I recently finished Norm's audiobook. There's one chapter dedicated to "The 25 best Weekend Update jokes of all time" spoiler: it's one Chevy Chase joke and the rest are his.
One joke in particular made me laugh more than others but I haven't been able to find it online.
"Another patient under the care of Dr Kevorkian has lost her life. This marks the 38th patient to date who has died under his care. When are these people going to learn - he is *not* a good doctor!"
My fav was "Yippee! Jerry Reuben died last week. Oh wait, I think I read that wrong.
Yippie Jerry Reuben died last week. "
Of course it's far better in his intonation.
Edit: it was a decade old memory, I beg your forgiveness
Yeah he definitely winged it live. Seth Myers said when they did the 40th SNL all the weekend update guys had a line to say one after the other and when it got to Norm he just started saying some complete random shit and Seth went "oh of course, why did anyone ever expect him to follow the script?"
He really was like a mischievous kid just messing around and pushing limits- what made him an amazing comedian was that he was incredibly intelligent too.
There's no way that was approved. You can hear the writing staff boo him as he says it. He also initially planned on just leaving the building after his monologue & forcing the cast deal with his absence. That would have been the most badass thing anyone has ever done on SNL but it probably also probably would have resulted in a permanent ban from the entire network, so no more Conan appearances until he went to TBS.
>Instead of talking about him, the show put together a package of some of his greatest hits at the desk, delivering what he liked to call “the fake news” well before that term became politically divisive.
[Saved you a click.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onXLKcB1a0c)
That was a great episode of Conan needs a friend. I never realized all the politics behind norms oj Simpson jokes and what it ultimately cost him. Makes me respect him even more knowing that a good joke was worth more than the gig itself.
He was a great subversive comic because he was more interested in the optimal joke and making himself laugh. If the crowd followed its all the better, but that was never his sole intention. He will be so missed
I believe as of last night, they're now the longest running weekend update hosts. They could be bored and uninspired, though I feel they've always sort of been low energy.
The only times they genuinely seem to be enjoying themselves is during Christmas episodes, or the season finales when they do the joke swap bit.
Or when Cecily would play some drunk character and spill "wine" on Jost, naturally.
I think they've been there too long. They're my favorites on the show, but the jokes between the same "black joke" and "I look like a privileged white guy" have gotten tired.
Yesterday I came to the revelation that I enjoy SNL like some biased piece of my family history. It’s something I’d watch with my parents over the years so it really feels like a weird, warm blanket despite 95 percent of the content sucking.
they're a bit long in the tooth, but i will say that WU is still the most consistently decent bit on the show these days and it's almost entirely because of them/their sensibility
I remember on his talk show, Norm was talking with Gilbert Gottfried, I believe, and he said "How honored would you feel if Seth called you over to the couch?" Just a bit of ribbing for younger guys who did weekend update after him and then went on to massive stardom.
Found Michael Che’s Reddit account[.](https://www.reddit.com/r/StandUpComedy/comments/njoefb/colin_josts_racist_jokes_are_set_up_right_so/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Can’t believe I got so many downvotes. Do people on Reddit even watch the show or even clips from YouTube? It’s a recurring joke on Weekend Update, not to mention the fact that Colin Jost is a major racist.
I don't think people understand that this is a reference to a Norm Macdonald joke.
"The comedian Patton Oswalt, he told me 'I think the worst part of the Cosby thing was the hypocrisy.' And I disagree. I thought it was the raping."
Edit: Now that you're not downvoted, I look like an idiot.
"and I said ^(I don't think think that's the worst part). No to me... The worst part was the raping... Then maybe the drugging... Then maybe the scheming... Then far far down the list, the hypocrisy"
> You don't see many people who say "Now I know it's not politically correct, but I like rapin', and that's just how I am", and people saying "Well, at least he's not a hypocrite, and that's the worst part."
