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Every few weeks, I hunt YouTube for Norm Macdonald material I haven't seen yet. I've been doing this for a few years now. My family usually responds with an eye

by lqet 5y ago

Every few weeks, I hunt YouTube for Norm Macdonald material I haven't seen yet. I've been doing this for a few years now. My family usually responds with an eye-rolling "OK..." when I want to imitate one of his long routines, but I had great success over the years with his moth joke [0] and the professor of logic joke [1]. Last week, I wanted to look up some details about his SNL dismissal on Wikipedia and skimming over the article I suddenly realized that some personal details about him were now written in the past tense. RIP. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxD3pT8C9-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxD3pT8C9-A [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oseqh7SMIvo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oseqh7SMIvo

jancsika 5y ago
> his moth joke [0] and the professor of logic joke [1] You may already know this, but those are his versions of old street jokes. Comedians often fill time with short street jokes that have been told for decades (often to connect between longer bits), but Norm is one of the few who decided he would stretch one to fill an entire interview. He also filled an entire Comedy Central Roast appearance with mundane jokes that he took from one of those silly "101 Jokes" books. Many of the jokes were so out of date they made puns on tech that is no longer used (like some joke that depended on the audience understanding that "Underwood" was a popular typewriter company back in the day.) Somewhat related-- there's a video somewhere of Andy Kaufman essentially throwing an entire Saturday Night Live audition. He does a nervous recitation of a long, shitty monologue based on lyrics from a crappy 70s pop song, repeats it twice (making exactly the same mistakes each time), then recites the opening to the old Superman tv show in a purposely bad southern accent. Norm obviously did his pranks in an attempt to entertain an audience, but I cannot figure out what Kaufman's motive was in his audition. In any case, I found it hilarious and Norm was obviously greatly influenced by a lot of Kaufman's stuff.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  > a video somewhere of Andy Kaufman essentially throwing an entire Saturday Night Live audition https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjXZUKUQEk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjXZUKUQEk I mean, aside from the obvious end-of-sentence punches, the southern accent isn't that bad. Especially for someone who grew up in NYC and Boston(?).
- mewse-hn 5y ago
  I recently watched norm talking to tom green about his disastrous "the view" appearance (which I then looked up, it was definitely something) but at the end he said he loves bombing during stand-up. I'm not sure any comedian other than norm loved bombing.
murat124 5y ago
Norm had a way of telling jokes. He usually inserted himself into jokes and told them as they were stories from his life. Plus he was an expert at turning silly jokes to great ones and improvizing. For example, the Swedish-German Andy Richter joke[1] where you can see the moment he decided to seize an opportunity to turn something not-funny into funny. I'll miss his way of storytelling and delivery. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv67QgVSqkk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv67QgVSqkk
- newsbinator 5y ago
  They address this in Conan’s retrospective about Norm. Andy was very uncomfortable about that joke because he didn’t want being gay to be a subject of ridicule, and he didn’t know how to face the gay crew members on the show, or gay friends and family, after making fun of the mere fact somebody could be gay. At first I didn’t emphasize because the value of Norm MacDonald is that anything is fair game in the service of comedy and entertainment. But now I get it. For Norm it was an improv bit in the middle of a “standup” bit on some show he was taping. For Andy it was an externally-imposed combo of ruined relationships, happening in the middle of his 9-5 entertainment industry career. Both sides are valid, and I say this as someone who’s lovingly absorbed every Norm clip there is.
pwdisswordfish0 5y ago
>I had great success over the years with his moth joke [0] and the professor of logic joke Have you tried the Dirty Johnny "but in this one, he isn't dirty" joke?
silisili 5y ago
If you haven't already seen it... here's every episode of NML. I can just go through these over and over and always laughing. I miss him. https://archive.org/details/Norm_Macdonald_Live/Norm+Macdonald+Live+-+S01E01+-+Norm+Macdonald+with+Guest+Super+Dave+Osborne.mp4 https://archive.org/details/Norm_Macdonald_Live/Norm+Macdona...

by lqet 5y ago

jancsika 5y ago

> his moth joke [0] and the professor of logic joke [1] You may already know this, but those are his versions of old street jokes. Comedians often fill time with short street jokes that have been told for decades (often to connect between longer bits), but Norm is one of the few who decided he would stretch one to fill an entire interview. He also filled an entire Comedy Central Roast appearance with mundane jokes that he took from one of those silly "101 Jokes" books. Many of the jokes were so out of date they made puns on tech that is no longer used (like some joke that depended on the audience understanding that "Underwood" was a popular typewriter company back in the day.) Somewhat related-- there's a video somewhere of Andy Kaufman essentially throwing an entire Saturday Night Live audition. He does a nervous recitation of a long, shitty monologue based on lyrics from a crappy 70s pop song, repeats it twice (making exactly the same mistakes each time), then recites the opening to the old Superman tv show in a purposely bad southern accent. Norm obviously did his pranks in an attempt to entertain an audience, but I cannot figure out what Kaufman's motive was in his audition. In any case, I found it hilarious and Norm was obviously greatly influenced by a lot of Kaufman's stuff.

ethbr0 5y ago
> a video somewhere of Andy Kaufman essentially throwing an entire Saturday Night Live audition https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjXZUKUQEk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oMjXZUKUQEk I mean, aside from the obvious end-of-sentence punches, the southern accent isn't that bad. Especially for someone who grew up in NYC and Boston(?).
mewse-hn 5y ago
I recently watched norm talking to tom green about his disastrous "the view" appearance (which I then looked up, it was definitely something) but at the end he said he loves bombing during stand-up. I'm not sure any comedian other than norm loved bombing.

murat124 5y ago

Norm had a way of telling jokes. He usually inserted himself into jokes and told them as they were stories from his life. Plus he was an expert at turning silly jokes to great ones and improvizing. For example, the Swedish-German Andy Richter joke[1] where you can see the moment he decided to seize an opportunity to turn something not-funny into funny. I'll miss his way of storytelling and delivery. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv67QgVSqkk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv67QgVSqkk

newsbinator 5y ago
They address this in Conan’s retrospective about Norm. Andy was very uncomfortable about that joke because he didn’t want being gay to be a subject of ridicule, and he didn’t know how to face the gay crew members on the show, or gay friends and family, after making fun of the mere fact somebody could be gay. At first I didn’t emphasize because the value of Norm MacDonald is that anything is fair game in the service of comedy and entertainment. But now I get it. For Norm it was an improv bit in the middle of a “standup” bit on some show he was taping. For Andy it was an externally-imposed combo of ruined relationships, happening in the middle of his 9-5 entertainment industry career. Both sides are valid, and I say this as someone who’s lovingly absorbed every Norm clip there is.

pwdisswordfish0 5y ago

>I had great success over the years with his moth joke [0] and the professor of logic joke Have you tried the Dirty Johnny "but in this one, he isn't dirty" joke?

silisili 5y ago

If you haven't already seen it... here's every episode of NML. I can just go through these over and over and always laughing. I miss him. https://archive.org/details/Norm_Macdonald_Live/Norm+Macdonald+Live+-+S01E01+-+Norm+Macdonald+with+Guest+Super+Dave+Osborne.mp4 https://archive.org/details/Norm_Macdonald_Live/Norm+Macdona...