Armed with a deadpan delivery, devil-may-care attitude and cracker-barrel charm, the Canadian comic got his start writing for “Roseanne” before earning acclaim as the host of SNL’s Weekend Update, where his unrelenting ridicule of O.J. Simpson for being an alleged murderer — Macdonald was adamant that it wasn’t so “alleged” — eventually got him canned from the show. His one big shot at movie stardom, the Bob Saget-helmed 1998 comedy film “Dirty Work,” bombed spectacularly, and he subsequently presided over the quietly uproarious video podcast “Norm Macdonald Live” before dying from complications from leukemia in 2021 at the age of 61.
Perhaps his old pal Larry King said it best, calling Macdonald, “One of the most respected comedians today, though show business has never found a place to put him.” In the handful of years since his death, however, Macdonald has blossomed into an internet darling, as new generations of comedy enthusiasts stumble upon his hilariously awkward late-night appearances — particularly on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” — Weekend Update segments and podcast clips. Nobody did it like Macdonald, whose downright desiccated sense of humor is sorely absent in today’s doing-too-much comedy landscape. This new cultural appreciation for Macdonald is celebrated in “Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald,” a new documentary from Judd Apatow that premieres Friday on Netflix.
Apatow’s loving tribute to his late pal contains no talking heads or any of the other conventions of these types of docs; rather, it explores the comedy giant’s life in Macdonald’s own words, largely borrowed from the narration of his absurdist biographical book “Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir,” as well as home videos, photos and archival interviews. Here are five big takeaways from “Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald.” Next to Chevy Chase, Macdonald is regarded as the greatest Weekend Update host in “Saturday Night Live” history. And in the documentary, he gives a lot of credit to Lori Jo Hoekstra, his longtime collaborator who produced his stand-up specials and oversaw Weekend Update during his tenure.
It was Hoekstra, he says, who wanted to make their Weekend Update different from the rest of SNL by hiring a team of outside writers, including Ross Abrash and Frank Sebastiano (who joined Macdonald’s creative partner, the legendary SNL writer Jim Downey), and having its own separate comedy identity. Applause is voluntary, but laughter is involuntary.” “If I am remembered, it will always be by the four years I spent at ‘Saturday Night Live’ — and maybe even more than that, by the events surrounding my departure from that show,” Macdonald admits in the film. And yes, the circumstances of his SNL departure have become an indispensable part of Macdonald’s lore.
As the story goes, in the ‘90s, Macdonald, Downey and the Weekend Update team went hard at O.J. Simpson during his murder trial. Simpson’s lawyers say they don’t want the families of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman in the courtroom during the trial.
They’re afraid the presence of the family members will just remind O.J. of how much killing he still has to do,” Macdonald quipped on Update. When Simpson was acquitted of the murders, Macdonald declared on the show: “Well, it is finally official: Murder is legal in the state of California.” But Simpson was best friends with then-president of NBC West Coast, the late Don Ohlmeyer, who supposedly became so incensed by Macdonald’s mockery of his controversial buddy that he fired both Macdonald and Downey (Downey was later rehired in 2000) over the jokes, with Macdonald saying that Ohlmeyer called him up personally and told him he was being fired because he wasn’t funny. Ohlmeyer’s vendetta against Macdonald didn’t end there.
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