Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

RIP Norm Macdonald

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    RIP Norm Macdonald

    My all-time favorite SNL 'news' guy and all around amazing comedian, after a 10-year battle with cancer. Fuck.

    #2
    Really sad to hear this. We used to tape the Norm Show because it was on in the middle of the night and then watch it at lunchtime.

    We still laugh about Billy who stole a comb.

    "Well, Billy, I might be a disgraced ex-hockey player who was banned from the sport and sent to prison for betting on my team's performance, but you stole, Billy! You stole a... comb!? Oh well, come back when you stab someone."

    And wiener dogs were never the same again.
    Last edited by Patrick Thistle; 15-09-2021, 15:25.

    Comment


      #3
      Ah, that sucks. I always loved his stand up especially. A real original. I didn't know he was sick.

      Comment


        #4
        Nobody did, apparently. He kept it quiet.

        Comment


          #5
          He didn't look great in recent years, but obviously no one knew he was sick.

          Such a unique comedic voice, there really was no one else out there like him.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
            Ah, that sucks. I always loved his stand up especially. A real original. I didn't know he was sick.
            If that's a nod to his bit about Hitler being dead then bravo.

            I'm beginning to think that this cancer is a real jerk.

            RIP Norm Macdonald.

            Comment


              #7
               

              Comment


                #8
                A great shame. On the 'battle with cancer' thing - a phrase I've never liked - Norm had this to say https://twitter.com/byDavidGardner/status/1437850987155361795?s=19

                Comment


                  #9
                  A write up in Variety
                  https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/nor...kes-1235064624

                  Makes the good point that he tended to zag where others zigged. Also contains some funny links.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I was reading on another forum that his book is very funny:

                    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...api_tkin_p1_i0

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Better Than Ezra even tweeted their condolences.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Not a name that meant anything to me but the Daytona Tortugas play-by-play announcer cut through the game last night saying how much Norm and his comedy meant to him and his family.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I didn't know him by name, but recognised his face as Larry Sander's guest (along with Henry Winkler) when Hank's sex tape has been leaked.

                          I started watching some clips that people had posted, very very funny https://twitter.com/PrayForPatrick/status/1437859870120849412

                          and the 'Moth joke' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3LMSflEN54

                          https://twitter.com/SamFishell/status/1437861579874177026 an excerpt from Norm's book, about Rodney Dangerfield.

                          https://twitter.com/georgiatwiss/status/1437858683715604481 congratulating Conan, six months too late

                          https://twitter.com/BillyCorben/status/1437869517573603329 coming back to host SNL, having been sacked by the network a year before and giving this monologue.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            If I'm having a bad day, I'll go rewatch his SNL 'shitting on OJ' clip collections....the thing that apparently lost him the job.


                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SSVIg4Noqc
                            Last edited by WOM; 15-09-2021, 13:15.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              From The Ringer

                              I did this joke in which I showed that picture of the girl running away from napalm in Vietnam. I said, “In gossip news, Woody Allen’s dating again.” Lorne told me not to do it, and I told him he was wrong, that people would like it. Then I did it in dress rehearsal and there was this insane audience reaction that went on for two minutes: hate. I was completely wrong.
                              By God, I would have loved to be in the room when he did that.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                "In Nebraska, a man was sentenced for killing a female crossdresser [sic] who had accused him of rape and two of her friends. Excuse me if this sounds harsh, but in my mind, they all deserved to die."

                                Right back atcha, Norm!

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Yeah, that's awful.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by delicatemoth View Post
                                    "In Nebraska, a man was sentenced for killing a female crossdresser [sic] who had accused him of rape and two of her friends. Excuse me if this sounds harsh, but in my mind, they all deserved to die."

                                    Right back atcha, Norm!
                                    Christ, that's horrific.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      He deliberately went to some dark places. On Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee he starts talking about the Bill Cosby rape allegations and the reactions of other comedians to it, and how inane they have been. He makes jokes about what they said but it was borderline.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by RobW View Post
                                        I didn't know him by name, but recognised his face as Larry Sander's guest (along with Henry Winkler) when Hank's sex tape has been leaked.
                                        Same here. What an episode that was, one of the best in the best-ever series.

                                        That cross-dressing 'joke' is fucking horrible.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          He was asked by Slate about jokes he made about Caitlyn Jenner

                                          I think the ambivalence had more to do with jokes you’ve made about transgender people.

                                          Yeah, the other thing was a joke about Caitlyn Jenner which, as a matter of fact, was a joke I’d deliberately left out of the Netflix special. It wasn’t much of a joke really, and it’s weird when you have to explain jokes that aren’t that funny. The joke was about how everyone was saying Caitlyn Jenner is beautiful, but she’s not really beautiful. In that joke, I went to great lengths to say you should love Caitlyn Jenner and accept her, but you don’t have to pretend she’s beautiful. There’s no reason to do that. That was the entire point of the joke. It was pretty weak. So I won’t do those jokes anymore. Which is fine, because the reason I didn’t do the joke on the special is because I came to an understanding that other people came to much sooner than I did.

