I guess Norm Macdonald’s trusty glimmery-eyed sarcasm and limitless fart jokes would work better if his material wasn’t six months old and rehashed by almost every news outlet in America countless times. Unfortunately for him, that’s the material he wrote and that’s what he went with in last night’s pilot episode of Comedy Central’s Sports Show With Norm Macdonald, which features MacDonald spouting his usual brand of ‘jokes that only work if they’re told by Norm Macdonald.’
Among the topical crowd roarers were, “I don’t know the difference between a hippy and a hipster, but it’s fun to watch either one of them get beat up!” and, “After reading all of these Yogi Berra quotes, I’m starting to think the guy was retarded!”
The problem I see here is that Macdonald quite frankly thinks he’s more clever than anyone else in the world, and because of this he downplays his jokes and then tries to cover it up with a sly smile, like he’s in on a plot to steal the moon with a crew headed by Bill Clinton. Or maybe those are the best jokes he can think of. One of the two. Either way, who hasn’t seen the Dougie clip with the guy who dances into an ice cream truck? Apparently Norm Macdonald, because he showed the clip as if he had just found the holy grail of the internet and we were his trusty Knights of the Round Table who got to hear the news first. I can’t wait for next week’s ten-minute screed about the innumerable talents of Keyboard Cat. Then he can expound on this great nut he discovered over the weekend called the ‘pistachio’.
To be fair, his introductory Tiger Woods bit had some pretty decent material. I just don’t know if Norm wrote it.
I hope you’re excited for Norm Macdonald clever segments such as ‘What the H’, where he complains about things that happened two years ago (apparently) followed by a segment I assume is titled ‘Yell for two minutes about how stupid Hanes is for letting Michael Jordan wear a Hitler mustache.’ If you don’t think things can get even more dated, he then shows a string of clips of athletes doing the Dougie, the dumb ‘Soulja Boy-like’ dance craze of this summer. Then he ended the show with the aptly titled screed “Garbage Time,” in which he yells about things that happened in the past 50 years of sport. But hey, he had that trusty glimmer in his eye. So he knows more than us.
With so many months to prepare, did he really have to start his pilot episode off with ‘news’ about Tiger Woods and his dalliances with the women of ill repute? Didn’t that happen, like, two years ago? Ben Roethlisberger must feel like chopped liver. If these jokes took months and months for him to amass for his pilot, what’s he going to say when he only has a week to gather material? All I can say is, get ready for tons of stuff about the size of Serena Williams’s butt.
Also, his twitter is idiotic.
Well I gotta sleep. And I’ ll be damned if – dont wake up tomorrowq
Well im sleeping now. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. APRIL FOOLS.
Mad Men just got renewed for another season but word is they’re still Mad. I mean c’mon already.
New york is done. Now I know why they call it the Big Apple. Its really big and its an apple.
This twitter addiction is a serious thing. My doctor said its untweetable.
If a die is cast twice what are the odds the 3 will appear? 2 in 6?
***
Off the Bench intern Josiah Schlatter attends Temple University and has good taste in most things, recently proven when he refused to try out for the university’s Quidditch team for a story.
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- racingfigo - Apr 13, 2011 at 8:41 PM
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Norm MacDonald is a man Chris Rock admires, Letterman considers funnier than him, Jay Leno enjoys, Jon Stewart calls the funniest guy he knows, Conan O’Brien’s favorite talk show guest, and Steve Martin describes as genius. Hell, Richard Pryor’s last TV appearance was on The Norm Show.
But according to you, Norm is not funny and relies on fart jokes, even though there were none on Sports Show and I’ve never heard him make one. Strangely, Jimmy Kimmel along with most people who saw it loved the premiere (not pilot) of the Sports Show. Some of the bits, such as the ice cream truck, were from the pilot and created back when the video came out, according to Norm’s twitter.The Tiger Woods bit has been in Norm’s standup routine so he did write it. Tiger is topical because he threatened to win the Masters last weekend. And what do people think of when they hear Tiger’s name? Norm comically tells us to give Tiger a break, so that he can focus on golf and do better in tournament such as the past weekend’s Masters.
Someone who categorizes Norm’s simple-but-clever “untweetable” tweet as idiotic should try to stay away from commenting on comedy. And you know you’re way off base when you describe his twitter feed as idiotic while Steve Martin, Dennis Miller, and everyone else calls it genius.
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- Jiggs Casey - Apr 14, 2011 at 11:52 AM
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This guy is probably one of the guys who stared blankly at the screen when Norm was originally on Weekend Update. I remember my friends and I laughing our faces off back in the day and being totally bewildered as to why it was being met with silence in the audience. And they way he wouldn’t try to “save” a joke like Leno by doing a funny little dance or something—he just stared straight at the camera with that smile that Josiah hates so much—I thought it was priceless.
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- jredmo - Apr 16, 2011 at 2:11 PM
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I don’t think this guy even saw the episode — I think he just cobbled this review together from the online clips posted on Comedy Central.
Josiah, Norm did not begin the show with his Tiger Woods bit. That was in the middle of the show.
Josiah, do your job better. Wait, no, just don’t do it at all. You’re terrible.
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- motherscratcher23 - Apr 14, 2011 at 12:44 AM
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You must be a fun guy to hang out with Josiah. Isn’t there a Jeff Dunham show you’re late for or something?
