Dead at 61 after privately fighting cancer for nearly a decade.
Absolutely one of my favorite comedians of all time (I was just talking about him on here the other day), up there with Patrice O’Neill, and this one hurts really bad. There was no one who had his delivery, deadpan, offbeat timing, and quirky sense of humor. There are so many routines he did that just make me laugh out loud even on the umpteenth viewing, and his guest hosting and simply being a guest on a talk show made everything better. I’ll leave you with two of my favorite recent pieces. First, Uncle Bert and his fight with bowel cancer (which was delivered while Norm himself secretly had cancer):
And then, one of a typical long, winding standup about Janice:
It’s the little things about him that I loved the most- like saying “half a hour” instead of half an hour. Or live tweeting golf hours after it happened.
Fucking Joe Rogan and Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia will probably live to be 100.
Baud
Only the good die young.
And antivaxxers.
HumboldtBlue
Funny, funny man. Sad loss.
Leto
His SNL skits will forever make me laugh. Fuck cancer.
This was one of his best: Celebrity Jeopardy!: French Stewart, Burt Reynolds, & Sean Connery – SNL
Omnes Omnibus
He had not looked well for a few years. I guess we now know why.
J R in WV
Sorry to hear of our loss. Not familiar with his work as a non-TV-watcher myself. I read a lot, don’t watch much TV at all aside from news shows. Fnord.
But losing anyone who can make people laugh, that’s a sad loss in these troubled days.
Omnes Omnibus
FWIW I found his humor very hot or miss. When he hit, he was hilarious. But, for me, he missed too often to be one of the greats. RIP.
WereBear
His style of humor always reminded me of Jonathan Winters. The funny snuck up on you.
debbie
@Leto:
Yes. Great at the news desk.
HumboldtBlue
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah, that does explain his appearance and his voice recently.
cope
He was a funny guy and has died too young by far. I hadn’t really seen much of him in the last few years but I am pretty certain he was working as a voice over on commercials.
R.I.P.
Elizabelle
Saw that news, and thought of you immediately. I loved the comedy routine about Germany you put up a few days ago. It was gold. Too soon gone.
GrannyMC
I played poker with Norm MacDonald once. It was a 10-20 Limit Hold’em game at Sam’s Town, one of Tunica, Mississippi’s now defunct casino barges, where he had done a show earlier that night. He never looked at his cards until the showdown. He bet or raised every time it was his turn. I don’t remember if he came away a winner or loser, but he obviously didn’t care. He was just Normal Norm that night, not Norm the Comedian, not trying to put on a show or “hold court”. He was chatty, but it was just chatter, not a performance. I otherwise don’t remember much else about the game, including whether I had a good or bad night. I think it says something about the guy, however, that he was willing to play (for him) low-stakes poker for hours with a bunch of scruffy nobodies and had a good time doing it.
HumboldtBlue
The best of Turd Ferguson.
debbie
@GrannyMC:
He was probably looking for new material.
trollhattan
I love(d) Norm McDonald. Funny in ways few comedians can master. R.I.P. Norm.
JMG
A great talent. The list of influential and/or famous people his comedy pissed off is very long, and that alone is testimony to how great he was.
Cluttered Mind
This one hits me hard too.
I think I need to go rewatch Billy Madison right now.
Miss Bianca
I have never been a big SNL fan, so I blush to confess that I had never heard of Norm MacDonald. But someone over at LGM posted this link to a joke he told on Conan O’Brien’s show and it made me laugh my ass off. This, while I was waiting for my niece to call me back with an update on my sister’s cancer/stroke prognosis, so let’s just say I was feeling about as jolly as a stone elephant and I *still* laughed my ass off. That’s some talent. RIP.
Keith P.
@Leto: Panthers vs Cobras! Letterman, too
jonas
His classic delivery of the “but you f*ck a goat ONE TIME and…” shaggy dog joke was a classic. And there will always be Turd Ferguson.
hueyplong
My favorites tend to be the hit-or-miss people when they’re hitting, and McDonald was one of those.
As for the Rogan/live forever thing, I’ll take the under.
zhena gogolia
@WereBear: Yes.
zhena gogolia
@GrannyMC: Cool!
OzarkHillbilly
I have to admit, I never heard of the guy. Tried watching the first video but the sound was so muddled the tinnitus in my half deaf ears drowned out 3/4s of what he said.
Sorry.
The Dangerman
He was funny and very, very intelligent. Seems to go that way often with comedians.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s probably not a good strategy to try to get an idea of him all at once based on little snippets. He’s an acquired taste.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Here’s his silly side as Burt Reynolds on SNL’s version of Jeopardy. Bonus of Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery.
rikyrah
RIP??