                                          Which is what?

                                          Which is that a lot of people are idiots. You don’t want to have a joke be misunderstood and then someone goes and beats up a trans person.

                                          So are you stopping telling jokes about transgender people because you want to avoid those jokes being misinterpreted or because you’ve reached the conclusion that those jokes are offensive?

                                          I’m worried that someone might get hurt, not offended. I know other comedians that go, “If the joke is funny, I don’t care if someone gets beat up.” I don’t care if the whole world laughs: If someone gets beat up over a joke of mine, what was the point of doing it? Really it’s my own fault if someone had ambiguity or felt any pain on behalf of my jokes. That means I didn’t communicate the joke clearly or properly.
                                          https://slate.com/culture/2017/06/no...x-special.html

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Yeah, that's not right.

                                            I think the point of that joke is that it's just beyond dark and awful. It doesn't make as much sense in print.

                                            A big part of his SNL schtick was to play a guy who delivered very dark and mean comments with an upbeat delivery. That was the joke. It wore a bit thin after a while. I don't know how much of that was his real personality. I suspect not much. Because somebody like that couldn't function in society. But it wasn't all an act. Edit: But as PT's post notes, he did care about how people interpreted what he said.

                                            Obviously, crossdresser is not ok, but that wasn't widely understood then and the prevalence of anti-trans violence wasn't well known then (or now). The gender identity of the victims doesn't really matter to the "joke" either.

                                            This is one of the reasons why SNL has tried - and needs to keep trying - to diversify its writing room. If it's all just white guys from Harvard Lampoon and drunk improv people from Chicago, they're less likely to know how something like that would be received by the broader audience.
                                            Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 15-09-2021, 16:23.

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Later in the Slate piece the interviewer questions his actions after a previous interview when he followed up to say that some stuff he said was "in character".

                                              He also came across as ambivalent about Trump in that piece. Although his comment about right wingers being more entertaining may have had something to it.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Almost all of Norm's stuff was 'in character' to a large degree. It wasn't a character that had a name or a funny voice, but it was always earnestly obtuse. Watch him on any of the 'talk show' clips, especially Conan, and he's just out there doing one long bit. There's no level of 'sincere Norm' in there, but that's not the point of what he does.

                                                Watch the Bob Saget roast where he does his entire spot ''clean' instead of the accepted 'as filthy as you want'. It's clearly missing the audience, but he doubles down on it and they finally figure out what he's doing.

                                                If you watch Mitch Hedberg's early stuff, you hear the audience just not getting his thing. His structures were so different, they didn't recognize the beats. But then they start figuring out the cadence and start laughing more.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  I know about 'going to dark places' and offensive comedy, I used to like Bill Hicks and I like It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Oglaf and Perry Bible Fellowship. But there's a thing about professional comedy, and in particular professional comedians.

                                                  If, as happened last night, some schmuck I've never heard of dies, and a load of people are going "oh, he was a great comedian", I can go and do a web search with the search terms "[name] transphobia", and be 95% certain something will come up. It's usually an attempt at an actual joke rather than Norm's blank statement of hate, mind. Often to do with how hilariously ugly trans people are, compared to pricks with a microphone. Oh, Norm did those as well, it turns out. Versatile. "The joke was about how everyone was saying Caitlyn Jenner is beautiful, but she’s not really beautiful. In that joke, I went to great lengths to say you should love Caitlyn Jenner and accept her, but you don’t have to pretend she’s beautiful. There’s no reason to do that." No-one has to love Caitlyn Jenner, she's appalling. A man making a joke about a woman being ugly though, that's groundbreaking comedy. More money for Norm.

                                                  One consequence of this is that I generally dislike comedy - particularly stand-up - as a form. If a cis person recommends a comedian to me I will quietly bin it and ignore them. This also applies to comedy films, especially those from the 80s and 90s. They come with an assumed 'Enter At Your Own Risk' sign. These fuckers can't stay away, they can't help themselves.

                                                  What really struck me, though, was that while I was looking him up I also came across his 'Woody Allen is dating again' joke. He described how the audience projected "pure, crazy hate" at him when he told it. Because he could make a comment about how a 21-year old hate-murder victim and his friends deserved it, and no-one would blink, but if he picks on Woody Allen... People are terrible and that's not and wasn't Norm MacDonald's fault, but please don't tell me he was trying to hold up a mirror to society's hatred of trans people or doing some complicated character comedy, cos he wasn't. He was getting a cheap laugh out of it, for profit.

                                                  I mentioned It's Always Sunny. Imo, comedians should look at this programme, which is about a group of truly horrible people being horrible to each other and everyone else they encounter, and how it handles potentially sensitive and obnoxious material. Because it does it really well.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X