Norm Macdonald told jokes, dammit
Norm Macdonald hated anti-comedy, and it's what made his style so original
Aux Features Norm Macdonald
The late, great Norm Macdonald was not an anti-comic. There was no revealing of artifice or hoity-toity subtext that would encourage the audience to see through the facade of stand-up comedy. He didn’t subvert expectations so that crowds could see the red light behind them, warning the comedian on stage that their time was almost up. Nor did he deliver jokes that were so intentionally stupid, dull, or offensive that they only appealed to the back of the room. He told jokes and got laughs, with his matter-of-fact delivery and stunning vocabulary that was as disarming as it was gut-busting. He could tell one-liners no problem, but the real gold was his long walks. The way he set up a joke made it difficult to even get to the punchline because Norm decorated his work with detailed characters, situations, and atmosphere that were enough to leave audiences or, in many cases, late-night hosts gasping for air. But when Norm finally made his way through the shaggy-dog story and got around to dropping the punchline, it never disappointed. Whether it escalated or deflated the joke, Norm’s work never dissatisfied. You could call him the anti-anti-comic’s comic if that weren’t so stupid.
Norm’s comedy almost defied description. It was deadpan and anticlimactic, just not in the ways we’re used to hearing. He wasn’t Steven Wright or Andy Kaufman; though, it probably wouldn’t be controversial to compare him to those two greats. Anticlimax usually implies anti-catharsis, wherein the ending grants one the opportunity of placing their thumb and index finger under their chin to ponder the moments that led up to the conclusion. Anticlimax can turn art into a rhetorical question, one that can be intriguing but is rarely funny. Everyone loves hearing about the times Kaufman took the stage only to read aloud from The Great Gatsby; very few would want to sit through it. Conversely, any self-respecting comedy fan would kill to see Norm do the “moth joke” live. But there was something about the way Norm built to a joke, carefully lining the golden road to the punchline that made the most nonsensical, corniest punchline even funnier (see: The Comedy Central Roast Of Bob Saget). Whatever Norm said was the funniest option.
There’s a reason that so many people consider him the best Weekend Update anchor in the history of Saturday Night Live—even if the late NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer disagreed. In a 2018 profile, Macdonald told the New York Times Magazine, “We were doing experimental stuff, non sequiturs. Ohlmeyer would watch Leno kill every night for 15 minutes. Every joke, huge laughs, and then I’d do 10 minutes a week and sometimes not get laughs.” You can’t hear laughter through a TV screen. So every weekend at midnight, he would puncture the veneer of celebrity and the objectivity of news media with off-center jokes that sometimes ended with the setup restated, like when Julia Roberts realized she was married to Lyle Lovett. Only Norm could get away with something that seems so simple on paper and so impossible in execution. It can’t be that easy. It shouldn’t be that easy. But for Norm, it was.
On SNL, Macdonald began working Frank Stallone into his act. Stallone is the younger sibling of the much more famous Sylvester Stallone, which is not to say that Frank doesn’t have his own showbiz career to speak of—he’s released eight albums and appeared in dozens of movies (many that weren’t directed by his brother!). But to 10-year-olds watching SNL at home in 1996 (one of the show’s many supposed bad years), Stallone was a non sequitur that always killed. “According to the EPA, it will cost an estimated $295 million to clean up toxic waste at the former Lockheed Martin military aircraft plant in California,” went one quintessential setup. “The cause of the toxic waste? You guessed it, Frank Stallone!” Stallone would become the scapegoat for numerous environmental, economic, and political disasters throughout Norm’s Weekend Update tenure. With Stallone’s headshot appearing as the over-the-shoulder image, the joke didn’t need to make sense for Macdonald to sell it. The surprise was enough for Norm—or more specifically, the fact that it was funny was enough for him.
