Norm MacDonald has died

[Bernice]

Oh fuck. It makes sense I guess - he has looked a bit rough for a while now. What a loss though. Maybe the most naturally funny man who ever lived. Always made it seemed effortless, never made the wrong choice. Really do need to read his book.

[Deliciousbass]

i feel like watching his stuff really put me in touch with what made me fall in love with comedy as a kid. i grew up without religion but when comedy/art is that good i feel like what i'm feeling is spiritual.

[Hank Venture]

The most naturally funny man ever. Could make me laugh by saying a completely neutral sentence without any punchline, any semblance of a joke at all. Just pure comedy charisma.

[extraordinary walnuts]

Norm was one of those people who could make me laugh just by being on screen. Watched a random YouTube clip only last night of him as Burt Reynolds on Celebrity Jeopardy and I can't even recall now who else was in the sketch, I couldn't take my eyes off him the whole time.

Such a funny man. This is terrible news.

[ImmaculateClump]

Woah! Did not see that coming at all.
He was great. Effortlessly impish, and warm, happy to come across far dumber than he was, for laughs, which is always refreshing in a comic since they're usually scrabbling to convince you that they're way cleverer than they actually are :D

[Dusty Substance]

The outpouring of love on Twitter is really something.

It really is. Rather delightful to see.

When ever someone famous dies and there's an outpouring of love, I do often wonder if the departed person knew how loved they were - But in the case of Norm, pretty sure he knew. The very fact that guests on NML included Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler (neither of whom really do interviews any more), David Letterman (twice) and Larry King. Plus comedy legends like Carl Reiner and Fred Willard, and then Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase and Hollywood legend Jane Fonda on Norm MacDonald Has A Show, all showed how loved and respected Norm was.

[lankyguy95]

A few Twitter things for anyone who's interested:

@ConanOBrien
55m
I am absolutely devastated about Norm Macdonald. Norm had the most unique comedic voice I have ever encountered and he was so relentlessly and uncompromisingly funny. I will never laugh that hard again. I'm so sad for all of us today.

Jon Stewart
@jonstewart
·
1h
No one could make you break like Norm Macdonald. Hilarious and unique. Fuck cancer.

Seth MacFarlane
@SethMacFarlane
·
1h
To so many people in comedy, me included, there was nobody funnier than Norm MacDonald. You always hoped he would hang around after the work was done, just so you could hear his stories and get a laugh. So hilarious and so generous with his personality.  I'm gonna miss him.

Anthony Jeselnik
@anthonyjeselnik
·
1h
Battling cancer for 9 years without telling anyone is the most Norm Macdonald shit ever.

Artie Lange
@artiequitter
·
1h
I will miss you forever!@normmacdonald

[Indomitable Spirit]

genuinely laughed when I saw 98 year old Bob Dole leading the condolences on twitter. what a crazy world. hug your loved ones people.

[mr. logic]

Just remembered his whole riff on Ferguson's skeleton sidekick. Craig Ferguson grave robbing because of the unbearable stench. Can't find it on YouTube.

[checkoutgirl]

Looks like it's back to jerking off punks under the Queensboro bridge for 15 dollars a man for Adam Eget.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Could make me laugh by saying a completely neutral sentence without any punchline, any semblance of a joke at all.

Very well put. Across many aspects of life the threat of something happening is more powerful than the thing that happens. This feeds into the taboo/tourrettes giggling fits I brought up in my last post.

Norm seemed to have everyone around him primed so they were hair trigger sensitive to whatever he'd say, which itself lowered the bar for what he needed to say to get a laugh. But he only got to that point through selected moments.

[Small Potatoes]

Just remembered his amazing performance on My Name is Earl. Channeling Burt Reynolds as Chubby Junior, playing an asshole like only he could.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Steve O'Donnell who wrote many of the jokes for Norm Macdonald Live was a guest on a podcast in November last year discussing his comedy career. His affectionate comments about Macdonald about an hour and twenty minutes in mention unreleased bits that were filmed for Norm Macdonald Has a Show. They're also a touching tribute now:

Up until the lockdown I was doing little projects with Norm Macdonald and while we communicate, we haven't really been doing anything like podcasts, but I do look forward to when that kind of activity can come up again because that would be a subject for a whole other podcast - Norm Macdonald - because he's absolutely one of the most perfect delightful peculiar people that ever ever was.

