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RIP Norm Macdonald

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Cosmo, Sep 14, 2021.

  1. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Totally disagree. That’s one of the better pieces I’ve read about Norm since his passing.

    And honestly, a lot of what I’ve seen written about him since his death has been straight bullshit. There was one piece about him that talked about how his genius was that he just told jokes and was the polar-opposite of the “anti-comic.” It made me question whether the writer was even vaguely familiar with his work.

    I found Norm to be hilarious at his best - the moth joke being a great example - but way too often his work was intended solely to impress other comics, who generally love guys with the balls to be intentionally not funny. Gladwell’s piece summed that up pretty well.
     
    OscarMadison, misterbc and HC like this.
  2. justgladtobehere

    justgladtobehere Well-Known Member

    Gladwell was wrong. Norm was all about the joke. He rejected the idea of anti-humor.

    Norm Macdonald: Neither anti-comic nor comic’s comic, simply a comic | The Comic's Comic

    Listen to his interview with Maron or watch his last appearance on Letterman.
     
  3. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    Norm is making a silly, disingenuous point there. It was absolutely not all about the joke for him -- he acknowledges that he did stuff that made him laugh even if he knew it wasn't funny. The "joke" of the Saget roast was that all of his jokes were old-timey insults that sounded like he took them from a children's joke book from the 40s. He claims the moth joke wasn't a "shaggy dog" story, and it's pretty much the definitive shaggy dog story. (And it's brilliant.)

    I mean, the fact that he argues that Andy Kaufman was just a funny guy who made people laugh and that there was nothing else to what Kaufman did.... anyone who has even a vague familiarity with Kaufman knows what bullshit that is.

    In all the praise for Norm's time on Weekend Update, people are strangely ignoring what he primarily did while he was there: he told the same jokes every week, sometimes twice in the same segment, and he did it because they weren't particularly funny and they never got a laugh. "It just goes to show what I always say: Germans love David Hasselhoff" is not funny. "Note to self: don't go to _____" is not funny. Those are jokes for the writers and other comics to oooh and ahhh over his willingness to be intentionally not funny. He did them every week.

    Ultimately the key to Norm's appeal was often his outlook and demeanor. He was unique, and he was sometimes hilarious. He was not all about the joke.
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2021
    OscarMadison likes this.
  4. DanielSimpsonDay

    DanielSimpsonDay Well-Known Member

    ...or so the Germans would have us believe
     
    bigpern23, Songbird and PCLoadLetter like this.
  5. Regan MacNeil

    Regan MacNeil Well-Known Member

    If you don't think this is funny, we're never going to agree on what's funny:

    upload_2021-9-26_17-38-38.jpeg
     
  6. sgreenwell

    sgreenwell Well-Known Member

    I think to make a clarification... Norm telling the same jokes every week is still kind of a joke or an attempt at humor. He realized that awkward silence or uncomfortable moments could turn into humor.

    IIRC, on his podcast / YouTube show, he wasn't so into things like Tig Notaro's "comedy." I can't even remember if it was her specifically, or someone else. But he didn't like "comedians" who essentially did not tell jokes.
     
  7. OscarMadison

    OscarMadison Well-Known Member

    My only exposure to Notaro was via One Mississippi, which is a great bit of scripted television.

    I asked the ex if people considered MacDonald a comedians' comedian before he died. He said to an extent. More people inside found him to be "likably pedantic and increasingly pompous over the years, especially after he found religion." He gave me a half dozen names of people who are currently considered "comedians' comedians." I've seen most of them and here's what they have in common:

    • They're good storytellers.
    • A weird edge doesn't make them unintelligible.
    • They're funny.
    Not on that list: Hannah Gadsby.
     
    sgreenwell likes this.
  8. Regan MacNeil

    Regan MacNeil Well-Known Member

    Damn. Shots fired at Hannah Gadsby.
     
  9. OscarMadison

    OscarMadison Well-Known Member

    Don't get me wrong, like Gadsby. Her videos about art history are some of my favorite things to watch on YouTube. Nanette was well written. It was a great example of longform storytelling. Was it standup comedy? No.
     
  10. OscarMadison

    OscarMadison Well-Known Member

    Also going to go out on limb here wrt a point of contention between me and the former chewtoy: Bill Hicks could be brilliant. There were times when he bordered on going into the same territory as Gadsby when it came to being an idealogue versus being a standup comedian.

    Are the two mutually exclusive? Nope. See Carlin, George.
     
  11. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

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