Classic Norm Macdonald

One of the funniest men on the planet – and possibly the funniest still working with any regularity – is Norm Macdonald. Here’s some choice Norm moments…

-In the spring of 1997, Norm made one of his many appearances on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” Norm, Conan and Andy Richter seem to have a telekinetic bond or something, and I can’t think of a single Norm appearance that wasn’t gold. (He was a frequent guest for this reason, as well as the fact that he was usually in the NBC Building and easy to book as a last-minute replacement. Al Roker falls into this category, too, but he’s not that entertaining). This is his masterpiece… not only is Norm’s segment funny, but he continuously impedes on "Melrose Place"'s Courtney Thorne-Smith, saying what Conan wishes he could say and generally creating laughs where there would otherwise be boring-actress-droning. Most talk show hosts seem to abhor that part of the job (interviewing people who are just there to plug), and whenever Norm was on, Conan would keep him out afterward to bother the (usually female) guest that was coming up next (examples include Roshumba, Gretchen Bleiler and Keke Palmer).  By the way, this classic clip PROVES that NBC execs were wrong to give Conan a hard time for booking Norm as the lead guest on "The Tonight Show."



-After several false starts of having his own show, Norm seems to have hit on a successful formula with his online talk show, “Norm Macdonald Live,” which usually features him, sidekick/punching bag Adam Eget (manager of an LA comedy club) and a single guest (a comedian or actor). After the interview, Norm, Adam and the guest read pre-written Weekend Update-style jokes and riff on them. This is a compilation of some of those joke segments…


-Finally, Norm's hilarious Larry King imitation finally met its match when he appeared with the REAL Larry King in 1998, shortly after leaving SNL.  The first two minutes (when he asks about how to be a good interviewer) are priceless.