Thanks for linking to Norm’s twitter feed, though, so I can follow him. I was laughing my butt off reading his tweets at the bottom of your column.
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- juddmattice - Apr 14, 2011 at 12:45 AM
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God, I wish Norm would just stop with the fart jokes. Every punchline he makes is about a fart! And the constant fart sounds. I’d almost rather a laugh track over the damn fart noise they play at the end of every joke. I don’t understand why every joke has to be a fart joke with a fart noise played after it! They should get the guy who wrote this review to sit in for a writer’s meeting and fix this mess with some pistachio jokes. Or maybe something about Bill Clinton heading a crew plotting to steal the moon. That would make sense.
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- tastycles - Apr 19, 2011 at 2:16 PM
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^OP
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- johnulmer - Apr 14, 2011 at 4:42 AM
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“The problem I see here is that Macdonald quite frankly thinks he’s more clever than anyone else in the world”
Irony: “more clever” is grammatically incorrect. “Cleverer” tends to be the correct word of choice.
Maybe good ol’ Norm is more clever than you after all, buddy.
Oh, and by the way — maybe he didn’t write all his jokes but I sure hope you weren’t the only person responsible for penning this article. If so, you might want to head back to school and take some more journalism courses, friend-o.
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- Jiggs Casey - Apr 14, 2011 at 11:48 AM
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After reading this article, I’m starting to think the guy is retarded!
No, seriously though—what the H? Did you even see the same show as all of us? Every other person I’ve talked to and every article I’ve read about the show proclaimed it as hilarious, and I agree. I actually cried my contact out at one point. This might be an instance of some people not “getting” Norm, but I’ve got to say this article was terrible. Your jokes about how unfunny Norm was weren’t funny at all. (Pistachios? With a crew headed by Bill Clinton? Wait…what?) Also…where are these fart jokes you speak of?
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- iphone5rumours - Apr 14, 2011 at 5:10 PM
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Wow this is actually one of the worst reviews I’ve ever read in my life. Everything you’re saying is so far off from the truth. What fart-jokes are you talking about? There’s a reason he’s called the comedian’s comedian, and if you had any SLIGHT understanding of comedy or a sense of humor a quarter of the size of your self-proclaimed expertise in rating a television show, then you’d understand.
As mentioned above, Jon Stewart, Letterman, Conan, Louis CK and a ton of other comedians consider him as one of the greatest of our time.
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- vic8409 - Apr 14, 2011 at 8:45 PM
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I wanted to reply to this ridiculous article but there’s not much more I can say that hasn’t been said at all. Norm MacDonald is hilarious and this show is just his style. I’m glad to see there are so many people that actually understand Norm’s humor and like the show. NBC just seems to have a hate on for Norm, there must be something going on there for them to fire the best Weekend Update host SNL has ever had. I might even sign up for Twitter just to follow Norm. The guy is genius.
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- yakatuus - Apr 15, 2011 at 1:36 AM
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I registered for this site (which spammed me with an ad, thanks journalistic integrity) just to register my incredulity of this article. Did you even read it after submitting it? Chastising a comedian for making dated references? Do you understand the definition of irony? Its not an Alanis Morissette song. I mean I can hardly criticize your humor as the other posters have so aptly done because it is clear you do not understand it.
The fact that you got paid for the following “sentence” makes me sick:
The problem I see here is that Macdonald quite frankly thinks he’s more clever than anyone else in the world, and because of this he downplays his jokes and then tries to cover it up with a sly smile, like he’s in on a plot to steal the moon with a crew headed by Bill Clinton.
I guess the truest things you said were:
“which features MacDonald spouting his usual brand of ‘jokes that only work if they’re told by Norm Macdonald” – a tacit acknowledgment that his comedic timing borders on perfect and is echelons above all others“So he knows more than us.” – speak for yourself bro
I’ve never registered for a site before just to post a comment. I mean its great and all, that you’re trying to be a critic. More power to you. Always need more of that. But like the end of your article says, “Josiah Schlatter … has good taste in most things.” Unfortunately comedy or television shows are not among them.
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- jmicale77 - Apr 27, 2011 at 3:50 AM
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Agreed I did the same thing. This writer Josiah is absolutely TERRIBLE at what he does. These are the only comments he has gotten on any of his articles, probably because he is really really bad at writing and should stop immediately.
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- tastycles - Apr 19, 2011 at 2:13 PM
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I registered just to inform you of your hasty and tasteless judgement. Norm Macdonald is a legend. I saw the show and it was hilarious.
The numerous references to social media sites and your insistence on being as fresh as possible with material leads me to believe you are vapid and possibly a buffoon.
Good day sir.
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- jmicale77 - Apr 27, 2011 at 3:51 AM
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“Josiah Schlatter … has good taste in most things.” Unfortunately comedy or television shows are not among them.
Josiah Do us all a favor. Die in a fire. k thx.
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- captaincoolguy - Jul 6, 2011 at 2:36 AM
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I actually agree with Josiah. I recently went to see Norm Macdonald live, expecting his usually litany of fart jokes, and was forced to actually asked for my money back, when after an hour, there was nary a fart to be found. Imagine my horror to being subjected to intelligent humour, some of it being actually personal dealing with the death of his father. I spent the entire time wishing i could hear some butthurt douchebag spout off on a jealous tirade. That would have made my night. And some farts.
