Norm NacDonald’s F-Bombing Quest To Get Banned From Television
More than other TV comedians, Norm MacDonald seems to delight in thumbing his nose at network bigwigs. Tonight it was CBS’ turn, via David Letterman’s Late Show. At least the audience had fun.
Many believe MacDonald was fired from Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update for constantly making jokes premised on his conclusion that OJ Simpson was guilty of the murders he had been cleared of at his initial trial. Simpson was friends with an NBC entertainment executive.
When MacDonald returned to NBC for an appearance on one of Conan O’Brien’s last Late Night episodes in February, he was scarcely more sparing, impersonating Jay Leno and saying the outgoing Tonight Show host, in moving to a 10 p.m. slot, had “outfoxed… red-headed-rube” O’Brien for prime placement in night-time variety shows. Then he dropped an f-bomb for good measure. (See video here.)
MacDonald stayed true to form on Late Show tonight, starting with a risque reference to euthanasia before making a clearly-out-of-bounds joke involving hard-core narcotics. To his credit, Letterman clearly enjoyed MacDonald’s rule-breaking far more than O’Brien, even as he rushed to cover up the narcotics reference with something more palatable.
Then, as always, MacDonald dropped another f-bomb or three, for good measure.
Hopefully someone on cable will give MacDonald a show, because otherwise it may be quite a while before he’s on the network airwaves again.
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
the guy's a genius...
+ Watch video
holdenfunk
The weird thing is...before this post...i've been laughing my ass off for hours watching norm macdonald on the late night talk show thingy's ...conan, dave, old dennis miller show... turns out, he's the funniest man alive. I also have no life, but that's for another time and another place...
meanwhile, in a brilliant maneuver, he did the opposite for bob saget's roast. All G-rated material.
don ohlmeyer...one stupid ass mofo.
holdenfunk
>Hopefully someone on cable will give MacDonald a show..
or they could let him whither away to the less than zero he deserves to be
the man is not comedian level funny, he's worth a sly grin every couple of years. he's that sophmore who called the overly strict biology teacher a cunt, causing nervous laughter.
and then he tried to parlay it into a shitastic career
he is the jersey shoreline of comedians
He seems to have made a nice cross-over voicing cartoons, some of which obviously base their characters quite directly on him. I'd much rather watch those cartoons than SNL today, and Conan, Fallon, Leno as well.
Art_2008
Comedy is a hodge podge of different types. Not everyone can burn the mic apart like a 40 year old George Carlin or 30 year old Richard Pryor. Sometimes dick-&-fart jokes can be good.
We don't always need the filet wrapped in bacon, sometimes Norm's cheeseburger and fries is good enough
iamjustjules
@TH42: Are you saying Gawker is trying to stir up controversy where there is none? I'm shocked, I tell you! Shocked!
GoldenShowersFillYourEyes
This video seems worthy of a short Gawker post because it is hilarious. But is it really worthy of long doomsday post about how naughty it is and how Norm MacDonald will never do network TV again? Am I missing something? Letterman isn't live, his language got bleeped. And his jokes don't seem that offensive. An old-fashioned "pull the plug" joke is now a "risque reference to euthanasia"? Either Ryan is sarcastically mocking the hand-wringing of other folks and I missed it, or he is REALLY overreacting.
TH42
i think norm has finally rounded out as a character, as a person. hes not SO dry and wry anymore. hes enjoying himself a bit more.
yes, get him back on tv. his last few roast performances have been show stoppers.
waltzngmatlda
@nathanst: I don't find him funny either
once
@nathanst: Yeah I don't think you're right. Angry, bitter, yes, but right? I disagree.
fugit
He was practically booed off the stage in 1997 at the University of Iowa:
[tinyurl.com]
msanthropic
@nathanst: Yeah, that's kind of a necessary attitude for any comedian...
being up on stage with a mic in front of you and all that...
Me and my friends took Norm to a strip club after he did stand up one night. He was really a nice guy.
whoneedslight
@son of spam: haha no. I'm one of the class members that giggled and then was later bored with the class clown who predictably tried to be shocking at every occasion
"OOO look at me! I'm mooning you. No HEY LOOK AT ME."