I was only going to mention, we taped dozens of comedy bits for that show [Norm Macdonald has a Show] and then decided they didn't fit the format. I'm trying to think of some, that's one of the things I keep bothering Norm with, like let's put them out, let's just post them online, I don't even care about money, just get them on Youtube or something, or Dailymotion or some such you know, we just taped all these things and some of them are quite beautiful, but they decided they broke up the interviews and they didn't want to do that, but to me that would be like a lost episode of the Dana Carvey Show or something like that, just something that would be of interest to a certain number of lunatics like yourself.

He's a smart weird guy, who really thinks about things, and is really quick too and I would also say rather devilish. He likes making trouble. Not just for himself but for the people around him as well. I grew up with a big Catholic family and there's a certain amount of me that's sort of decently reticent and timid and easily blushes and stuff. So it was healthy for me to be around the Lettermans and the Kimmels and the Norm Macdonalds because all the teasing made you... it was much cheaper than psychotherapy and it got you to sort of relax into your own selfhood.

https://thewilderride.com/2020/11/03/twr-listeners-lounge-steve-odonnell/

[lankyguy95]

David Letterman
@Letterman
·
1m
In every important way, in the world of stand-up, Norm was the best.  An opinion shared by me and all peers.  Always up to something, never certain, until his matter-of-fact delivery leveled you.

I was always delighted by his bizarre mind and earnest gaze.  (I'm trying to avoid using the phrase, "twinkle in his eyes").  He was a lifetime Cy Young winner in comedy.  Gone, but impossible to forget.
Dave Letterman

[Dickie_Anders]

Such a unique and funny guy that anything you put him in becomes better and more interesting just by his presence. Even shite like Dirty Work or the Sandler movies he would crop up in, when he's on screen doing subpar material you still wanna laugh because you get the sense that he's just taking the absolute piss. Norm Macdonald Live was brilliant, the funniest and least fake-feeling talk show I've ever watched. RIP

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

One notable thing was his ability to extract laughs without telling a joke or even through setting up an anecdote or making an aside.

Something in the delivery, I feel. Upthread there's the Albert Fish clip and he manages to extract a laugh just by the flat, rather formal "African American", then enjoys playing around with that despite it cutting off mid-flow about the central topic. This is repeated in the "9/11" thing as well.

To me, perhaps I'm reading a little too much into it, but he seems to extract a kind of white guilt/taboo/tourrettes thing with the flat, deadpan delivery but- even better - because the person who is laughing knows it, and knows that even that conceit is in itself funny.

That's wonderful. A lot of 'sit around and chat shit' stuff turns me off and is very circle jerky but that is someone exquisitely talented.

I suppose it's similar to what Peter Cook used to do with Dud and various interviewees. A mutual contract: what I'm saying is wrong, but you and I understand that, and I defy you not to laugh.

I'm not a fan of lazy edgelord humour, and I'm aware that Norm had fans who were just a bunch of fucking imbeciles, but that's an inevitable byproduct of the sort of comedy he dealt in.

Norm never came across as a shallow, nihilstic provocateur, someone who would just say 'non-PC' things to get an audience onside. On the contrary, he always struck me as someone who primarily wanted to make people laugh while subverting expectations. I get the impression that he was a sensitive, intelligent man who had no truck with bigots, hypocrites, phonies and idiots.

[VelourSpirit]

Crestfallen. I can't even look at any clips of him now, it's just so sad

[Twit 2]

I suppose it's similar to what Peter Cook used to do with Dud and various interviewees. A mutual contract: what I'm saying is wrong, but you and I understand that, and I defy you not to laugh.