Macdonald’s vastly underrated (or at least under-discussed) podcast, Norm Macdonald Live, was where he could draw things out. On the regular, aptly titled “Jokes” segment, Norm would have his famous friends cold read offensive, nasty, and insensitive jokes as he laughed and blamed them for making them. During this, he would often ask, “What’s so funny?,” like a grandfather encouraging their grandchild to continue laughing while making silly faces. This wasn’t funny; these were atrocities, Norm pleaded. Afterward, Norm would read a milquetoast jab like “A new report from the CDC states that only one-third of Americans use condoms. Two-thirds of Americans are still pretty cool.”
Moreover, the comedian loved to bring up horrific crimes committed by absolute monsters, particularly cannibals, with dinner party casualness. Norm’s underselling of the severity of the crimes would punctuate long tangents about them. Norm enjoyed living in the mayhem as guests giggled nervously, waiting for him to tie it all together. His preferred method: to interrupt his setup to say “This guy sounds like a real jerk.” It’s not just the vast simplification of the joke that made this format so addictive. Instead, it’s the amount of fun he had doing it. The sheer joy he seemed to get from surprising people, and more importantly, making them laugh. It didn’t matter how he got there—at least that’s the way he made it seem. It just so happens that the way he got there was undeniably brilliant. He loved to watch his friends squirm as he read a serial killer’s rap sheet only to undercut their sins with this most vanilla of verdicts. To Norm, Jeffrey Dahmer, child rapist and serial killer Albert Fish, and the Taliban were all “real jerks.” Thankfully, he was always brave enough to tell it like it is.
Norm Macdonald didn’t present himself like the tortured artist who bore his soul to the audience. He wasn’t a soothsayer or a martyr, a free-speech crusader or a social justice warrior. He was simply a comedian, one who knew how to make people laugh with the slightest nudge, the mere suggestion of a pause. He’s probably also the only one who could get audiences to laugh at the line “[Fish] would inevitably declare that a child’s roasted rump was the most toothsome dish in all of gastronomy.” Only one man could do that. And that man was, you guessed it, Frank Stallone!
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Reading all this stuff about Norm’s style, I’m reminded of how George Carlin eventually reached a point where all he had to do was name a certain group of people and then say “Fuck ‘em!”, and it killed because everyone knew he could brutally tear them down if he wanted. And that’s good company to be in.
Yeah, Carlin was great until he discovered word. “You can get ON the plane, I’m going to get IN the plane.”
Cool, George. I’m going to go to the box office and ask for a refund.
Maybe life is just the Franks we guess along the way. RIP to one of the absolute greats.
The Albert Fish joke wouldn’t even work if Norm hadn’t been so amazing at constructing sentences and choosing his words. The intelligence intersects with some childish/banal stuff to make the joke, which is not an easy feat at all to pull off. I doubt any other comedian could do it, because you also need to employ that beautiful voice and that inscrutable expression of his. You can’t analyse comedy, but by god you can marvel at the way he did it.
The funniest part isn’t even the “real jerk” punchline, it’s that the person he’s telling the joke to comes away not believing Albert Fish was a real person when everything Macdonald said was true and not some elaborate, grotesque Aristocrats style setup.
I would be an anxious mess trying to talk to him
Norm and Tim Heidecker are the only comedians that make me feel this way.
I met him, and it was nerve-wracking. One of those ultra sharp comedians listening to every syllable.
The phrase “toothsome dish in all of gastronomy” is funny enough on it’s own.
Always nice to be shown the rough draft before the article is published. (This joke won’t make sense once the copy editor wakes up).
Copy editors, on MY internet!
It’s just eerie how much the Queen of Hearts looks like the worst boss I’ve ever had.The tragedy is that he’s gay so we couldn’t call him the Queen without being homophobic.
This rough draft bored my soul.
I’m all they’ve got, and I’m still in mourning for Norm
I doubt that Andy Kaufman would’ve liked to be called an “anti-comic”. He was simply an innovator, seeking to entertain in ways that were entirely original and hadn’t been done before.Norm was indeed a more traditional teller of jokes than that, but by God, did he come up with unique, ingenious ways to do it. Not in any calculated way, but by simply not reading the manual, so to speak. Figuring out his own rhythms and forging his own path, single-mindedly.