All I hear when Norm talks is, "Hey, hey, look at me."
Few impressions beat Norm's Burt Reynolds on Celebrity Jeopardy (Turd Ferguson).
His weekend update was much better than seth meyers version
I love Norm. What was his theme song for his sitcom (which was great) "Too bad that you're not as smart as you thought you were in the first place."
It was a great song and a great show and yeah, Norm. I love you.
What an insightful analysis. Thanks for sharing! By the way, are you an overly strict biology teacher?
@scroll_lock:
Norm and Farley doing Reynolds and Dom D's outtakes from Cannonball Run is pretty much as good as it gets.
"These Rosary Bleeds......."
JQHiggins
@PrincessKashmir: "Yeah, well that's your opinion."
@PrincessKashmir: The reason this is important is cuz yes, we DID just get beamed back to 1957, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling that the $550K fine for the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction should be reinstated (it's a little more complicated than that, but that's gonna be the end result).
And what network aired the Superbowl that year, and is on the hook for a half-mill plus lawyers' fees, etc...?
CBS...home of The Late Show with David Letterman!
Now do you get it?
SuchAndSuch
@RealTomatoKetchup: Sports Night WAS brilliant, and so is Norm MacDonald.
Technically he can drop the F-bomb, show runs in "Safe Harbor" 10pm-6am. Also that show is prerecorded no one could edit? Fuck.
@nathanst: Aw, give Norm a break. Not everything can meet your comedic standards as well as Fox's Red Eye does.
"out of bounds" narcotics joke? I thought it was perfectly acceptable, family entertainment.
@uninspired: I immediately go rewatch this every time Norm does a talk show, and I lose my shit like Conan does each and every time.
I saw him playing at Yuk Yuk's in Ottawa, Canada the other day. Man, the vulgarity and sexism was off the roof. still like him though ^_^
DeikaD
@uninspired: Or maybe not...
Anyone remember the time he was on Conan with Courtney-Thorne Smith. Classic and it alone makes him deserving of his own show.
+ Watch video
I'd like to hire Norm as my manny.
@Martita: Maybe that was the 'official' reason.
@PrincessKashmir: The difference in the meth references is that they are looking down at Johnston and Norm is saying, "Yeah, it was better than the birth of my son!" I love Norm.
@nathanst: We're all truly sorry that Norm banged your 10th grade girlfriend, really.
RealTomatoKetchup
@nathanst: Are you one of those people that thought Sports Night was brilliant?
bowel_and_the_obstructors
@badasscat: I agree to a certain extent but once they get your attention a comedian should have something to say instead of just "heh, heh"-ing at themselves.
@Martita: It was Charles Rocket in a Dallas skit.
@scroll_lock: "Oversized hat. Funny. Seriously, it's funny because it's bigger than a normal hat!"
PrincessKashmir
@TH42: Yeah, this seemed to be much ado about nothing. Nothing he said was the slightest bit risque, unless we've suddenly time traveled back to 1957. And while meth is a narcotic, every talk show host in the country was breezily talking about it after it was discovered that Levi Johnston's mom was dealing is.
I'm also not sure what this has to do with thumbing his nose at network executives. The Conan interview, sure, but not this one.
PrincessKashmir
I thought he got booted off Saturday Night Live because he dropped the f-bomb there too? Or was that someone else?
Martita
Fuckin' Germans
Ah, Norm MacDonald. Truly a comedian's comedian.
Aidan_
@apocalypse-nowish: Not Colin Quinn.
ArmCandy
@nathanst: well it's a good thing you know everything, otherwise the rest of us wouldn't know what to think!
myfaceisburning
@Inescapeable Picnic: Absolutely 100%. One of my all time top 10 favorite Conan moments ever.
Here's what I want:
On one side of the stage, Norm MacDonald.
On the other side of the stage, Dennis Miller.
It doesn't matter who the moderator would be, but would need to be ready to conduct the palm to the forehead motion about 150 times per hour.
GreyGander
@Gawkchalk: Everyone's weekend update is better than that idiot's.
@bowel_and_the_obstructors: are you one of those people that thought Andrew Dice Clay was brilliant?
"Little pig, little pig, let me in.
I'm a talentless hack whose only gimmick is to juxtapose children's nursery rhymes with curse words."