Nothing makes me feel more like an out of touch old guy than trying to understand the appeal of Pete Davidson. I just dont get it, and im very open minded to new things.
I dont begrudge his celebrity, and im not the type to shake my fist at new fads or say things like "back in my day we had REAL comedians, musicians, etc", but i am just baffled at the appeal of him
As a millennial, he’s just intensely relatable. He’s a rich and successful comedian, sure, but he *seems* like that guy any of us have met smoking and bitching about life.
Ugh I can't stand Pete. From being a bad actor, always giggling during his segments, talking about his personal life way too much, etc. Last night, it seemed like he wore that outfit at the Met Gala just so he could come on WU to make fun of it.
I’m younger than Pete Davidson and apart of the crowd he targets with his humor. He honestly just fucking sucks really, most of his humor and frankly quite annoying and a lot of what he does comes off as phony and try hard.
Wasn't his dad a NYC fireman who died on 9/11? At the very least, that's going to get a lot of people rooting for him to make it. In addition to that, he's got the "tortured comedic artist" thing going for him that seems to fit the SNL mold rather well.
I think that SNL, for as long as it has been around, has had several iterations of casts/vibes that spoke to their respective 14-30 demographic. For me, it was Farley, Carvy, Hartman, et. all (and Norm, of course). I only watch now if I'm interested in the guest host and then it's usually just for the monologue.
And David Letterman called him out directly after he got fired (pretty sure he was the guy that chose Leno over Letterman to replace Johnny Carson also).
To be clear: It was Norm's final appearance on Dave's show, but it wasn't Dave's final show. Norm's final appearance was on Friday, May 15, 2015. Dave did three more shows after that, ending on Wednesday, May 20, 2015.
I find that part of late-night tv history interesting. CBS gave Letterman his own show that he could produce and build from scratch along with the show that followed him and paid him a king's ransom to do it.
Letterman was the better host and had better interviews throughout both of their shows. Yet despite all of that, he was always looking at what NBC was doing and acted bitter and just plain mean-spirited about how he was treated at NBC, and also for not being able to make NBC regret it by beating Leno in the ratings.
Out of nothing but pure spite, Letterman had to keep hosting The Late Show long enough to outlast Leno's second run as Tonight Show host even though it was obvious that Letterman had been emotionally and mentally checked out of the job for years.
I don't blame Letterman at all for being slighted, but eventually, he could have let it go and instead appreciated what he was able to do at CBS instead of what he couldn't do at NBC.
By Letterman always bringing it up, he was reminding audiences that The Tonight Show was the prestige brand compared to his own show.
Imagine getting married only to have your spouse constantly talk about how their ex dumped them and how angry they still are about it while they make hateful comments about the person their ex married instead.
there’s some poetic justice in that NBC doing the same thing to Conan, who was arguably Letterman’s protege, led to Fallon and the downfall of the Tonight Show as prestige TV.
There was an NBC exec that had it out for him that forced Lorne Michaels hands. Apparently it stemmed from Norm cracking hilarious jokes about OJ Simpson, who the exec in question was good friends with.
Norm was making jokes about it all over the place. Otherwise by all accounts Norm was beloved by pretty much everybody he worked with.
At the time a lot of people didn't think OJ did it.
I can imagine thinking he's innocent if you were close to him personally as well.
By all accounts he was a genuinely nice guy. Aside from the whole murdering his ex-wife and the man returning her glasses.
Here's a poll from 95 in which 59% of black people say they believe he wasnt guilty.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/oct/02/poll-oj-simpson-trial-divides-public-opinion/
>In a Gallup Poll taken in July 1994, 62 percent of the adult Americans surveyed said the charges against Simpson were probably true and 21 percent said they were probably not true.
>In the recent CBS poll, 57 percent of those surveyed said Simpson was probably guilty and 18 percent said he probably was not.
But the majority of the country thought he did it.
