NORM FUCKING MACDONALD

"I didn't even know he was sick" loool

Dude had a pretty big rep among stand up comedians and they all seem to have at least one wild and weird story about Norm McDonald. Like some other comedians, far to weird and crazy to actually cash in as going for the joke would derail many of his attempts in Hollywood etc.

One of my favorite things he did in TV/movies was his bit role with John Cullum playing Neil Flynn's brother and dad on The Middle. Those three should have been a show.

i *love* how much he loves to deliver that corny-ass punchline - weekend update, the saget roast, his panel appearances, everything

like there is a twinkle in his eye and a glee for just how terrible it is as he stares down the camera or the host or the audience, just locked in … and i could not love him more for like, just that quality alone.

it's his little archaic asides that slay me like in the Bob Saget roast where he says "Now Bob's no big fan of sports....I don't think I'm telling tales out of school here"

xp Yeah, his sense of humor always reminded me of a few guys I grew up with… that undercurrent of good-natured irony, like “I know this is dumb, and so do you, and that’s why it’s so great”

(which is what a lot of alt comedy is, but he didn’t bother playing it straight)

He was also super quick on his feet, as you can see in those clips where interrupts other guests on the Conan couch. We saw him perform in a club in SF, in the early 2000s, and I remember how effortlessly sharp his crowdwork was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n54L1Kx8apU

i loved the dostoevsky-esque names he gives the characters in his moth story, russian names he can hardly pronounce just make it that much more awkward

Watching the Conan clip where he calls Carrot Top a "retard." I don't think that would really fly these days

yeah idk if today's youths would really buy the concept of "carrot top"

lol

he still makes me laugh and obviously he was very gifted but ultimately i'm just not that into what his thing was anymore, the dadliest of dads but ironic. there's a whiff of masculine self-regard about his thing that i used to think was cool but now i just don't have time for or care for. maybe i just don't like any professional comedians at all idk. the r word or the occasional anti trans joke or whatever is part of that as were his politics. not pretending that there wasn't plenty of that on tv at the time, just saying that it isn't out of line with his persona. though it seems like he did soften as he got older, got more classicist with his jokes, lost some of the cool guy snark, but there was always a smidge of the reactionary in him.

as far as absurdist comedians go i much prefer mitch hedberg and if i were as old as i am now when he died i'd be really gutted about it.

even the stuff he wrote for other shows was gold

Norm MacDonald was a writer on Roseanne and he was responsible for Jackie's iconic "Dad's dead" moment, inspired by an experience in his own life. pic.twitter.com/nSflQ8d6qU

— Kevin Daly (@kevinddaly) September 14, 2021

Wow, I didn't know that

pic.twitter.com/jNzAvA6zWb

— mr. toilet (@boring_as_heck) September 14, 2021

His book was good. RIP.

xpost lmao god he was so good

Currently enjoying this Cameo from Norm someone uploaded to youtube. Norm was asked to wish someones dad a happy retirement, Norm ends up going on for 8 full minutes, tells an extremely longwinded dirty joke, and advises the dad to walk into the ocean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUH1G6j0RAQ

just saw this clip of the mangrate saga on his show and despite the presence of andy dick i completely lost my shit https://mikepepsi.tumblr.com/post/662346085393678336/norm-macdonald-kept-losing-sponsors-on-his-podcast

"Your Dad's alive?"

"No"

"Fuck!!"

"that's what makes english the world's toughest language"

"it is the toughest language? to me it's the easiest"

hahahaha that cameo is incredible

"you know what might be a good hobby for you, Richard? Ventriloquism."

"All I could see was the angry eyes of Alan Thicke."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhdV4vxpZSg

I love how all the SNL guys do impressions of each other.

its been a real joy seeing all these clips of Norm pop up on Twitter. there's so much I haven't seen, dude was so naturally hilarious that pretty much any random podcast appearance could be gold

the Bob Saget roast clip is blowing up again and as much as I love it, it's kind of weird to see it divorced from context - I actually watched it as it aired and Norm's set was 3x funnier when it followed an hours worth of comedians trying to out-Andrew Dice Clay each other

I love when he goes full Canadian in the Jacques de Gatineau and Kitchener Leslie stories.

frogbs otm re the Saget roast
the shift in gears was so jarring & great, and watching everyone else who had been up just losing it in the background

it reminded me, weirdly, of seeing Neil Hamburger open for Faith No More. The way the performer is doing something other than what the audience wants, and the highwire aspect of just seeing where that goes, when you know that bombing is part of the plan.

obv norm is a different performer. but it feels, passionately vaudevillian? to commit to a performance where there’s a good chance you are the only oerson enjoying it. like tiny tim. i dunno.

Neil Hamburger is actually a really good point of reference. Norm's roast reminds me of Neil's appearances on Jimmy Kimmel (which sadly seem to have vanished from the internet), where much of the audience is silent and clearly baffled and maybe even a little angry while a handful of people on panel are losing their shit.

Ladies and gentlemen, this man is for the birds vs Apparently they want to murder you in a well

Birds is the one I've attempted in the company of friends and my partner, to their bafflement.

hamburger at the FNM show was pretty incredible. i had seen him do standup before in a comedy club setting, and at a festival… it was wild to see him with an audience who had no frame of reference & did not get him at all, and to see how much hamburger loved it. like i would swear he got taller lol

meanwhile mr veg & I were max-cady-in-cape-fear-laughing from the back row

"There's no room that says scoundrel on it"

The solemn delivery absolutely kills me.

the Bob Saget roast clip is blowing up again and as much as I love it, it's kind of weird to see it divorced from context - I actually watched it as it aired and Norm's set was 3x funnier when it followed an hours worth of comedians trying to out-Andrew Dice Clay each other

Neil opening for FNM was so good

"Ladies and gentlemen, Faaaaaaaaaaaaaa-

-mous comedian, Neil Hamburger"

:D so good

my favorite was when he was opening for Tenacious D and he went “And now, I’m proud to introduce…….TENNNNNN more jokes!l” to a chorus of boos

great piece by Kaleb Horon in RS

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-features/norm-macdonald-tribute-appreciation-1226839/

latest episode of Conan's podcast is a tribute

lmao this clip just popped up on my feed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emUhplJxmD0

something I find interesting about Norm is that through all his shows, podcasts, talk show appearances, interviews etc. he was pretty much "on" as a comedian nonstop, barely stopped for a minute to say anything serious, and you could assume all his stories were at least partially made up. but on Twitter, at least the last few years, he was almost exclusively philosophical & matter of fact. for a lot of entertainers it's exactly the opposite.