Writer // Shane Allen
Norm MacDonald man, what a guy, respected across the board as one of the greatest. His comedy was one of a kind, he had a very specific point of view and it was always unpredictable..
Norm passed away last month due to a battle cancer, apparently he’d been living with his disease for close to a decade. Nobody was aware of this and even everyone that was close to him was just as unaware.
I could assume he kept it a secret because he didn’t want the whole world to focus on his death while he was still here with us, So in honor of that sentiment, we want to share some of our favorite Norm moments.
To start, let go back to where Norm got his start, on the extremely popular yet no so funny show Saturday Night Live. Norm’s main role on the show was being the solo anchor on the Weekend Update segment. Easily the funniest part of the show, Norm brought something to SNL that not many did or could, be real and be funny.
Though he was the best part of the show he eventually got let go from weekend update because the higher up didn’t think he was funny. I think the network didn’t like him making so many OJ jokes. While fans felt the complete opposite, people were outraged.
About a year later, Norm did a movie Dirty Work with Artie Lange and Chris Farley. And upon the films release, SNL wanted to actually bring Norm back, this time to host the show. Great decision. Norm took this opportunity to use his opening monologue to completely shit on the show, and make history as one of SNL’s best openers.
Norm went to discuss his laying off on the legendary radio show Howard Stern, where he was a regular. As he was explaining why he was fired by Don Ohlmeyer, he tells Howard how brought his pal, and then unknown comedian, Artie Lang with him that day. He tell Howard how funny and crazy this guy is and Howard asks to bring him in to talk about he actually got fired from Mad TV.
This was the first time Artie came on the show, an event that eventually led to Artie being a regular cohost on the show, and becoming a lot of the listeners favorite part of the show.,
It’s kinda wild that Norm outlived Artie to be honest. Wouldn’t have guessed it.
Norms appearance on the Roast of Bob Saget was legendary as it gets. He took a completely left turn that left a mark on viewers memories as one of the weirdest roast of all time. reciting Jokes that seem to be lifted from a bad one-liner joke book for kids or something.
The crowd didn’t get it at all, but looking back at it, probably the most daring things one can do as a comedian, bomb on purpose. Later he explained that Bob was a good friend of his and that he had a hard time with the idea of making fun of him publicly, so he went a different direction with it that people later found to be the funniest unfunny thing one could have done.
Norm was the best, We lost a good one. May your soul rest in peace Norm. Send this world some blessings where ever you are.
Enjoy some of our other favorite Normisms and watch some of the videos below.