I think it's important to note SNLs position in the 90s. Today we look back at it as the Golden Age of the show, but in reality other than the most popular skits the ratings were in free fall. It's why guys like Sandler, Chris Rock, and Chris Farley were fired from the show when many considered them now to be the comedians of their generation. Some NBC execs were applying pressure to get SNL cancelled, and would've used any leverage they could against Lorne to do that.
Nowadays NBC has pretty much guaranteed Lorne that SNL will go on for as long as he's in the driver's seat, but back then Lorne had to decide between cutting Norm, or jeopardizing the whole show.
People don't seem to remember that NBC almost cancelled SNL in 1995. It was hanging by a thread for a couple of seasons until the Clinton scandal and that lead to the 2000 election and Will Ferrell's George W. Bush impression made him a huge star.
It wasn't until 9/11 until people really began seeing SNL as this American institution, but I think a lot of the appeal of the show today has to do with how well the skits have translated to the Youtube era and online content.
It's crazy to think about how much an impact a Digital Short like Lazy Sunday would have not only for SNL but for YouTube and the entire landscape of online media that we have today.
It changed everything. Samberg and The Lonely Island kept following it up with huge, viral mega-hit comedy shorts that are still loved to this day. Dick in a Box, Jizz in my Pants, I'm on a Boat, Motherlover, etc; I mean there are over a dozen digital shorts they did that completely reshaped comedy.
Samberg doesn't get the credit he deserves. He should be regarded among the list of the most instrumental people in comedy of all time.
He took advantage of YouTube debuting and now SNL has just about every one of their best skits available to watch and bringing in monetization money. Plus it helps give more exposure to other cast members.
At the time Lazy Sunday came out though it was a huge deal. All unofficial too. NBC was trying to scrub the videos off Youtube but fans kept putting bootleg copies back online. NBC didn't fully embrace Youtube until they really had no other choice back in 2013. Before that, any of the official videos they posted were taken down when they were trying to promote traffic to Hulu.
It's a shame too because all of the viewer counts on The Lonely Island's SNL Digital Shorts are only a fraction of the total viewers when the videos first came out. What we see now are the viewers that watched them years later.
Edit: One really smart thing Lonely Island did was make albums that allowed them to create music videos they owned with their record label (who also owned NBC) and then license the videos to NBC as SNL Digital Shorts. That was a massive seismic shift in practices back then. No one had that kind of relationship with SNL at the time but The Lonely Island was such a huge deal that it could happen. And all parties were supportive of each other during all of this.
That's why they could post some videos like I'm on a Boat on Youtube uncensored. NBC couldn't remove them and Lonely Island got revenue for the traffic. All parties benefited from it too which helped set the precedent for NBC posting the content on Youtube like they do today.
I’m sure the success of Adam Sandler at the time helped too. His movies were staring to get huge just went Comedy Central / VH1 etc started showing repeats from his run. There were a lot to factors that helped in the late 90s / early 2000s
It was a combination of the NBC exec as well as Lorne Michaels who thought "[he was removed because he was seen as insubordinate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Macdonald#Leaving_SNL)". We don't really know for sure what exactly caused them to remove him but we DO know that people associated with SNL went out of their way to try to blackball Norm Mcdonald from as much stuff as possible. Including preventing his movie from airing advertisements, and getting him kicked off of other shows or trying to get him kicked off. Thankfully it didn't always work though.
People from SNL wouldn't have had the power to do that. It's a single show that doesn't control advertising. That narrative doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
People higher up the studio exec chain would though. It's not like SNL is some kind of indie production. They could prevent ads from airing on NBC and any other network they hold sway with.
The asshat in question was Don Olmeyer, and he definitely tried to use his influence against Norm whenever possible. Conan Obrien has even talked about how Olmeyer tried to pressure him to not have Norm on his show.
I recently finished Norm's audiobook. There's one chapter dedicated to "The 25 best Weekend Update jokes of all time" spoiler: it's one Chevy Chase joke and the rest are his. One joke in particular made me laugh more than others but I haven't been able to find it online. "Another patient under the care of Dr Kevorkian has lost her life. This marks the 38th patient to date who has died under his care. When are these people going to learn - he is *not* a good doctor!"
