What a pisser! Much like Andy Kaufman, I thought his suddenly reported death was a joke since it seemed like him. Sadly, it was true as he had been fighting cancer for a decade. Norm hid it very well. There’s some you can tell they’re clearly losing the battle and they’ll be dead in a week.
I did have the great opportunity to see Norm live at Apple’s now physically defunct Cap City. No chance to talk to him after the show as I’ve gotten to with others but I think it was due to my friends wanting to split right away. Despite a dumbass constantly running his mouth until a bouncer escorted him out, Norm just assaulted us with an incredibly funny arsenal of jokes only he could tell. He was definitely clever and think on his feet. The evening I saw him, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for not being Bush II and NASA fired an object at the lunar surface to see it the target was ice. Norm brought this up early as I paraphrase, “It’s amazing. President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the same day he was trying to blow up the moon!”
He was definitely one of the best people behind the news desk at SNL. Doing better than Chevy Chase isn’t hard nor should he be gauged against such an asshole. Norm managed to exceed the last person to master the job, pre-9/11 right-wing blowhard Dennis Miller. To me, he wrote the playbook for Stewart and Colbert with their Comedy Central runs. After Norm, I don’t have any opinion since I think SNL should just be put out of its misery alongside Jimmy Fallon. I’m glad he never let up on OJ Simpson too. We all know the motherfucker was guilty. Those jokes may have cost him his lucrative gig but he did rebound pretty decently with a one-season SitCom on ABC and an underrated movie called Dirty Work. Coincidentally, I think Dirty Work was Chris Farley’s last flick. It’s uneven, some elements haven’t aged well but when Work is funny, you might have to pause the movie.
I think his post-SNL career was better anyway. He made cameos in movies. One many easily missed was him playing Michael Richards on Man in the Moon when Andy Kaufman (fellow Canadian Jim Carrey) refused to go along with a sketch on Fridays. For me personally, I loved Norm showing up as a voice in cartoons. The weasely genie from Fairly Odd Parents was him, even had his name. I think he was the first person to play Death on Family Guy, now it’s Adam Carolla. The Orville won’t be the same without him being the gelatinous alien engineer Yaphit. I’m hoping he completed all his ADR work for the third season and Seth MacFarlane finds a way to give the character and Norm a fitting farewell should there be a fourth via Hulu. Also watch The Mike Tyson Mysteries, his character Pigeon steals the show with his inappropriate everything!
Thanks for everything Norm. You were definitely a unique talent. Every comedians favorite bomber! The best at telling cringing “dad” or “screw you” jokes. Another legend at always surprising the audience. In private, numerous tales of how you were a nice, kind person. I want to close with one of the funniest clips from The Larry Sanders Show I realized I have been misquoting/misremembering for a decade-plus. It works because only Norm Macdonald and Henry Winkler could make fictional sidekick Hank Kingsley’s sex tape leaking out hilarious instead of the tragedy it was…