R.I.P. Norm MacDonald
One of the greatest comedians of all time passes away at 61 after a battle with cancer.
This stinks. Just really stinks. The world lost one of the funniest comedians of all time today at age 61 after a battle with cancer.
The Canadian comedian Norm MacDonald was born in Quebec in 1959. MacDonald got his start in stand up in 1985 at Yuk Yuks. After an appearance at the 1986 Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, he was named as one of Canadas hottest comics.
From 1992 to 1993, MacDonald wrote for the show Roseanne, but quit to join Saturday Night Live.
MacDonald was a part of the SNL cast from 1993 to 1998 and was famous for his Burt Reynolds, Larry King, and David Letterman impressions. Here’s my personal favorite from Norm.
When MacDonald would do Weekend Update, he often joked about prison rape, crack whores, and O.J. Simpson. While his jokes on the Juice were great on SNL, here’s a great one from the 2000 ESPYS.
In 1998, MacDonald was removed from the Weekend Update guest after Don Ohlmeyer said that the ratings had declines. Many people, including MacDonald believed that the removal was due to his jokes about O.J.
Following his departure from SNL, MacDonald wrote and starred in one of my all time favorite comedies, Dirty Work, with Artie Lange.
Dirty Work has arguably one of the funniest scenes in any movie ever when Artie Lange and MacDonald are hired to work in a movie theatre by comedy legend Don Rickles.
After Dirty Work, MacDonald appeared in many movies including the four Dr. Doolittle movies, Man On The Moon, and a few Adam Sandler films like Funny People, Grown Ups, and Jack & Jill.
The first time I ever heard MacDonalds voice was on his talk show, Norm Macdonald Has a Show. After that, I did a deep dive on MacDonalds other podcasts and talk shows and became a big fan of Norm MacDonald Live.
Here is one of the funniest clips from Norm MacDonald Live.
Towards the end of his life, MacDonald fell victim to cancel culture in 2018 when he criticized some aspects of the #MeToo movement while also defending some of his friends and fellow comedians like Louis C.K. and Roseanne Barr, who he used to write for.
Because of these comments, MacDonalds upcoming appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon was cancelled.
Just an all around bummer to see a comedy legend pass so early. Below I attached a few more of my favorite clips from Norm. R.I.P. Norm MacDonald.
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