SADLY, NORM MACDONALD might be most famous for getting fired from Saturday Night Live, where—among other things—he anchored Weekend Update. (Wikipedia puts it succinctly and accurately: “MacDonald used a deadpan style during the news segment, which included repeated references to prison rape, crack whores, and the Germans’ love of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff.”) Though NBC exec Don Ohlmeyer booted MacDonald for being “not funny”—a bald-faced lie if there ever was one—there’s plenty of other Norm greatness to behold. I’d recommend doing so before seeing his standup this weekend at Helium Comedy Club. (See My, What a Busy Week!)
Late Night with Conan O’Brien—YouTube “norm saves the interview” for what might be the best talk show appearance ever. Poor Courtney Thorne-Smith tries her damnedest to sell her upcoming movie with Carrot Top—1998’s Chairman of the Board—only to be hilariously sabotaged by MacDonald. (The fact Conan nearly has a seizure from laughing so hard doesn’t help smooth things over.)
Dirty Work (1998)—It’s true: Dirty Work is directed by Bob Saget. But get past that and you’ll find what I swear to god is one of the most underappreciated comedies of the ’90s. Featuring Artie Lange, Chevy Chase, Chris Farley, and Don Rickles, Dirty Work is the only film in history have major plot points based around dead hookers, skunks, Saigon whores who bite the noses off of Chris Farleys, and Rupert Holmes’ 1979 hit “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).”
Norm (1991-2001)—MacDonald’s first sitcom (preceding 2003’s short-lived A Minute with Stan Hooper) paired him with Roseanne‘s Laurie Metcalf and a wiener dog. Norm played a disgraced hockey player forced to work as a social worker; I numbly suggest that real life would be immeasurably better if everyone had a social worker, and if that social worker was Norm MacDonald.
Just About Any Adam Sandler Related Film Ever Made (1995-present) In anything that features one of his old SNL buddies, Norm usually pops up—and he’s usually the best part of it. Recommended, obviously: 1995’s Billy Madison, and, yes, 1999’s Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo, which features a too-brief appearance by Norm as “McManus the Man Whore.”