I'm not a fan of lazy edgelord humour, and I'm aware that Norm had fans who were just a bunch of fucking imbeciles, but that's an inevitable byproduct of the sort of comedy he dealt in.

Norm never came across as a shallow, nihilstic provocateur, someone who would just say 'non-PC' things to get an audience onside. On the contrary, he always struck me as someone who primarily wanted to make people laugh while subverting expectations. I get the impression that he was a sensitive, intelligent man who had no truck with bigots, hypocrites, phonies and idiots.

All very well put. Yeah, the way he dealt with those vacuous radio presenters in the clip up thread I posted is testament to that. Most people would get riled by their vacuousness and rudeness, but he just incorporated their approach and outclassed them to them extent they didn't even realise what was going on. Classy.

[Dusty Substance]

The most naturally funny man ever. Could make me laugh by saying a completely neutral sentence without any punchline, any semblance of a joke at all. Just pure comedy charisma.

On the Larry King episode of NML, Norm abandons a joke after fluffing the opening line - "Say what you like about how large and fat my head has gotten but Huell.... Yul....Ah, forget it" - and it's funnier than most comedians will ever manage.

[ImmaculateClump]

I stumbled across this one night, scraping the barrel for Norm content on youtube. It's like a masterclass in silent trolling and mind judo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH7QgHs3ZrE

[lankyguy95]

Just yesterday I was watching this video. This insane riff from Super Dave at 8:10 (only funny out of his mouth, or maybe Norm's too) leads to maybe the hardest I've ever seen Norm laugh (9:50), off the back of Chad Drew's joke.

https://youtu.be/40qnwSWP51Q?t=490

[PeasOnSticks]

Norm is the closest thing to Peter Cook I've ever come across. The two of them are just on a whole other level as people who just radiate funny-ness. Was so saddened to hear the news.

[Bronzy]

I stumbled across this one night, scraping the barrel for Norm content on youtube. It's like a masterclass in silent trolling and mind judo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH7QgHs3ZrE

The bit at 5:08 where he subtly pushes his nose up to make it look as stuck up as the other panellist's nose had me in genuine hysterics. It reminded me of a story his (Northern Canadian) brother Neil had wrote about him a few years prior:

I've always thought Norm was pretty funny. I got him.

I got it when he, at age 11, was summoned to our living room along with me and my other brother by our father, the school vice-principal, to be introduced to Mr. Becker, the new Grade 6 teacher who moved his lower lip so weirdly when he talked.

There we stood, in our short pants and clip-on ties after Sunday church service, as Mr. Becker, his lower lip moving weirdly, greeted us, one by one: "Hello, Neil. Hello, Leslie. Hello, Norman."

"Hello, Mr. Becker," replied Norm, his lower lip moving weirdly, a perfect Becker impression. My father's upper lip twitched, showing his gold tooth, which was always a bad sign, and I knew it would be bad for Norm later.

But I was in awe. While both of us had already mastered the Becker impression, Norm actually went for the laugh in front of a hostile audience.

RIP, you absolute legend.

[Goldentony]

JENNY, ALL THE STARS ARE HERE...ER...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A848xpsDJbw

[Goldentony]

"people always wanna kill Hitler with their time machine but i'd be afraid of falling under the spell of his FUCKIN' BEAUTIFUL EYES"

[Twit 2]

Here's a clip of Norm on Letterman, one of the few times he showed real emotion:
https://youtu.be/mFjEvl43zYY

I know he could have been equally emotional due it to being the last Letterman, but it's hard not to infer there was the added element of his diagnosis. A beautiful, but sad watch.

[Goldentony]

SHE GOT CUT BY A FUCKIN SORCEROR

[Dusty Substance]

The bit at 5:08 where he subtly pushes his nose up to make it look as stuck up as the other panellist's nose had me in genuine hysterics.

Holy shit, that is incredible!

[Goldentony]

A FUCKIN SORCEROR

[Chollis]

The bit at 5:08 where he subtly pushes his nose up to make it look as stuck up as the other panellist's nose had me in genuine hysterics.

fuck me