*cue laugh track, so that home viewers will know when to laugh*
And to answer your question, SC was meh at best IMO.
@SuchAndSuch: I get it, wait, no - lost it.
Catherine Zegreat
@nathanst: Seems like it worked this time.
Catherine Zegreat
@+ Watch video
ArmCandy
Does your being funny in some way disqualify you from being on national, network television. It would seem so.
i'm a bottle
@LoveHandles: hey, this is defamer
we're playing minor league ball here,
and jeez lighten up, sorry for misspelling sophomore earlier ;)
I'll try to live up to the high expectation of a gawker commenter in the future to avoid dissapointing you
Here, I'll start with proper punctuation and such.
@nathanst: this thread kind of epotimizes that Gawker commentors ain't what they used to be. Not that I ever was one, but I watched. Long gone, those days.
@ArmCandy: This is so excruciatingly funny.
@all: Why's everyone jumping this dude's shit? He's just expressing a differing opinion about Norm MacDonald. What he's saying isn't necessarily gospel, but it isn't like he's the only person who thinks the dude isn't funny.
For the record, I have no real opinion of the man one way or the other.
I love Norm! normnews dot com
XantheNoppity
Dave knew what was coming since he coaxed him to tell the story. He was through the same colorful kind of story when Artie Lange .. from The Howard Stern Show on Sirius 100 ... there's a plug for u Artie - like u need it ... and that's why Dave asked him. If CBS bans Norm then they're messed up. Norm is hysterical and I would rather see him and many other stars on cable ... I don't mind F-Bombs especially when retelling a funny story. Let's grow up. We're adults. Many of the people that don't like it usually are doing worse things like cheating on their wives in airport bathrooms.
Miss_Anthropic
@Martita: That was Charles Rocket, who let a f-word slip on live TV.
Anthony_Underscore
nathanst: If you ask the 50 highest paid comedians in this country (a flawed barometer of what is funny, but since you clearly haven't the faintest notion of what funny is I can't say "50 funniest") they will ALL, almost to a man, speak in tones of AWE when discussing Norm MacDonald. Dave and Conan are HUGE fans. Colin Quinn, Chevy Chase, Howard Stern, Dennis Miller, Dave Atell, Eddie Murphy; you name the legend and he's a fan. Go watch Norm on the Bob Saget roast, I bet you won't laugh once. And while you're not laughing at the comedic brilliance whooshing over your head, I want you to take a look at the COMEDIANS on the stage and try to gauge their reaction. They get it. You don't. Not only that, you're dangerous. There's nothing in the world more destructive than someone who is completely, bizarro-world wrong-headed about comedy AND WHO HAS AN AVID INTEREST IN COMEDY. You cause much suffering, sir. Every time you try to be funny around someone with an real sense of humor, you pain them more deeply than you will ever know. Norm is the iconoclastic master of the medium, captivating some of the greatest minds in comedy. You are the dumb hot chick sitting in the audience wondering "Why is he telling all these old, corny jokes?" But don't worry, your wife's friends will still think you're funny. And by the way, beautiful, cathartically hilarious, "comedian-level" analogy about the Jersey shore. There's a target nobody ever hit on, New Jersey! You suck.
SpliffyFloyd
@nathanst: HAHA did I say minor league? I WAS KIDDING
AND I"M ALSO SLIGHTLY TIPSY.
SORRY DEFAMER PEOPLE, I"M A JACKASS.
*quietly damns the lack of a delete post option*
More proof that Norm McDonald is underpaid, under-appreciated, and f@cking awesome.
@SpliffyFloyd: Thank you.
