Man, I love Norm MacDonald.
He was my favorite Weekend Update anchor from my youth – his punchlines and his non-punchlines and his whole unique style of telling jokes was just brilliant. I know there were a lot of people who didn’t “get” what he was doing, but I think something about that made him actually funnier, if that makes sense.
I also loved his movie Dirty Work – I think I was one of only a dozen or so people on Earth that raced to see it in the theater. (Clint was one of the others, not surprisingly.) If you haven’t seen it, check it out, it’s a really under rated comedy.
Well Norm has been mostly off of the public’s radar for a while, but I was pleasantly surprised by the accolades he got on the Saturday Night Live Backstage special that aired earlier this year. And then it was announced that Comedy Central had picked up a comedy special and a new series starring Norm. Yay!
The special, titled “Norm MacDonald: Me Doing Stand Up” – a classic Norm title – was very funny. Dark, morbid, twisted, and all very, very funny.
And his new similarly titled show, “Sports Show with Norm MacDonald” premiered this week, and it was also extremely entertaining. It’s like if Norm did Weekend Update for half an hour, all about sports, and without any other special guests coming in and messing with his flow. His punchlines, his delivery, and his smirk are all back, and, damn it feels good to have him back behind a fake reporter’s desk.
And speaking of Norm, if you want to be really unproductive for a while, click here for every single Celebrity Jeopardy that ever aired on SNL. Yes, Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery became the star of the recurring skit, but let’s remember that it was Norm’s Burt Reynolds that was the original thorn in Trebek’s side.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackYeah, I am one of the big Dirty Work fans. Hilarious movie that for some reason didn’t get four stars. And I loved his Weekend Updates. I also cracked up at his roast of Bob Saget. Ever see a negative where everything light is dark and everything dark is light? It’s kinda like that. He ‘inverts’ comedy, making it not funny, which makes it hilarious. Although for some it just makes it not funny, and that’s like Al says about those who didn’t ‘get’ what he was doing. An example is another roaster, after Norm’s bit, who sighs and says, “Norm, sitting through your routine was like watching Peter Fonda pick blueberries.” Norm gets the crowd’s attention and replies, “Now hold on a second there…I don’t think there’s a person in this room who wouldn’t want to watch Peter Fonda pick blueberries.”
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