Norm MacDonald, a comic rebel who slapped back at political correctness before it was a thing, died of cancer this week. The men of Right Angle share some clips and memories about what made Norm great.
Bill Whittle, Scott Ott and Stephen Green create 260 new episodes of Right Angle each year, thanks to our Members. Join us today.
Video below hosted at Rumble.
13 replies on “Comic Rebel Norm MacDonald Slapped Back at Political Correctness Before It Was a Thing”
I’ve seen that last bit maybe one hundred times and it as still as funny as the first time.
I always liked Norm on SNL and was very disappointed when they fired him. Really, that was about the time I quit watching SNL anyway. Recently, I happened to catch the Jerry Sinefeld program “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”, where he took Norm out for coffee. It was very funny at times because of Norm still having his sense of humor (and I loved his dry sense of humor), but at the same time sad because it was very obvious that all was not well. Norm was obviously in declining health, but was not giving up. I knew at the time his days would be numbered, but I am glad to see that in the end he has still left a mark on the world. RIP Norm.
Most comics today are not even funny, Norm was one of the funniest guys of his generation. He kept things that were private. Private. Being ill is never fun or pleasant. I bust a gut every time I see him doing Burt Reynolds aka Turd Fergerson. But most of all he was not afraid. Rest in Peace Norm.
Norm’s last bits on Conan were waayyy funnier than the moth joke. Sorry, guys.
They weren’t using the Moth Joke as an example of Norm’s funniest ever. They were using the Moth Joke because it was a good example of the dry, complex, American Humor that Norm was a master of.
So I just listened to Conan O’brian talking about the moth joke and here’s the background. When Norm appeared on Conan that night he did his segment and thought he was done but Conan wanted him to come back out and Norm was like I only have 7 minutes of material but Conan wanted him for 20 more minutes so Norm remembered the moth joke he had heard Collin Quin tell but he dragged out the story on the spot to eat up time so that’s why he went into all the family background of the moth
So Scott, that’s how you find your podiatrist.
Go towards the light!
I did, but suddenly…bzzzzt!
That last clip with CTS made the rounds right after he passed. He was just one of those guys whose mind worked at a different speed.
And CTS is quite lovely and I enjoyed the way she let him play. Some guests would have gotten pissed that he was intruding on her time to plug her show and movie.
God Speed and Blue Skies, Norm
Here’s 30+ minutes of Norm skewering OJ with an intro clip of Norm on Dennis Miller’s show. (Couldn’t find it on Rumble)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pCH_Ab6SIE
nm was a screwball who loved to have a good time.
That last clip actually interested me enough to look up Chairman of the Board on IMBD. 2.5 stars out of 10 – no surprise. I guess Norm was right about Chairman of the Bored being a better title
First joke like the moth joke I heard was told by a radio guy named Jack Kearney in St. Louis telling a joke about a bird convention in St. Louis. I think the details in these jokes are unimportant as long as they’re mundane.
I was riding in an airport limo to a hotel with about 20 other people. Limo = small bus not a stretch Caddy or Lincoln, I’ve never been important enough to merit one of those.
It was about a 20 minute ride and the driver (a black guy, FWIW) started talking about how he lost his license and was prohibited from getting one for a couple years. And he hoped we didn’t hold that against him … He went on for the whole twenty minutes and it was hilarious. He had the passengers, including me, in stitches. Turned out he was talking about his fishing licence, btw.
Dude should have been onstage not driving an airport limo.
In all my travels that’s the only time that ever happened.