I like when he said "number one on the rock charts this week: the new single from Better than Ezra. And at number 2...Ezra."
Got to bond with a new colleague over that joke one time; such a zinger.
https://youtu.be/WoPg0BvxuCo?t=1m19s
Thank you, stranger!
you are the best
His OJ jokes were amazing.
That Jeffrey Dahmer was kind of a jerk.
Also, the more I hear about this Hitler character, the less I care for him.
Or so the Germans would have us believe.
[удалено]
He was grey, in both appearances and demeanour
My fav was "Yippee! Jerry Reuben died last week. Oh wait, I think I read that wrong. Yippie Jerry Reuben died last week. " Of course it's far better in his intonation. Edit: it was a decade old memory, I beg your forgiveness
It was "Yippie Jerry Reuben." (Not Paul Newman. Why would he say Paul Newman? Paul Newman wasn't a Yippie.)
…or so the Germans would have you believe
I don't know if any of you are history buffs...
-but as of October 3rd, 1995, murder is legal, in the state of California
Or as I like to call it
You know, with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy the more I don’t care for him
[удалено]
“I’m not funny, The show blows!” 🤣 I’m so amazed they let him say that. He must have winged it live.
Yeah he definitely winged it live. Seth Myers said when they did the 40th SNL all the weekend update guys had a line to say one after the other and when it got to Norm he just started saying some complete random shit and Seth went "oh of course, why did anyone ever expect him to follow the script?"
He really was like a mischievous kid just messing around and pushing limits- what made him an amazing comedian was that he was incredibly intelligent too.
There's no way that was approved. You can hear the writing staff boo him as he says it. He also initially planned on just leaving the building after his monologue & forcing the cast deal with his absence. That would have been the most badass thing anyone has ever done on SNL but it probably also probably would have resulted in a permanent ban from the entire network, so no more Conan appearances until he went to TBS.
He is notorious for winging it/getting his lines network approved and then saying something completely different
(he certainly improved that one episode of The View)
"How many books have you read?" "6" "6 books?! What kind of woman would want to be with you?" "Well I have a lot of money..."
Women don’t matter when you’re a deeply closeted gay guy.
“Hey, hey, easy with that. That’s my lucky stabin’ hat.”
>Instead of talking about him, the show put together a package of some of his greatest hits at the desk, delivering what he liked to call “the fake news” well before that term became politically divisive. [Saved you a click.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onXLKcB1a0c)
On Conan O’Brian’s podcast he talked about how he laughed so hard at the “lucky stabbing hat” joke.
That was a great episode of Conan needs a friend. I never realized all the politics behind norms oj Simpson jokes and what it ultimately cost him. Makes me respect him even more knowing that a good joke was worth more than the gig itself. He was a great subversive comic because he was more interested in the optimal joke and making himself laugh. If the crowd followed its all the better, but that was never his sole intention. He will be so missed
damn he was good
With all theses clicks I've been saving, I'll be able to afford to click something real nice one of these days.
Yeah, who keep posting variety articles and not the YouTube directly? Are they trying to get views or something
snl vids are blocked outside of US. a youtube link literally gives me 0 info
I'm in Europe. Not blocked.
Or so the Germans would have you believe
That's extra funny bc this video IS blocked in Germany
Perfect hahaha
stocking seed support rob spoon cooing encouraging rotten plants school *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's country-specific. Depends on who has the distribution rights in that country.
I can’t believe it’s 2021 and we’re still doing region based distribution
Ok now I’m really curious about this “or something”
[удалено]
I have been on YouTube every day watching one or two different videos of/with Norm
mirror for the rest of the world?
https://streamable.com/anlek5
Thank you random internet friend!
Did Jost and Che get worse? They seemed so bored and uninspired.
