Originally posted by redstone: His delivery his way of stretching out a joke for 10 minutes etc. It took courage and intimate knowledge of comedy to pull that off. A true great a true genius.
Yes, he was courageous. It's axiomatic that courage means physical courage, but there are other ways of being brave. Try making a living by spending countless performing in clubs, where drunks and hecklers abuse you; playing to a room of three people. Getting rejected, told you're not funny, get a real job, etc.. Try doing that for years on end.
Norm MacDonald went beyond that. He had the courage to open his bit to a White House Corespondents Dinner by intentionally bombing. He had the professional courage to explain his jokes (this is an example of breaking the rules), and he was masterful at this and a master of the comedic pause.
Comedy has rules. Johnny Carson knew it. Many great comedians knew the rules of comedy. Hell, even I know some of those rules. Norm MacDonald knew them as well, but no one can teach you to be funny; it has to come from within. Others can help you cultivate your natural humor, but all the coaching in the world, and knowing all the rules (and which ones to break and the ways to break them), does you no good if you weren't born funny. Norm was born funny.
Norm Macdonald Is Conservative And Brave, A Rarity Among Comedians Macdonald is refreshingly self-deprecating about his political awareness in a time when comedians advertise their political sophistication. SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 By Ron Capshaw Norm Macdonald, who was recently booted from an appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” for daring to criticize the #MeToo movement for its potential to harm the innocent, is that rarity among today’s comedians: He is a conservative.
He dared to mock the politically correct — a faction of people that even John Cleese, who is no conservative, regards as toxic to comedy. Once upon a time such a joyless and dreary group would have been mercilessly lampooned by the anarchic Marx Brothers. These days, though, political correctness is sacrosanct, and comedians who subscribe to it bellow rather than produce laughs.
Like Cleese, Macdonald also understands political correctness destroys comedy. Thus he is bipartisan in his targets, even those he agrees with politically. During his time on “Saturday Night Live,” he announced on air his support for Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole in the 1996 election. And yet this did not keep him from mocking Dole in a funny impersonation.
Macdonald has a bravery missing from many of today’s comics regarding politics. In a 2000 appearance on “the View,” whose cast members Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar are exhibit A in how rage negates comedy, Macdonald dared to praise George W. Bush as a “decent man,” and accused Bill Clinton of murdering Vince Foster (the Deputy White House Counsel and one-time law partner of Hillary Clinton, whose suicide was suspicious).
Regarding Foster, Macdonald later said he was joking, but he did state that the Clintons were “corrupt.” Of George W. Bush, he expressed an open-minded view about the administration’s war against Iraq: “The war itself, you know, if it works it was worth it. But I don’t know if it’s going to work.”
But it is revealing what he hasn’t retracted. In a 2003 appearance on “The View,” he stated that he was going to renounce his Canadian citizenship because his country was not supporting the United States in the Iraq War. He also lauded Ronald Reagan as the best president in history. Macdonald said he was joking about revoking his Canadian citizenship, but, tellingly, did not retract his assessment of Reagan.
Macdonald is refreshingly self-deprecating about his political awareness in a time when comedians advertise their political sophistication. He said while living in Canada, “I never voted because I don’t want to make a mistake. I’m so uninformed that I don’t want that on my hands.” And yet he is canny enough to recognize political stupidity.
Take the case of Rosie O’Donnell warning that Trump is trying to establish a dictatorship, for example. “You know, people say stuff like, ‘You gotta wake up,” he said. “Trump and his boys [are trying to take over]. There’s a coup going on.’ That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard … I know coups are not undertaken by the President of the United States.”
“It looks like a coup going on the other way,” he added. “They’re talking about impeaching a guy before any investigation has even begun.”
But as with Dole, Macdonald’s assessment doesn’t prevent him from mocking Trump. He mocks how Trump is so ridiculous as to defy impersonations: “Trump often times is doing self-parody and nothing looks dumber than if you parody self-parody.”
Regarding Macdonald’s latest heresy—attacking the #MeToo” movement—he is open-minded enough to see its virtues and the dangers it can pose to the innocent: “While I think [the movement] is a great thing in a macro sense and will lead to a much better world, I don’t want anyone to be badly hurt that’s innocent in the process of getting there. And I could see it ending with an innocent person blowing their brains out one day.”
Scott Fitzgerald once defined a “first-rate intelligence” as the “ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” Macdonald fits the definition. He balances open-mindedness with courage. He considers the possibility that he could be wrong while at the same time knowing that the politically correct are sometimes ridiculous.
Posts: 6633 | Location: Virginia | Registered: December 23, 2010
He was much smarter than some that judged him. He perfected his unique deadpan style. RIP Norm.
Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.
-D.H. Lawrence
Posts: 11524 | Location: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: February 07, 2007
Simply the greatest, imo. Certainly no one better. I could, and have, listened to Norm for hours, telling jokes, doing bits, in sketches, on talk shows, or even just talking about real life. He was a smart guy and came off as a very genuine person, especially in his later years.
I'm gonna vote for the funniest frog with the loudest croak on the highest log.
Posts: 10652 | Location: Marietta, GA | Registered: February 10, 2009
This one definitely hurts. The older I became, the more I appreciated him and his incredibly unique style. I liked him in my younger years, but I just did not appreciate how good he truly was until maybe the last 5 or 10 years.
I just binge watched a bunch of his stuff about 6 months or so ago...What a loss.
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love. - 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Originally posted by parabellum: In years to come, Norm MacDonald will take his place along side the likes of Andy Kaufman; unclassifiable comedy genius and uniqueness.
Like Kaufman, MacDonald is recognized by his peers as a comic's comic. He was more respected by other comedians than by the general public, b/c MacDonald was less concerned about appealing to the mainstream & lowest common denominator.
Some of his roasts, such as his roast of Bob Saget are considered stand-up legend. If you can watch it, you'll see his peers find it a lot funnier than the audience does, b/c a lot of the audience doesn't get it.
Posts: 3334 | Location: Texas | Registered: June 17, 2003
Dirty Work was awesome. He played that part perfectly, straight faced and delivering some of the best lines ever. He did that a lot, but that movie was one of his earliest ones where he was the main feature, from what I recall at least.
To build, I have a 17 year old daughter and 13 year old son. One or both used to watch a show called The Fairly Oddparents on Nickelodeon, where Norm voiced a genie on occasion that was always stirring up shit. I honestly never watched the show but the first time I walked through the den and heard that voice, I knew exactly who it was and stopped. He was sending it even on a kids show, though keeping things appropriate for the setting. Actually ended up catching a fair amount of his parts from that show when I was either doing some cooking or helping on child or the other with homework. Always listened for that voice.
This really does suck. Norm really was a comedic genius and always will be in my opinion.
___________________________ Not giving a damn since...whenever...
Posts: 1931 | Location: NOT Houston, Tx (Thank God), but in the area. | Registered: May 18, 2003
Out of the blue for me, and it's a bummer. I actually didn't see that much of him on SNL because I wasn't watching it much during his era. I became a big fan just from YouTube clips when he as a guest, or from his show. RIP, Norm.