Norm also is shrouded in mystery. He claimed he never drank once, and just naturally slurred and pretended to be drunk to add to his act and get with women. He claimed to be Polish despite his name, and was offended when someone assumed he was Polish because he ordered a Polish sausage. But it was because he was in a hardware store.
You know, I knew all of that and I am still surprised to hear it!
That reminds me that I once read that Walter Matthau started a rumours that his middle name was Foghorn, and that his real surname was about six syllables long.
Leghornleghornlegorn?
IsayIsayLeghorn?
Read much?
Yes. Kaufman never considered himself a comedian, but an entertainer….even if he didn’t care if the only one he entertained was himself. The Great Gatsby, for example.
I loved Andy Kaufman for about twenty minutes when he first came because he was so delightfully different and original . . . and the better I got to know him, the more I hated him. One thing to bear in mind is that he was not a comedian or entertainer, he was a performance artist. His whole point was to get the audience to participate, rather than just passively watch . . . which is why some of his most famous bits were designed to piss people off rather than just make them laugh. The other thing is that he was very callus about people. Mostly this came off as indifference but could occasionally be very mean. But as long as it got the intended reaction, he just didn’t care. Ultimately, I think that comedy was rather boring to him because making people laugh was just too easy for him.
Agree. Andy Kaufman is the kind of entertainer that you like telling people about..in retrospect. Much of what he did was not funny when he was doing it, but was so original that people remember it. His Tony Clifton stuff was not funny in the moment, it was the audacity of it where people talked about it later. No one wants to actually sit through it
“I doubt that Andy Kaufman would’ve liked to be called an “anti-comic”.”
You mean the guy who sold tickets to his standup comedy shows and then read F Scott Fitzgerald to the audience?
Yeah, he’s probably hate being called an anti-comic.
He was a master at telling a joke, he could take something not funny on paper and make it hilarious. You can tell what comedians need something crafted and which ones can just be funny by sheer force of will
For some reason, this passing has affected me much more than any in the past decade…
I think this video makes some good points on the subject of Norm and his comedy.
That was a good watch. Also, I have watched the moth jokes three times since yesterday and, every time, it’s the “and end this hellish facade” that gets me.
It’s the dramatic pause before “… I no longer love him!” that does me. The going all-in on the 19th century Russian realist novel this moth apparently lives in.
You know what’s great about analyzing comedy?
I’ll wait…
So a bartender is opening up at like 4PM, so the whole place is dead, and a guy walks in. He’s got a suit that could feed a family of four for a decade, and it’s on a body that would put Michael Phelps to shame, and he’s also got a red balloon for a head.The guy sits down and somehow orders a rum and coke. Bartender shrugs and pours it, and the guy pulls out his collar to pour the drink in, revealing the string he’s got instead of a neck. Now this bartender isn’t known for talking, terrible barside manner, never gets many tips, but he’s just got to ask:“Okay, I’m sorry, but what’s with the red balloon for a head?”And the guy with the red balloon for a head says:“No worries I get that a lot. It all started when I was doing my undergrad at Occidental, and I found a genie.”“Huh.”“Yeah, so y’know, I’d been doing shrooms the night before and figured it was just a hallucination, so I wish for a trillion dollars, and the genie says my wish is my command, and I check my account, and sure enough, holy shit, I’ve got a trillion dollars.”“Holy shit!”“Yeah, I know! And like, not only am I the richest man in the world, but like, magic exists? It was a lot to handle.”“I’ll bet. But why do you have a red balloon for a head?”“Well, I got worried after the first wish that this might be one of those shithead trickster genies, like the trillion dollars were taken from those in need or something, so I used some of the money to hire a lawyer and work out the language of my next wish to make sure nothing could go wrong.”“Uh huh.”“So basically, I didn’t wanna be immortal and see the heat death of the universe or any of that, but I wished that from now until I die I’d be in perfect shape no matter what I eat or how little exercise I do. Oreos make my teeth cleaner, that sorta shit.”“Huh. That’s a pretty good wish!”“Yeah, so suddenly I get all buff like Chris Evans after they stop with that CGI bullshit. My fortieth birthday was last week and I’m fit as a fuckin’ fiddle!”“Wow! But, uh, why do you have a red balloon for a head?”And the guy with a red balloon for a head just sorta sighs.“I think what went wrong was my third wish.”“What did you wish for?”“That I had a red balloon for a head.”