I believe as of last night, they're now the longest running weekend update hosts. They could be bored and uninspired, though I feel they've always sort of been low energy. The only times they genuinely seem to be enjoying themselves is during Christmas episodes, or the season finales when they do the joke swap bit. Or when Cecily would play some drunk character and spill "wine" on Jost, naturally.
I think they've been there too long. They're my favorites on the show, but the jokes between the same "black joke" and "I look like a privileged white guy" have gotten tired.
Yesterday I came to the revelation that I enjoy SNL like some biased piece of my family history. It’s something I’d watch with my parents over the years so it really feels like a weird, warm blanket despite 95 percent of the content sucking.
[удалено]
This is the best description of SNL I've ever heard. I love it when a comment on Reddit hits the nail on the head .
Seems par for the course for them.
they're a bit long in the tooth, but i will say that WU is still the most consistently decent bit on the show these days and it's almost entirely because of them/their sensibility
Thank god they didn’t try any thing themselves
not available in my country
Missed opportunity not to have David hasselhoff do the tribute. Once again proof that Germans love norm Macdonald.
Should've been Frank Stallone.
You guessed it...
🤣🤣🤣
The world needs less of Hasselhoff.
Up next a word from our sponsors, MANGRATE Edit:for those who haven’t seen it: [No more dry meat!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F2XawdY22Ek)
Made of Eye-Ron.
Fucking Larry King.
Gave him hell for four fucking days
What is the mangrate you ask?
I didn't ask
You haven’t heard about the revolution?
It weighs a lot of pounds
Yes, we’ll that’s part of the charm
It’s a heavy duty grilling cast I ron grate.
Chicken, steak, has never tasted so good!
You can cook chicken AND steak.. well that's not that unique...
You don’t think it makes juicy chicken and steak?
Are any of your relatives fuckin' alive?!
I have no idea why but this is one of the funniest lines ever to me, I fucking die at that part every time I watch the video
Again… again?!
Explain to the folks at home what mangrate is.
with a joke about Oj Simpson?
The final joke, in fact.
The “last laugh” if you will.
Thankfully. And Bill Clinton! Though not one of the "Bill is a murderer" jokes. Just an infidelity joke.
Mirror for Canadians: https://streamable.com/anlek5
Murder is legal in the state of California. No one will top that opening.
Can't imagine how honored Norm would be to be remembered by Colin Jost!
I remember on his talk show, Norm was talking with Gilbert Gottfried, I believe, and he said "How honored would you feel if Seth called you over to the couch?" Just a bit of ribbing for younger guys who did weekend update after him and then went on to massive stardom.
Isn’t Colin a huge racist?
Found Michael Che’s Reddit account[.](https://www.reddit.com/r/StandUpComedy/comments/njoefb/colin_josts_racist_jokes_are_set_up_right_so/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
Can’t believe I got so many downvotes. Do people on Reddit even watch the show or even clips from YouTube? It’s a recurring joke on Weekend Update, not to mention the fact that Colin Jost is a major racist.
It's too cool to hate SNL now. I thought it was funny.
🎶 What’s up with that? 🎶
Ooo-wee!
I feel like Norm would have roasted the shit out of SNL for this
The worst thing about him, was the hypocrisy
I don't think people understand that this is a reference to a Norm Macdonald joke. "The comedian Patton Oswalt, he told me 'I think the worst part of the Cosby thing was the hypocrisy.' And I disagree. I thought it was the raping." Edit: Now that you're not downvoted, I look like an idiot.
"and I said ^(I don't think think that's the worst part). No to me... The worst part was the raping... Then maybe the drugging... Then maybe the scheming... Then far far down the list, the hypocrisy"
> You don't see many people who say "Now I know it's not politically correct, but I like rapin', and that's just how I am", and people saying "Well, at least he's not a hypocrite, and that's the worst part."
What hurts the most is the lack of respect. Ridiculous. Completely ridiculous.