GaryMyMan
(Just to get it on public record)
If you ask the 50 highest paid comedians in this country (a flawed barometer of what is funny, but since you clearly haven't the faintest notion of what funny is I can't say "50 funniest") they will all, almost to a man, speak in tones of awe when discussing Norm MacDonald. Dave and Conan are huge fans. Colin Quinn, Chevy Chase, Howard Stern, Dennis Miller, Dave Atell, Eddie Murphy; you name the legend and he's a fan. Go watch Norm on the Bob Saget roast, I bet you won't laugh once. And while you're not laughing at the comedic brilliance whooshing over your head, I want you to take a look at the comedians on the stage and try to gauge their reaction. See, they get it. You don't. And that makes you dangerous. There's nothing in the world more destructive than someone who is completely, bizarro-world wrong-headed about comedy AND WHO HAS AN AVID INTEREST IN COMEDY. You cause much suffering, sir. Every time you try to be funny around someone with an real sense of humor, you pain them more deeply than you will ever know. Because you have no idea what you're doing. You just don't have the ingredients, son. Norm is the iconoclastic master of the medium, captivating some of the best minds in comedy. You are the dumb hot chick sitting in the audience wondering "Why is he telling all these old corny jokes?". But don't worry, your wife's friends will still think you're funny. And by the way, beautiful, cathartically hilarious, "comedian-level" analogy about the Jersey shore. There's a target nobody ever hit on, New Jersey! You suck.
SpliffyFloyd
@SpliffyFloyd: Hey, I called Britney Spears and the other 50 highest paid music acts in the world.
Turns out that the greatest band ever is Fallout Boy. Who would've guessed!
"go suck a cock you stupid twat." You just can't turn off that comedy magic can you? And I love that you think you're a smart guy. It's so much more fun to bust somebody up when they value their own intelligence like you do. "Alright, I don't really have much to say here in the way of a response but I need to let this guy know he's dealing with an intellectual. I know! I'll advertise the fact that I'm familiar with this here German word! Yeah, I'll arbitrarily whip a 'gedankenversuch' on him. See how he deals with THAT." Nobody knows what the fuck that is so it doesn't help your post, and then you write the English underneath it, completely giving yourself up, man. "Hey everybody, dig this, I know the word 'gedankenversuch'! Try not to take me seriously now!" And to your first point, (I actually almost said this in my first post) there are matters of opinion and then there's correct and incorrect. And your incorrect, hoss. And obviously there's a broader discussion here about the determination of artistic value in a collective, but I'm not gonna have it with some tool who doesn't like Norm. And finally, I told you it was a flawed barometer (I hate Cook and Mencia as much as the next guy), the point was that pretty much all great comedians love Norm MacDonald. But you knew that, you just had to say SOMETHING. That's cool. By the way, I would've taken a social science class, but they didn't offer that in eigth grade (my last). Take her easy, dude.
SpliffyFloyd
@SpliffyFloyd: We should go ask Carlos Mencia how many jokes he stole from Norm. That would be more accurate than your ill-conceived gedankenversuch*.
*thought experiiment
@SpliffyFloyd: let's try an experiment
I'll say, "Band A is not good."
And you'll say, "I disagree Band A is wonderful."
And I'll say, "Oh how interesting, opinions are not something one can quantify into being right or wrong, no matter how much your social-sciences classes say otherwise."
In closing, Dane Cook is one of the highest paid comedians, go suck a cock you stupid twat.
@SpliffyFloyd: My fate is to die alone unloved as a complete failure.
I really try to avoid negative subjects like that which is why I don't bring up Norm's impending slide into oblivion too often. No one wants to hear about the wasting away of a once vibrant being.
You should admit your fate. There would be more dignity in it.
SpliffyFloyd
Impending slide huh? So when do you think the slide will start?
SpliffyFloyd
I thought I'd been quite clear, I do apologize. "Impending" means it's imminent, it hasn't happened yet. And here was I thinking you knew that. Once again, apologies. And my intent was only to convince you not of Norm's greatness, but of your own thoroughgoing boobishness in the arena of comedy. But (I'm sure don't have to tell you) it only took me one post to do that.
SpliffyFloyd
@SpliffyFloyd: start?
It's ongoing. Looking at Norm's IMDB my guess is that the slide started right after SNL, so I'm going to say that Dirty Work was the beginning of his end, although any of his appearances in Dr. Doolittle and Deuce Bigalow series could qualify.
Anyway, the weekend is over so I'm going to move on to new, interesting threads. In closing, I love Bill Hick's work but I'm not going to bitch and moan for 10 posts trying to convince someone else that he's awesome.
The more networks make the airwaves "Safe" and "predictable", the more folks will run to the internet.
Maybe it's time to let the tigers out of their cages.