I could not find this very Norm type joke when I searched for it. In fact I couldn’t find it at all. It is quite good. Where did you get it?
Thanks! I heard a version of it in high school (so it can at least be traced to the DC Area in the mid 2000’s) but I stretched it the heck out to suit my love of longwinded jokes.
Norm himself has told this joke, only the guy had a giant pumpkin-head. I think it was on Howard Stern.
Huh, I had no idea! That’s wonderful, the joke makes me think of him and now I know why.
Everyone should listen to him doing his “Dirty Johnny” joke on the same show. Effortlessly able to hold everyone’s attention for an 8-minute bit.
3 guys are hiking through the woods when they find a lampOne of them picks it up, rubs it, and out pops a Genie.
It booms “You have finally freed me after all these years, so I’ll grant each one of you 3 wishes.” The first guy immediately blurts out “I want a billion dollars.” POOF, he’s holding a printout that shows his account balance is now in fact 1,000,000,003.50The second man thinks for a bit, then says “I want to be the richest man alive.” POOF, he’s holding papers showing his net worth is now well over 100 billion.The third guy thinks even longer about his wish, then says “I want my left arm to rotate clockwise for the rest of my life.” POOF, his arm starts rotating.The Genie tells them it’s time for their second wish.First guy says: “I want to be married to the most beautiful woman on earth.” POOF, a stunning beauty wraps herself around his arm.Second guy says “I want to be good-looking and charismatic, so I can have every girl I want.” POOF, his looks change and the first guy’s wife immediately starts flirting with him.Third guy says “I want my right arm to rotate counter-clockwise until I die.” POOF, now both his arms are rotating, in opposite directions.The genie tells them to think very carefully about their third wish.First guy does, and after a while says “I never want to become sick or injured, I want to stay healthy until I die.” POOF, his complexion improves, his acne is gone and his knees don’t bother him any more.Second guy says “I never want to grow old. I want to stay 29 forever.” POOF, he looks younger already.Third guy smiles triumphantly and says “My last wish is for my head to nod back and forth.” POOF, he’s now nodding his head and still flailing his arms around.The genie wishes them good luck, disappears, and the men soon go their separate ways.Many years later they meet again and chat about how things have been going. First guy is ecstatic: “I’ve invested the money and multiplied it many times over, so me and my family will be among the richest of the rich pretty much forever. My wife is a freak in the sheets, and I’ve never gotten so much as a cold in all these years.” Second guy smiles and says “Well, I built charities worldwide with a fraction of my wealth, I’m still the richest guy alive and also revered for my good deeds. I haven’t aged a day since we last met, and yes, your wife is pretty wild in bed.”Third guy walks in, flailing his arms around and nodding his head, and says:“Guys, I think I fucked up.”
One of my faves. I usually tell it with three sisters with distinct personalities (eldest is kind, middle is selfish, youngest is a wildcard) instead of three guys to mix things up, so it’s like:Oldest Sister Wish One: “Sure, right off the bat, world peace.”
Middle Sister Wish One: “Well, if the world’s at peace, how about I get to be in charge of it?”Youngest Sister Wish One: “I wish from now until I die, my right arm did *this*.”(Genie is confused, but does it)Oldest Sister Wish Two: “True love sounds great!”Middle Sister Wish Two: “I dunno, I’m sorta into a whole harem of dudes?”Youngest Sister Wish Two: “I wish from now until I die, my right arm did *this*.”(Genie more perplexed, does it.)Oldest Sister Wish Three: “Well, world peace, true love, I’m honestly good? But sure, I think it’d be cool to fly.”Middle Sister Wish Three: “Oh shit, yeah, that sounds good, put me down for fli-”Youngest Sister, so excited she interrupts: “From now until I die, I’m doing jazz hands.”Genie: “…okay, so I’m gonna disappear forever after this, are you absolutely sure this is what you want?”Youngest Sister: “Did I fucking stutter?”—
Proceed to punchline at your own pace.