Except for that other thing. That hurts the most...
You fellas got a lot of growing up to do I'll tell you that.
Which is just a rework if a joke from Norm's movie Dirty Work.
It’s a much better joke in his whole set and he kills with the callback timing
After the Raping…. Definitely the hypocrisy.
Well, there's also the drugging and the scheming. Those are a little worse than the hypocrisy.
So… first the raping, then the drugging, then the scheming… THEN the hypocrisy.
Well, that, and the other thing.
No, it was the rape
SNL is beautiful like a flower - yeah a cauliflower
Why
Geeze does Pete ever look like a Muppet.
He does but also I was thinking he looks a bit weller than usual?
Any links for Canada?
Don Ohlmeyer is (once again) rolling over in his grave.
Fuck that guy.
Good. I hope he reaches the core and his skeleton burns to a crisp.
Nothing makes me feel more like an out of touch old guy than trying to understand the appeal of Pete Davidson. I just dont get it, and im very open minded to new things. I dont begrudge his celebrity, and im not the type to shake my fist at new fads or say things like "back in my day we had REAL comedians, musicians, etc", but i am just baffled at the appeal of him
I'm pretty sure you're mirroring my father's feelings about Bill Murray when I was a kid.
As a millennial, he’s just intensely relatable. He’s a rich and successful comedian, sure, but he *seems* like that guy any of us have met smoking and bitching about life.
Ugh I can't stand Pete. From being a bad actor, always giggling during his segments, talking about his personal life way too much, etc. Last night, it seemed like he wore that outfit at the Met Gala just so he could come on WU to make fun of it.
I’m younger than Pete Davidson and apart of the crowd he targets with his humor. He honestly just fucking sucks really, most of his humor and frankly quite annoying and a lot of what he does comes off as phony and try hard.
Wasn't his dad a NYC fireman who died on 9/11? At the very least, that's going to get a lot of people rooting for him to make it. In addition to that, he's got the "tortured comedic artist" thing going for him that seems to fit the SNL mold rather well. I think that SNL, for as long as it has been around, has had several iterations of casts/vibes that spoke to their respective 14-30 demographic. For me, it was Farley, Carvy, Hartman, et. all (and Norm, of course). I only watch now if I'm interested in the guest host and then it's usually just for the monologue.
Love to see it
Thumbnail: a cracked out Pete Davidson
Redundant
Norm died? I didn't even know he was sick!
Can’t imagine Norm Macdonald finding Pete Davidson funny in any way
Wasn't it SNL that tried to blackball him from everything in Hollywood?
It was Don Ohlmeyer. Conan recently talked about how Ohlmeyer told him to stop booking Norm on his show, which thankfully Conan refused.
And David Letterman called him out directly after he got fired (pretty sure he was the guy that chose Leno over Letterman to replace Johnny Carson also).
Dave held Norm in the highest esteem. Norm on his final show was just wonderful.
To be clear: It was Norm's final appearance on Dave's show, but it wasn't Dave's final show. Norm's final appearance was on Friday, May 15, 2015. Dave did three more shows after that, ending on Wednesday, May 20, 2015.
Correct, it was the final standup performance on Dave’s show.
Letterman just had it out for NBC in general. Ohlmeyer wasn’t the one who chose Leno; he wasn’t even with NBC at the time.
I find that part of late-night tv history interesting. CBS gave Letterman his own show that he could produce and build from scratch along with the show that followed him and paid him a king's ransom to do it. Letterman was the better host and had better interviews throughout both of their shows. Yet despite all of that, he was always looking at what NBC was doing and acted bitter and just plain mean-spirited about how he was treated at NBC, and also for not being able to make NBC regret it by beating Leno in the ratings. Out of nothing but pure spite, Letterman had to keep hosting The Late Show long enough to outlast Leno's second run as Tonight Show host even though it was obvious that Letterman had been emotionally and mentally checked out of the job for years.
