Television Norm MacDonald Has Died Aged 61

Red Stone

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To this day, one of the greatest stand-up bits I've ever seen. I don't know how he makes it work for the entirety of the joke. In anyone else's hands it would fall completely flat a few minutes in. A true master.
 

Skeezix

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What a sad sad day. It was maybe 2 years ago that I discovered Norm, and been binging on Norm stuff on youtube since then.

Gone too soon.
 

Mike Smalling

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Some great bits in this. The "modern medicine" line is hilarious.

Generally, his appearances on Conan are great. I love how he has a recurring bit of Andy being in the closet.
 

decorativeed

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To this day, one of the greatest stand-up bits I've ever seen. I don't know how he makes it work for the entirety of the joke. In anyone else's hands it would fall completely flat a few minutes in. A true master.
Love that bit. Sometimes I think about some of his stuff and the way he delivered it and can't help laughing. Often when I'm trying to get to sleep, and I end up disturbing my wife!
 

Giggs' right foot

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Loved him so much that a year ago I just had to ransack the internet to find his show Norm MacDonald Live and when I did, I manually downloaded each and every episode, since it was taken off of YouTube a while ago.

Never seen a comedian be so numbingly funny in what seemed so effortless - but it wasn’t. You could tell he was a grinder, who put his time and energy into comedy.

By god, I’m gonna miss that old chunk of coal…
 

decorativeed

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Loved him so much that a year ago I just had to ransack the internet to find his show Norm MacDonald Live and when I did, I manually downloaded each and every episode, since it was taken off of YouTube a while ago.

Never seen a comedian be so numbingly funny in what seemed so effortless - but it wasn’t. You could tell he was a grinder, who put his time and energy into comedy.

By god, I’m gonna miss that old chunk of coal…
Did the same. I just started watching it this week, and I'd been watching a couple of episodes of his sitcom most days the last few weeks. I had an episode on pause when this thread was posted yesterday. Shitty news.
 

arthurka

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Comedians comedian, wonderfully funny guy. His timing was something else.
RIP.
 

decorativeed

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Damn you @Sweet Square. Every time I see this thread bumped, I expect that they've announced he's actually still with us, and he was just doing the joke Andy Kaufman never followed through on.
 

Desert Eagle

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Saget has a clip on youtube that is called Remembering Norm. Personal and touching. There is a clip of Leno talking about his passing as well. He calls him the Bob Dylan of comedy.
 

decorativeed

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What's been odd is seeing the comments from right wingers claiming Norm as one of their own. Nut jobs like Jack Posobiek or whatever he's called mourning a guy who 'stuck it to the lefties'.

It seemed to me that Norm made jokes about everyone with an equal ferocity (or lack of it to be more precise), and had a desire to understand. None of his humour came from hate, and he seemed to be a genuinely decent guy. If you could call it a fault, maybe he was too quick to see the good in people and forgive, but it's pretty hard to call that a fault.
 

Sweet Square

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What's been odd is seeing the comments from right wingers claiming Norm as one of their own. Nut jobs like Jack Posobiek or whatever he's called mourning a guy who 'stuck it to the lefties'.

It seemed to me that Norm made jokes about everyone with an equal ferocity (or lack of it to be more precise), and had a desire to understand. None of his humour came from hate, and he seemed to be a genuinely decent guy. If you could call it a fault, maybe he was too quick to see the good in people and forgive, but it's pretty hard to call that a fault.
Yeah due to watching tons of old Norm videos the youtube algorithm has been recommending me all types of shite like - Tribute to Norm Macdonald, Last TRUE Hero in the War on Comedy & Free Speech | Louder with Crowder.

All these morons miss the fact that what made Norm great and imo why as he got older he got better, he was commitment to simply being funny. Pretty sure this is a Norm quote -''But there’s a difference between a clap and a laugh. A laugh is involuntary, but the crowd is in complete control when they’re clapping, they’re saying, “we agree with what you’re saying – proceed!” But when they’re laughing, they’re genuinely surprised. And when they’re not laughing, they’re really surprised. And sometimes I think, in my little head, that that’s the best comedy of all.”

It's just the same old culture war shtick from people who I doubt watched Norm or have very little understanding of why he was so great.
 

Red Stone

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I still cannot believe he had the guts to go out and bomb so spectacularly with such stone-faced coolness on the Bob Saget roast. The more he bombs, the calmer and more deliberate he gets. That takes otherworldly confidence, and pure, raw talent to actually make the bit work as well.
 

Dante

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Some great bits in this. The "modern medicine" line is hilarious.

Generally, his appearances on Conan are great. I love how he has a recurring bit of Andy being in the closet.
I absolutely loved this bit.

Most comedians use the rule of three as the setup within a single joke. But Norm uses it here to link three different jokes.

It's fecking genius. He's the only guy who could have pulled it off. There's a reason why he was the comic's comic.
 

Desert Eagle

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Saget has a clip on youtube that is called Remembering Norm. Personal and touching. There is a clip of Leno talking about his passing as well. He calls him the Bob Dylan of comedy.
And now Bob Saget has passed away. Rip
 

Bertie Wooster

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Sad to hear about Bob Saget's death.

I only really know about him from the Norm clips that I've been watching for the last couple of years. And I only found out about Norm in early 2020 - God, I wish I'd known about him so much sooner!

I'd been watching plenty of Norm clips in 2021 and his death was a huge shock. It's hit me far harder than any other 'celebrity' death and I've carried on binge watching Norm on YouTube for the last few months.

Bob has popped up in plenty of those clips and it's sad to lose another member of that little 'family' so soon after Norm.