While going through a ton of memories and experiences that people had with Norm, I came across an incredible story. Apparently in the 90s he was forced to sit at a table with Lorne Michaels and Harvey Weinstein after a SNL taping. They are raving about some new comedian, calling him a visionary and a genius. Weinstein keeps calling him a genius over and over and then asks Norm what he thinks about him.

Norm replies: "is he really good at math or something?"

Weinstein looks like a moron in front of a table of people, he despises Norm forever, and that was his genius. In order to get just one laugh, and he might have just been trying to make himself laugh, he pissed off one of the most important people in Hollywood forever. I mean what balls that took, what a dedication to the joke. They certainly don't make them like that anymore.

+1

SO damn funny

I like to think Norm is with Elvis back in his spaceship traveling around the galaxy having a good time

I did a deep dive on Norm recently. The guy performed in front of the most powerful ppl in the world, top of his game. But his refusal to sell out, & unwavering dedication to his craft - just being as funny as possible, as opposed to "playing the game" - cost him the megastar status he deserved. Which I doubt he cared about. He was a true rock star & I tip the��RIP��

LMFAO. So good. I’d never heard this before, if you have any others please share. He literally didn’t give a **** for anything but the joke.

Joe Rogan (I don’t wanna discuss him) shared a story of being on a plane with Norm. The whole flight Norm talked about how he quit smoking and how great it was and how disgusting smoking was. They get off the plane and Norm walks straight into an airport store to buy a pack of smokes and as Norm lights up inside the airport Joe says ‘Norm I thought you quit?!’ and Norm goes ‘It didn’t take.’ No one was around but Rogan. He set up a joke for hours just for that punchline. ****ing genius. Probably good at math too.

I recommend his book - Based on a True Story: A Memoir.

The bit of blurb from amazon amused me:

I'm sure plenty of people know this story but I think it deserves a highlight. He was fired from being the weekend update guy at SNL because the studio head was best friends with OJ, and norm was relentless on OJ. In fact when he was asked by one of the higher ups to tone down his attacks on OJ, the very next week he just started weekend update right off the bat by shoehorning in 8 OJ jokes.

Well Norm goes on a bunch of interviews following his firing, and I think just about every celebrity in the history of time would have tried to use these big interviews as an attempt for everyone to take pity on them. He even went on Letterman where Dave was ripping into this tv executive for being a complete moron but Norm downplayed it because complaining about being fired is not going to make people laugh.

It was on this press tour that he arguably made Howard Stern 100s of millions of dollars. Howard was dying to get Norm to spill every little detail of why he got fired. Norm was completely bored with these questions and instead deflected by bringing in this crazy friend of his to tell Howard stories about his insane life. That guy of course was Artie Lange, who I still think is one of the greatest story tellers when he is sober about just how wild his life was. Well Howard was so taken with Artie, that he gave him a shot on the show. Just my opinion but I think that was the best radio Howard made his whole career because Artie was the guy who could connect with Howard's audience when he was incapable of doing so (evidenced by the horrid last decade of his career).

Can you imagine a comedian or really anyone with a modicum of fame passing up an opportunity to receive pity? That seems like a completely foreign concept, but if you watch that hour of radio almost none of it involves Norm even though he is the guest and it is some of the hardest I've ever laughed.

his book based on a true story is definitely the funniest thing i ever read
if you are even a small norm macdonald fan i would recommend it

I second this recommendation. I had no idea who Norm was when I read the book. I compulsively read gambling memoirs and Norm was a compulsive gambler so I picked it up. It was OK. Kind of interesting, but a lot of the humour went over my head.

Norm was never really big here in the UK. SNL never screened here, he never appeared on UK TV and we don't watch US talk shows.

After he died though, I got sucked into watching all of those tributes and the 'best of Norm' clips. Followed by everything Netflix has. Man, I feel robbed that I only discovered him as late as I did.

Also: Pokerpops is 100% certified scumbag.

His book is very good. He was an excellent writer, which kind of surprised me, but I don’t know why.

When he was on Letterman the night he got fired he had this hilarious bit. He had to call Dan Olymeyer or whatever his name was who was the president of NBC and OJ’s buddy and he was telling Letterman about that call.

‘Yea, so I uh called him and he said ‘I’m firing you from Weekend Update’ and I was like…uh that’s not good news.’

beat

‘And then he goes ‘Yea I’m firing you because you’re not funny’. And I go ‘Oh my god, that’s even worse news!’

Norm was a savage who gave less ****s than Stephen Jackson. I love it.

I could watch this over and over and still laugh my ass off each time. Just love how he channels Rodney, one of Norm’s comedic heroes.

Speaking of Artie Lange, he had so many funny Norm stories.

One of them was around the time Chris Farley was in real bad shape so Norm was trying to keep an eye on him. They were at a party and Andy Dick was there also, as was Artie and Norm and a bunch of the SNL cast.

Anyway, Artie sees Farley and Andy Dick go to the bathroom together. So he goes up to Norm to tell him. He told Norm ‘I saw Farley go into the bathroom with Andy Dick, Norm. And you know there’s only two reasons anyone would go into a bathroom with Andy Dick’

Without missing a beat Norm says ‘****, I hope he was getting high!’

"That's modern medicine for you"

Doc she's choking!

Perhaps my favorite Artie Lange-Norm MacDonald moment was poker-related. I've mentioned this on another form. The Playboy Channel had a short-lived show called Sam's Game, which featured Sam Simon running a cash game with a few poker pros (e.g. Phil Laak), comedians (e.g. Norm, Artie, Dave Attell) plus various Playboy models (e.g. Deanna Brooks, Brande Roderick). Jennifer Tilly was also a regular. Very loose and lively game, with the producers providing Pop Up Video-style info throughout the table talk, plus funny little screen graphics.

At one point, a very drunk Artie looked at his hole cards and unwittingly said them out loud. Something like "six-three, different suits." (Can't remember the exact hand.) Norm had AA and raised. He couldn't believe that a) Artie would play such trash facing a raise and b) that Artie would say his actual holdings. So when the board ran out such that Artie's 63o flopped trips and filled up on the river, a disbelieving Norm called all the way down.

Just an update on the Artie debut on Stern, it is actually crazier than I realized. Norm had not yet been fired from SNL, he was taken off the weekend update desk. Well Norm of course did not care at all about his position, so he went on Stern with the original intent of just blasting Don Ohlmeier (spelling I don't care). I mean the amount of guts he had was truly just amazing.

One of my favorite deep dives from the last week is him and Adam Carolla dissecting Kenny Roger's famous song "Ruby dont take your love to town". I simultaneously lost a 150bb pot and was laughing hysterically even though I probably heard this three times before.

Norm: "the terrible thing was his legs weren't just paralyzed, they were bent".

If you liked that one, check out the one where they analyze Coward of The County

Great day to celebrate the genius of Norm and watch any and all of his takedowns of OJ. Sorry Ken Griffey, you still suck.

They were talking about Matthew Perry, by the way.

It was great to see Norm getting widespread recognition today. All those old videos..it had been awhile. On Reddit, one of the top comments in a post about OJ's death was "Cancer claims innocence and won't rest until OJ's real killer is found" and it reminded me of Norm's humor.

I'd be remiss not to share a few more videos of the GOAT on this day of days:

the GOAT of comedy
watch his podcast episode with stephen merchant a couple of days ago and it still makes me laugh uncontrollably

‘I had heard about the pedophilia thing but I didn’t know about the all-around bad guy part’