The best part, of course, is doing the physical comedy while telling the joke.
I liked his show. Wish it ran longer.
It wasn’t the jokes he told it was the way he told them.
That’s what made the Airplane movies so appealing to me. Most of the jokes were broad, low-hanging fruit Dad jokes, but it was how they were delivered that made me laugh. “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley” is a corny joke delivered by a (formerly) dramatic actor as if it was a dramatic line meant to be taken seriously, that’s why it’s so friggin’ funny.
You laugh three times: first at the dumb joke, then at yourself for laughing at the dumb joke, and then at the fact that they made the joke at all.Anyone onscreen laughing along, who’s “in on the gag”, throws a massive wrench in this process. Only Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles could overcome this through sheer force of charisma.
I read somewhere that the writer of the theme song was not told it was a comedy, which just adds to how funny the movie was.
I think for a movie like that you need a dramatic actor to pull it off. If they remade Airplane and James Corden was in it he’d friggin’ mug the camera with every joke, actors like that would be their zany/attention starved selves and not get that the movie was parodying serious disaster films and needs to be presented that way.
I knew someone with the surname Fish, and they were really fucking sensitive about that.
Was your friend portrayed by beloved character actor Abe Vigoda?
I knew one of Joey Buttafouco’s nephews, also named Joey Buttafouco. He was pretty quiet about it. Seeing his full name on an EMPLOYEE OF THE WEEK board still makes me giggle.
Norm never did get to come out the closet. Because as everybody knows, he was a deeply closeted homosexual man. He wasn’t gay, that needs to be said, he was just incredibly deeply closeted.
His wife’s a real battle ax, I hear
Ya dirty dog!
This is a 1935 radio show!
The thing with Norm is he could take the most unfunny joke no matter what it is and make it hilarious. That’s what made his comedy great.-d
I remember his OJ jokes quite well. Fred Goldmen got in a shouting match with OJ saying don’t give me that look. I wasn’t looking at you, your just mad I killed your son.
OJ jokes were the nadir of American comedy.
They were. We could have been spared them. It really is a shame that he killed his wife and a waiter.
One thing I came to admire about Norm Macdonald was the way he handled talk show host interruptions to some of his longer-form jokes. Not only did he not seem fazed by it, he dealt with them in a good natured way, even tending to respond with additional off-the-cuff jokes before seamlessly resuming the original joke.
It helped that the people interrupting him were also great with comic timing. I’ve been binging videos of his appearances like everyone else and the appearances on Conan and Letterman are so much funnier because they know the right moment to break in and have just the right amount of incredulity.
“Norm Macdonald didn’t present himself like the tortured artist who bore his soul to the audience. He wasn’t a soothsayer or a martyr, a free-speech crusader or a social justice warrior. He was simply a comedian, one who knew how to make people laugh with the slightest nudge, the mere suggestion of a pause.”Norm is one of many comedians that has widespread appeal to different audiences, and many try to claim him as one of their own. For any ideology to use an example to prove he’s on their side, I can think of a million counterarguments. This is a good summation of who he was as a comedian.
Yep. He liked busting balls, and could do so in such a way that he could turn people. Any balls.
how did Norm die? You guessed it:
Norm wrote them. All of them (I hope).
I believe he had a small team of a lot of the same guys that helped him with Weekend Update.
God, that’s terrible. And I like Norm MacDonald, mostly.
To be a good comedian, you have to have a good amount of intelligence. More smarts than the average person. That’s what allows you to see concepts, interactions, life situations from different POVs and can find the humor in it necessary to perform the craft well. Norm’s smarts though go well beyond what’s necessary. His intellect helped him master every aspect of comedy. He could see every point of view. He understood delivery. He understood crafting. He understood that performance like a simple, awkward pause could be the key to making the whole joke work. A long crafted bit from writing or an in the moment quip, it didn’t matter. He could do it all. That’s his genius. He just operated at a level that even the top people in his craft weren’t at. He was just built different.