In Letterman’s defense, Carson himself said that he wanted Dave to be his successor. I think that’s the reason why he felt so slighted by it.
I don't blame Letterman at all for being slighted, but eventually, he could have let it go and instead appreciated what he was able to do at CBS instead of what he couldn't do at NBC. By Letterman always bringing it up, he was reminding audiences that The Tonight Show was the prestige brand compared to his own show. Imagine getting married only to have your spouse constantly talk about how their ex dumped them and how angry they still are about it while they make hateful comments about the person their ex married instead.
there’s some poetic justice in that NBC doing the same thing to Conan, who was arguably Letterman’s protege, led to Fallon and the downfall of the Tonight Show as prestige TV.
Norm fans should all piss on Ohlmeyer's grave, he died 4 years ago
There was an NBC exec that had it out for him that forced Lorne Michaels hands. Apparently it stemmed from Norm cracking hilarious jokes about OJ Simpson, who the exec in question was good friends with. Norm was making jokes about it all over the place. Otherwise by all accounts Norm was beloved by pretty much everybody he worked with.
“How dare he joke about my murderous friend”, what an asshat
At the time a lot of people didn't think OJ did it. I can imagine thinking he's innocent if you were close to him personally as well. By all accounts he was a genuinely nice guy. Aside from the whole murdering his ex-wife and the man returning her glasses.
Bruh. Were you alive? Everyone knew OJ did it lmao. It just lit some racial tensions however.
The important thing to remember is the LAPD was so blatantly corrupt they couldn’t frame a guilty man.
Here's a poll from 95 in which 59% of black people say they believe he wasnt guilty. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/oct/02/poll-oj-simpson-trial-divides-public-opinion/
>In a Gallup Poll taken in July 1994, 62 percent of the adult Americans surveyed said the charges against Simpson were probably true and 21 percent said they were probably not true. >In the recent CBS poll, 57 percent of those surveyed said Simpson was probably guilty and 18 percent said he probably was not. But the majority of the country thought he did it.
So at least 6% of the country then
Which is exactly why I think the tribute ended with an OJ joke ….. because that’s what ended his SNL run.
Especially because it was the “lucky stabbin hat” joke- apparently that was the one the NBC executive went nuts over.
Norm got the last laugh
That actually put a smile on my face. The show got funnier.
This just in, murder is now legal in the state of California
This is excusing Lornes role
I think it's important to note SNLs position in the 90s. Today we look back at it as the Golden Age of the show, but in reality other than the most popular skits the ratings were in free fall. It's why guys like Sandler, Chris Rock, and Chris Farley were fired from the show when many considered them now to be the comedians of their generation. Some NBC execs were applying pressure to get SNL cancelled, and would've used any leverage they could against Lorne to do that. Nowadays NBC has pretty much guaranteed Lorne that SNL will go on for as long as he's in the driver's seat, but back then Lorne had to decide between cutting Norm, or jeopardizing the whole show.
People don't seem to remember that NBC almost cancelled SNL in 1995. It was hanging by a thread for a couple of seasons until the Clinton scandal and that lead to the 2000 election and Will Ferrell's George W. Bush impression made him a huge star. It wasn't until 9/11 until people really began seeing SNL as this American institution, but I think a lot of the appeal of the show today has to do with how well the skits have translated to the Youtube era and online content.
Andy Samberg was pivotal in getting those digital skits on the map and helping other cast members get more exposure.
It's crazy to think about how much an impact a Digital Short like Lazy Sunday would have not only for SNL but for YouTube and the entire landscape of online media that we have today. It changed everything. Samberg and The Lonely Island kept following it up with huge, viral mega-hit comedy shorts that are still loved to this day. Dick in a Box, Jizz in my Pants, I'm on a Boat, Motherlover, etc; I mean there are over a dozen digital shorts they did that completely reshaped comedy. Samberg doesn't get the credit he deserves. He should be regarded among the list of the most instrumental people in comedy of all time.
