Norm Macdonald Returns to Television!

Honestly it’s boring as fuck

True question; why analyze everything to death?

Cuz it’s fun

Judging from some of the internet comments, the alt right people who think Norm is somehow "one of them" are remarkably humorless.

Does it make you laugh ? If not find something else.

Norm doesn't make me laugh, because I never see him practicing his comedy, other than some very stupid unfunny KFC commercials he did in the past couple of years. But when someone is quoted on ILX making very ignorant and insensitive comments about very serious issues, it doesn't matter much whether they are funny at other times. Ignorant or insensitive comments aren't ignorant or insensitive because they are not "pc", but because the person making them is ignorant or insensitive. It is just that simple.

Old me would have pointed out the weirdness of declaring Norm's never having seen Nannette yet deigning to criticize it anyway a clear sign of unforgivable insensitive sexist arrogance on the one hand while proudly declaring complete ignorance of anything Norm has done in the last 20 years "but fuck him anyway, he and I know what he was doing" as perhaps not the best of of looks.

The first sentence made me laugh and I like the challops that follows:

When I was a kid, if I’d heard Red Skelton talking about the government I would’ve thought, This is fucking weird. To me, it hurts the comedy any time anything real creeps into it. I know people have different thoughts. I keep hearing how great Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks and Mort Sahl are. People have their own taste, but to me, all three of those people are just shit. They’re not comedians in my mind.

Oh yeah I agree with him about Lenny Bruce fwiw. Maybe there was something that felt salient about him at the time that just doesn't age well, but I never actually enjoyed Lenny Bruce. In a way I think he may have been just the inverse of today's PC comic -- edgy and challenging but not actually that good at just making you laugh?

Bill Hicks, too. I bought a couple of his CDs b/c certain people I knew swore by him. They weren't terrible but my main thought was "I really haven't laughed for a long time, wtf is going on here"

I think Norm's otm when it comes to the comedian needing to believe he's the smartest guy in the room. I've seen Aziz and Louie live and they were both pretty good but it definitely nags at you the way they try to do these long, tortured philosophical routines and then also try to sell dumb jokes that don't really work because the rest of the show is on a different level. With Norm you don't really have that problem. The fact that Norm's kind of a shit philosopher and has underdeveloped political views is what makes the comedy work. In that Vulture interview you can tell he's got some sort of belief system but he essentially acknowledges that it doesn't really hold up to any real scrutiny.

Hicks and Bruce I find very hard to take outside their historical relevance, but I laughed a fair amount listening to this Mort Sahl record I found.

Before 1962 or so, Bruce is very funny. Perhaps not "consistently," but few are.

definitely agree about Bill Hicks

hicks good to read, terrible to listen to or watch imo

hicks good to read, terrible to listen to or watch imo

This is maybe 80% of all standup/sketch comedy for me

Otm

How much does a comedian need to be political, ask that to you fine folks. I like escapism at times cuz the world is tough but is that a pre req

in this particular moment it seems fairly important

I used to listen to a lot of stand-up from like 2002-2004, back then it was kinda weird when stand-up sets didn't mention 9/11 in some way. I know Norm is bemoaning late night hosts having to do a lot of anti-Trump political comedy now, but what else are you supposed to be talking about right now? Trump has been the biggest news story in the country every single day for the last 3 years.

Fair

I know Norm is bemoaning late night hosts having to do a lot of anti-Trump political comedy now, but what else are you supposed to be talking about right now? Trump has been the biggest news story in the country every single day for the last 3 years.

Comedians can comment on literally any aspect of human existence. Why are they obligated to comment on the news, is the question, and "they just are" is not really a helpful answer.

i love norm, but dismissing mort sahl as "not really a comedian" is risibly ignorant -- sahl's style was not at all similar to hicks or later bruce, and norm throwing him in the list makes me think he's either ever never listened to him or just dislikes political comedy that he doesn't agree with

I think the real issue is that we live in an era with an unprecedented volume of commentary on the president -- twitter, facebook, 24 hour cable news, every level of news and blogsite, etc., and when it comes to Trump, EVERYONE has a take, something "funny" to say, etc. So it's kind of unreasonable to expect a comedian to just have even more to say about such an overtrodden subject just because it happens to be "important."

disagree even with that.

it simply isnt a necessary part of the brief

xxp tbf to Norm, he wouldn't be the first to throw Sahl and Bruce together. Sahl, Bruce, Hicks at least all pieces of Maronicana.

Where are you people reading your stand-up comedy

Bruce and Sahl bits appear back-to-back in the anthology The Cool School (which was gifted to me because I am not cool, I guess)

the argument has changed from "late night talk show hosts talk about the news" which is mostly true but also not a new development to "stand-up comedians all talk about the news" which is insanely untrue

also where are you people all reading sketch comedy?

x-post but more salient!

(I've read a couple hundred pages of Bruce, heard a few seconds, seen no footage)

ive a hicks collection of routines i picked up somewhere way back when

Anyone like the norm show? It’s funny

Comedians can comment on literally any aspect of human existence. Why are they obligated to comment on the news, is the question, and "they just are" is not really a helpful answer.

I'm talking about late night talk show hosts here - for example I don't think Jimmy Kimmel's show was all that political until recently

stand-ups, yeah, you can talk about whatever

reading an entire book of standup routines sounds insanely boring

lenny bruce did write an actual book which is pretty funny, iirc

now that I think about it, Stewart Lee's annotated book of his routines is actually pretty good (but it's the additional commentary that makes it interesting)

the hicks book had early and evolving versions of the routines which was interesting

'squilgee your third eye'

Jane Fonda was so dope

omg the bit where he pretends to read from david spade's memoir had me rolling

hicks has said some truth bombs but as comedian hardly anyone beats delirious/raw era murphy

Raw is trash.

youre trash

^he says, borrowing Trump's favorite playground retort. Subtle irony?

i mean i dont mean it literally

sic is a homie but u kno its just tastes

Eighties Eddie Murphy specials are phenomenally funny

Raw has Umfufu and the McDonald’s bit, fuck outta here

thas wassup

ha but newayz

i just finished watching the first episode of the norm show and it is p entertaining

learned abt hybrid hookerz and skeet

Jane Fonda episode really is magical

was referring to the norm macdonald has a show show

had no idea he had a show called "the norm show" in 1999

that had exactly one funny thing in it, but I remember that thing after 19 years: Norm tying a carpet swiffer to a sausage dog in order to avoid cleaning under coffee tables.

I remember the joke from the Norm Show where he couldn’t do something because of his old war injury, and Laurie Metcalf was like “I didn’t know you were in Vietnam” and Norm is like “No, the card game, War”