Nor did he deliver jokes that were so intentionally stupid, dull, or offensive that they only appealed to the back of the room.Except for when he famously did just that.
“You can’t hear laughter through a TV screen.”I think you mean that the performer in the studio can’t hear the laughter of people watching TV at home, but for what it’s worth we do indeed have the technological capacity to record and transmit the sound of laughter. Unless you meant that you literally can’t hear laughter through a TV screen, in which case you’re technically correct. You hear laughter through the speakers.
I think they meant that the viewers laughter couldn’t be heard by the guy who thought he wasn’t funny.
He meant that a TV screen did not act as a mic through which the SNL producers could hear viewers’ laughter
I loved how Norm could take incredibly dark subject matter and make it very straight-forward, even if it was from his personal life.
During Chris Farley’s final SNL appearance, he was an out-of-control nightmare behind-the-scenes. Tina Fey’s first thought when she met him for the first time was, “This guy’s gonna die.” So Norm calls up Artie Lange and asks him to keep an eye on Farley during SNL’s weekly after-party.
(Yes, everyone seemed to realize how messed up it was for Artie Lange, of all people, to make sure someone wasn’t using drugs, but I digress).
The after-party comes. Artie sees Chris disappear into a bathroom with Andy Dick. They come out five minutes later, giggling to themselves. Norm walks up and Artie tells him, “Chris just went into a bathroom with Andy Dick. There are only two reasons a man would go into a bathroom with Andy Dick. And neither one is good.”
And Norm says, “Holy fuck, I hope he’s high!”
Before I read the next paragraph, the “Artie Lange watching Chris Farley” was literally a spit-take. Jeez, it did get that out of hand before the end. Classic Norm joke, though. Also, screw you Andy Dick, you unfunny fucking hack.
Artie himself acknowledged what a Godzilla threshold that was. He even admitted he was on coke at the party.
Seriously, Farley’s last SNL is hard to watch. He’s visibly sweating and out of breath in several skits. He had the complexion of wet cardboard. He apparently harassed Jim Breuer, demanding to know where his stash of marijuana was hidden in his office. Sounded like a nightmare.
That got an an actual laugh out loud from me.
Can someone explain the joke? What’s the other possibility?
Can someone explain the joke? What’s the other possibility?That they were having sex.
FTR, blow all the guys in bathrooms you want, folks. No judgment.
But not Andy Dick. Gotta have some standards.
So a gay panic joke?
Nah, an Andy Dick joke. You’re focusing on the wrong end of the stick.
An Andy Dick panic joke.
Andy Dick’s the biggest slut this side of the solar system.
Andy Dick really is the angel of death for comedians, isn’t he?
My all time favorite non-OJ joke by Norm on Weekend Update:
In other showbiz news, it is reported that superstar Madonna is pregnant. Although, personally, I find this a bit hard to believe. I mean, uh… Madonna isn’t even married! It’s like…crazy!
I’ll always remember his bit about how a lot of serial killers who get caught is because of stupid mistakes and how he’d go about it if he were going to kill someone and get away with it, which for many is uncomfortable a subject as it is and early on, you’re initially expecting some big punchline at the end but then he goes gets wrapped up in details like staking out where they work or goto the gym and what they like to eat, hypothetically grilled cheese sandwiches and that he’d have a bag of grilled cheese sandwiches in which to tempt his victim with, with the promise of having a van filled with grilled cheese sandwiches if they would come with him.At that point, you’re hooked. You already have a big shit-eating grin on your face due to how ridiculous this is and can’t wait to see where this goes next just to be smacked with an abrupt end.That is the genius that was Norm McDonald.God, I’ll miss that man.
He’s right though. I use to watch a lot of Dateline NBC and other murder docs, and it’s always amazed me, way before I heard that joke, how bad murderers are at disposing of bodies, which is a really important part of getting away with murder.