Leto
@Keith P.: That Panthers Cobras skit is just too damn funny; when the Panther’s arrive, he calls out his boys, and immediately regrets it! Hahahaha He was just so funny.
frosty
@Miss Bianca: Just a couple of weeks ago I hit on a link to this joke and split my sides laughing. I’d never heard it before. What a delivery!
Miss Bianca
@frosty: Yeah, that’s the one I linked to. I’m not sure why it hit my funny bone so hard, but it really, really did.
ETA: Part of it is that you *think* it’s going to be a shaggy dog (or moth) story, and then you finally get the punchline.
HypersphericalCow
I get Rush Limbuagh and Tudker and Alex Jones. I find their worldwiews repugnant, but I get them.
joe Rogan? I just don’t get him at all. He’s not a good interviewer like Stern, he’s not a good propagandist like Tucker. Obviously, a lot of people find him funny and interesting, or why would he have millions of followers and Spotify pay him a lot of money? I just don’t get it.
frosty
@Miss Bianca:
Well, the start was awesome, explaining where he gets his material. Then the deadpan delivery. And finally the punchline that comes out of nowhere. It’s perfect.
Winston
My wife died from cancer. It wasn’t funny. This isn’t funny. Fuck your funny.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I was amazed how many people hadn’t heard of Nanci Griffith but I guess that’s the way it goes.
Leto
@The Dangerman: The really good comedians are usually very smart. Steve Martin, Billy Crystal, Norm, Robin Williams… just exceptionally quick in their ability to respond to just about anything, and their ability to incorporate that into their act/set. Robin Williams set when he’s in Afghanistan and the National Anthem goes off sticks out as an example of this.
trollhattan
@HypersphericalCow:
The Rogan guy seems famous for being famous, like a random Kardashian who popped up in the news because reasons. Evidently he was on “News Radio” as a secondary character, so technically I have watched a thing he was in, a show I liked, too. He’s still around and Phil Hartman is not.
Thus endeth my Joe Rogan bio.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the producer of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast:
(side note: WTF stands for “What the Fuck?”. Bill Cosby refused to do the podcast, back when anybody wanted Bill Cosby to appear on things, because of the vulgarity of the title)
zhena gogolia
Norm MacDonald spent his career making people laugh. He was honored by other comedians as a master of his craft. I don’t think it’s out of line to celebrate and honor him by talking about how funny he was.
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Red Foxx woulda done it!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: post- NewsRadio, he got involved in MMA as an announcer, I think he actually grew a larger following in that world than in stand-up, but I don’t know.
Then again, Marc Maron, mentioned above, became much more famous as a podcaster interviewing (when he started) other comics than from years of being, as they say, “a comedian’s comedian”, so maybe Rogan hit that market in a very different demo
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Cosby was thinking of the children.
Keith P.
@trollhattan: He also hosted a show where people ate donkey dicks. And he effectively ended Carlos Mencia’s career (physical intimidation helped)
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
[Thread drift] I became acquainted with Marc Maron when he interviewed Obama (do I recall correctly it was in Maron’s garage?) and have to say, good interview.
Then he starred in G.L.O.W. and was very good in that, so definitely no one-trick pony. Has that constantly disappointed with the entire world thing that’s hard to pull off without becoming tiresome.
laura
A fearless comedian revered by fellow artists gone way too soon. As always, fuck cancer.
Rest in the glow of the laughter Turd Ferguson.
Kabecoo
@Miss Bianca: several years ago, I passed a group of about 15 people trying to get a big family photo taken in Zion National Park. I was asked to take their picture. One family member was trying so hard to get everyone to smile, but it wasn’t working.
I told the moth joke, having largely memorized Norm’s version.
At first there was some griping, but then they got focused to listen. At the punch line, the reaction was perfect, and I took about six shots, every person laughing. A wonderful moment.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
So cruel. Norm gone, while Adam Sandler is still at large
EmanG
John, I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not, but I’m leaving it here for you. The moral of the story is how I think about communicating with you….
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5vaqxy
citizen dave
In other news today, O J Simpson claims he did not kill Norm MacDonald.
EM
@HypersphericalCow:
I don’t get Rogan either. Stern to me is the greatest interviewer of all time and like mentioned above I despise Limbaugh but he did have skills as a broadcaster/ story teller. Rogan? He’s just an awful conversationalist/interviewer. He often seems to struggle as to what to say to even just keep the interview going.
Miss Bianca
@Kabecoo: That is so awesome, I was thinking I would have to try to memorize his version, and feeling intimidated because it was so intricate!
columbusqueen
His last major work was voicing Yaffet the gelatine alien in Seth McFarland ‘s show The Orville. A very funny performance.