporting cast, and an Update which is generally, well, fine I guess? I don’t dislike Che or Jost as much as some but it’s definitely not a top 5 Update desk. Likewise, I don’t think anyone’s going to be looking back at the McKinnon era as anything but the era that launched Kate McKinnon.
> This is true but it’s pretty easy to see the different upward and downward trajectories of the showYeah, but nobody gives a shit.All fans who are currently watching SNL aren’t reading SNL news hoping that someone will talk them out of it. We don’t care that you think the current cast sucks. We might even agree with you, but this is a news story, and your hater shit isn’t news. Hating SNL isn’t a scoop, it’s stale AF.
By all means, go ahead and celebrate past years and past casts. But no one is interested in hearing you shit on the recent one, unless the root story is literally about critiquing it.
Lol Jesus thanks for not reading my post I guess? And have fun with your anger!
Did you read mine?
Actually in 1998 it was on a solid upward trajectory.
comedy is subjective. In 1998 I enjoyed Ferrell, Hammond, Meadows, and MacDonald and not much else. They were still trotting Breuer out there to do Goat Boy in 1998 FFS
Sure. On an absolute scale, it may not have been good in your opinion, but I meant it had been climbing from the most recent nadir that was the 1994-1995 season. IMHO, each subsequent season got better than the one before for the next 7 or 8 seasons.
Norm would have appreciated a mean reference to being fired.
You hate SNL and you hate Hamilton and you’re happy to tell everyone. We’re all very impressed by your rejection of entertainment staples and stand in awe of your sophisticated taste.
I don’t hate SNL, actually. Hamilton is, however, trash, and on that I shall not be moved. However, impressing you, main character, is always the main goal of every action
“Why’d they take Norm MacDonald away?Cause he made too many jokes about OJWas Lorne Michaels overruled?Don’t you be fooledHe and Marion Berry went to the same high school…”
Barry
Wait…did they cut off the tribute to Norm, or did Lorne just casually throw out his name and say he was “one of” the best dozen or so Weekend hosts? Lorne: you can go fuck yourself.
Lorne: you can go fuck yourself.
Always and forever.
It was nice of him to mention Norm (and Norm was one of the best on SNL even outside of Update, so I will take his comments that way). I will say if they can joke about Kate McKinnon playing so many political figures, that should mean on some level they can realize she was stretched way too thin and ideally it won’t keep happening.
Norm was OK but nobody back then considered him one of the best to host Update.
Saturday Night Live didn’t have a lot of competition for the Outstanding Variety Sketch Series category. The only other nominee was A Black Lady Sketch Show……which is fantastic, and consistently funnier. (For that matter, how was I Think You Should Leave not nominated?)
These shows often have weird eligibility windows. Either that or…it’s the Emmys so who cares?
Oh, because it’s a terrible, unfunny show with exactly one joke beaten relentlessly into the ground no matter how hard the AV Club shills for it.
Norm’s passing hit hard. Still hurts. Nice there’s so many – so many! – YouTube clips out there. The last comedian’s death that hit this hard was Garry Shandling. Both inimitable, unique and defying of the norms. It’s nice Lorne and John Oliver remembered Norm, but Id rather it not be necessary for another 2o years.
I honestly wish they’d have run Norm’s “I’m just kidding – we don’t hire women” clip as the final In Memoriam segment, but certainly understand why they went with Williams.
Bob Einstein dying sucked, too.
You’ve no idea. Loved that guy. L-O-V-E-D him.
> to being so funny that I’m not hosting the show.Seeing this not/now typo-mixup far too often on AVClub of late.
I’m doing everything I can
… except punctuating correctly.
I’m not being paid to be a professional writer
Good thing.
Who’s that really ticked off person at 20 secs into that clip? That’s some pretty bad awards show decorum whomever that is…
Robin Thede, creator of A Black Lady Sketch Show. Pretty sure she’s just doing a bit, with Issa Rae pretending to calm her down.
One of my fav Norm moments.
Two of my three favorite people. RIP Norm and me.
Lorne’s additional tribute to Mary Gross was a little weird though, given the fact that she’s still alive.
It actually kind of pissed me off. As far as I know, Lorne did nothing to try to protect Norm against Ohlmeyer (which you would think he would have if Lorne really thought he was one of the best ever). I mean, Conan pushed back against Ohlmeyer (successfully) and there’s no way he had Lorne’s stroke at NBC.
Am I missing something and being too harsh on Lorne?
God, Norm’s delivery was one of a kind