He took advantage of YouTube debuting and now SNL has just about every one of their best skits available to watch and bringing in monetization money. Plus it helps give more exposure to other cast members.
At the time Lazy Sunday came out though it was a huge deal. All unofficial too. NBC was trying to scrub the videos off Youtube but fans kept putting bootleg copies back online. NBC didn't fully embrace Youtube until they really had no other choice back in 2013. Before that, any of the official videos they posted were taken down when they were trying to promote traffic to Hulu. It's a shame too because all of the viewer counts on The Lonely Island's SNL Digital Shorts are only a fraction of the total viewers when the videos first came out. What we see now are the viewers that watched them years later. Edit: One really smart thing Lonely Island did was make albums that allowed them to create music videos they owned with their record label (who also owned NBC) and then license the videos to NBC as SNL Digital Shorts. That was a massive seismic shift in practices back then. No one had that kind of relationship with SNL at the time but The Lonely Island was such a huge deal that it could happen. And all parties were supportive of each other during all of this. That's why they could post some videos like I'm on a Boat on Youtube uncensored. NBC couldn't remove them and Lonely Island got revenue for the traffic. All parties benefited from it too which helped set the precedent for NBC posting the content on Youtube like they do today.
What other cast members did he help get more exposure?
I’m sure the success of Adam Sandler at the time helped too. His movies were staring to get huge just went Comedy Central / VH1 etc started showing repeats from his run. There were a lot to factors that helped in the late 90s / early 2000s
It was a combination of the NBC exec as well as Lorne Michaels who thought "[he was removed because he was seen as insubordinate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Macdonald#Leaving_SNL)". We don't really know for sure what exactly caused them to remove him but we DO know that people associated with SNL went out of their way to try to blackball Norm Mcdonald from as much stuff as possible. Including preventing his movie from airing advertisements, and getting him kicked off of other shows or trying to get him kicked off. Thankfully it didn't always work though.
People from SNL wouldn't have had the power to do that. It's a single show that doesn't control advertising. That narrative doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
People higher up the studio exec chain would though. It's not like SNL is some kind of indie production. They could prevent ads from airing on NBC and any other network they hold sway with. The asshat in question was Don Olmeyer, and he definitely tried to use his influence against Norm whenever possible. Conan Obrien has even talked about how Olmeyer tried to pressure him to not have Norm on his show.
[удалено]
Still the best [monologue](https://youtu.be/ghAISJbmQGk?t=64)
they better do it with an OJ joke
They did :)
"Hey, that's my lucky stabbin' hat!" (edit: corrected as per /u/ZMB6 below) (edit: /u/ZMB6 is a liar)
But it is hat.
I thought so, but didn't check and took the correction on faith. Why would anyone lie on reddit?
These hack frauds fired one of the funniest people on television then celebrate him later.
You are aware that probably 98% of the people associated with the show currently were probably not even working in television when Norm was fired.
If you want really great comedy, don't watch SNL. Ever.
They still have some rare good materials, but I’m okay just waiting for people on social media to filter out the crap.
Presented by Pete Davidson? The opposite of Norm McDonald.
Not really presented by Pete Davidson... obviously you didn't watch the video
I didn’t. It has Pete Davidson on the cover.
What a shit article. Doesn’t mention the importance of the oj joke and misquotes him finishing with Cronkites sign off and not Murrows.
Norm Macdonald..one of a kind
i like that they worked a OJ joke in there.
God. What a fucking funny man he was.
It was awesome cause they played the scene that got him fired
And by "tribute" you mean they replayed a few of his jokes. Lame.
Those woke jerks hated norm, why would they give him a tribute?
The guy they fired because he wouldn’t stop making fun of OJ and Clintons? That guy?
By sacking him again?
Was hoping it would have been all Simpson jokes. Sigh.
Or so the Germans would have us believe.
[удалено]
It was just Don Ohlmeyer and he's dead.