Norm MacDonald passes away at 61

[Jimmy Higgins]

Norm MacDonald dealt with cancer apparently for 10 or so years. He didn't want it to get out. Maybe he thought it'd be too easy to make fun of people if suffering from cancer because you are given more leeway.

I still remember where I was when MacDonald was torturing Jon Stewart on TDS with his comments on a recently departed Steve Irwin. To be clear, it isn't easy to joke about the dead. Norm MacDonald often surfed into the rough areas of comedy, insults, and material that was easier to do in the 70s and 80s.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8h-xeuC1L0[/YOUTUBE]

 

[ideologyhunter]

Norm was an acquired taste -- but I liked him. He had a calculated shambling kind of delivery, slurring his words to let you know he didn't take anything seriously. Total snark. My favorite Norm moment came a year and a half after SNL fired him. For some reason, he was asked back in fall '99 to host the show. His opening monologue was quintessential. He went into his firing, and mused over why he was back, with this classic rant: "How did I go in a year and a half from being not funny enough to be even allowed in the building, to being so funny that I'm now hosting the show? How did I suddenly get so goddamned funny?" Then he says that the answer is, the show has gotten so bad that he is now, by comparison, funny. "The bad news? I'm still not funny. The good news? The show blows!"

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Norm was an acquired taste -- but I liked him. He had a calculated shambling kind of delivery, slurring his words to let you know he didn't take anything seriously. Total snark. My favorite Norm moment came a year and a half after SNL fired him. For some reason, he was asked back in fall '99 to host the show. His opening monologue was quintessential. He went into his firing, and mused over why he was back, with this classic rant: "How did I go in a year and a half from being not funny enough to be even allowed in the building, to being so funny that I'm now hosting the show? How did I suddenly get so goddamned funny?" Then he says that the answer is, the show has gotten so bad that he is now, by comparison, funny. "The bad news? I'm still not funny. The good news? The show blows!"

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofXxinOtPiQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Thomas II]

 

[repoman]

 

[Ford]

My favorite Norm bit was from his days on Saturday Night Live. When I found out he'd passed away, my first thought was "Norm MacDonald has died...or so the Germans would have us believe."

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9miLGPXBs4w[/YOUTUBE]

 

[blastula]

So he lost his battle with cancer. Sad to see him go out a loser.

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/hMJ5X-gMHwk[/YOUTUBE]

 

[repoman]

 

[TSwizzle]

Unbelievable, Bob Saget, a close friend of of Norm has died suddenly.