I mean, there’s people who can’t hide a body in a Florida swamp fer chrissakes.
Sample bias.
Sample bias.I guess, since they mostly (but not always) show people who get caught, but still.
Except Carol Baskin. Why would she feed her husband to her tigers when a bunch of gators would pulverize him bones and all?!
Remember, we only know about the ones who get caught. There are plenty of pros out there who are good at their job and we never hear about them.
You don’t even have to have any cheese sandwiches!
The shallow grave bit…
I was quite a latecomer to Norm Macdonald, but my God I adored his work. He was just as good at doing silly Weekend Update one liners as he was doing a long winded set up to an old fashioned joke, genuinely commenting on real issues in a wry, smirking way, or telling the darkest, filthiest jokes imaginable (not to mention he was an underrated impressionist).As I was too young to see him in his SNL glory days, I best know him from Norm Macdonald Live, which still to this provided me with some of the most painful laughter in my life. He has such an incredible way with words and knew when to sound eloquent, when to sound stupid, and when to talk like some kind of wise old Boat Captain. His telling of the Dirty Johnny joke to Stephen Merchant is like watching an absolute master performing at the height of their game.I honestly can’t believe he was still doing career best work and constantly working even after the cancer diagnosis, but it just adds to the awe surrounding his talent and career. The guy was sick for nine years, kept it to himself, and just kept on working because laughter was all he ever wanted from his audience. What a hero.
His SuperDave voice is spot on.
I’d say his legendary bit at the Roast certainly qualifies as anti-comedy.
I’d say it falls a hair shy because he told the tamest jokes imaginable in a place where you’re specifically expected to tell the meanest ones. That adds an extra layer of straightforward bait-and-switch humor beyond the normal “you thought I was going to be funny but I wasn’t” anti-comedy thing.
Norm Macdonald was like second hand pot smoke. It doesn’t hit you at first, but when it permeates the air for awhile, everybody’s laughing non-stop. And Norm would probably make a joke of it: “Now that pot is legal in California, parents will have a new way to keep their baby happy.” RIP Norm.
It’s because he didn’t give a fuck. He talked at length once on a Tom Green internet show (waaaaay ahead of its time, btw) about how he LOVED boos and bombing in front of a crowd. And it was one of the few real genuine moments where you saw Norm as himself. He’s a genius, with all the mental health and negative qualities of being a genius, and instead of trying to improve the world through other means, he decided to make himself laugh. And we’re better for it.
I saw Norm in a small community theatre in British Columbia. Throughout his entire set he held a cigarette and lighter. While he was going through his material he would bring the cigarette to his mouth and come real close to lighting it. You could sense the audience getting real nervous about it. Just when you’d think he would light it, he would pull the cigarette away and continue with his act. He did this all night long. Genius.
“Norm Macdonald hated anti-comedy”
Bull fucking shit.
Have you SEEN his act? Have you seen his roast appearances?
You think he didn’t dig into those jokes FULLY expecting a resounding silence to follow? Jesus…
I can’t stop laughing at his ‘welders mask’ joke. It is so unbelievably twisted and imaginative.
The moth joke on Conan was pretty funny, especially because Conan seems to delight in these drawn-out gags (like Paul Rudd constantly showing Mac & Me). But I watched one of those “best of” clips on Norm, and it all seemed like him setting up something benign then uttering something crude and harsh. Set, set, set…”You all know Michael Jackson is a homosexual pedophile, right?” Set, set, set…”O. J murdered his wife and a waiter.” Set, set…“Michael Jackson plans to fornicate with his baby if it’s a boy.” It wasn’t witty.
all seemed like him setting up something benign then uttering something crude and harsh. That’s exactly what it was. You wouldn’t see the line coming that way.
I’ve only ever seen him from one Matthew Perry sketch about a Sarcasm 101 class in the 90s, and he was easily and by far the worst part of the bit. He seemed to be having the time of his life, though, so good for him.