Norm McDonald: "Bill Hicks and Mort Sahl are Shit"

[MortSahlFan]

Or, if you appeal to 70%, maybe it's a triumph for good taste? There's nothing more I can't stand when a performer looks down on the audience..

[McChesney Duntz]

For whatever it's worth, it's not as if Mort Sahl or Bill Hicks didn't/don't have their own pretty harsh assessments of what they consider(ed) their own comedic lessers.

[BeardFaceMan]

The Hicks stuff was part of something Norm said in the interview in the OP about bringing politics and social commentary into comedy. His statement on anti-comedy was made at a different time, on twitter. He only mentioned Kaufman in the latter.

After reading that twitter essay and then seeing him describe Hicks as "shit" and "not a comedian" I don't think its a stretch to assume he thinks that what Hicks did was anti-comedy.

[Sin Agog]

He seemed pretty complimentary of Russell Brand's stand-up in that NML they did, and his way of dealing with serious shit is to say it extra-quickly to mask the fact that he's not even trying to tell jokes anymore.  Though I guess Norm did call Brand out for lauding Hicks and Bruce at one point.

Anyway, at risk of him calling me out on misusing the word like he did with Corden, I couldn't be more nonplussed by anything he says in print interviews at this point.  Norm may be kind of retrogressive and socially adrift, but he's a funny fellow.  Was genuinely harrowed at how broken down and beaten up he sounded in that Stern interview.  He could barely even piece together that Kermit Jagger joke at the end.  People need to stop being so heavily invested in other people's glib, work-in-progress opinions.

[MortSahlFan]

He seemed pretty complimentary of Russell Brand's stand-up in that NML they did, and his way of dealing with serious shit is to say it extra-quickly to mask the fact that he's not even trying to tell jokes anymore.  Though I guess Norm did call Brand out for lauding Hicks and Bruce at one point.

Anyway, at risk of him calling me out on misusing the word like he did with Corden, I couldn't be more nonplussed by anything he says in print interviews at this point.  Norm may be kind of retrogressive and socially adrift, but he's a funny fellow.  Was genuinely harrowed at how broken down and beaten up he sounded in that Stern interview.  He could barely even piece together that Kermit Jagger joke at the end.  People need to stop being so heavily invested in other people's glib, work-in-progress opinions.

I think Norm only complimented Brand because he isn't funny, and not a threat... Of course, he says that about Mort Sahl, because he revolutionized comedy, and Bill Hicks, who was been revered by many.

[up_the_hampipe]

I think Norm only complimented Brand because he isn't funny, and not a threat... Of course, he says that about Mort Sahl, because he revolutionized comedy, and Bill Hicks, who was been revered by many.

I doubt he sees them as a threat either. Hicks is long dead and Mort Sahl is, well, Mort Sahl.