Norm Macdonald

Norman Gene Macdonald (October 17, 1959 September 14, 2021) was a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and writer whose style was characterized by deadpan delivery, eccentric understatement, and the use of folksy, old-fashioned turns of phrase. He appeared in numerous films and was a frequent guest on late-night talk shows, where he developed a reputation for his chaotic yet understated comedic style. His appearances on Conan O'Brien's and David Letterman's programs were especially well-received, with the latter describing him as "the best" stand-up comedian.

Earlier in his career, Macdonald's first work on television included writing for comedies such as Roseanne and The Dennis Miller Show. In 1993, Macdonald was hired as a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live (SNL), spending a total of five seasons on the series, which included anchoring the show's Weekend Update segment for three and a half seasons. He was removed as host of SNL 's Weekend Update in 1998, allegedly for relentlessly mocking Simpson during his murder trial, offending producer Don Ohlmeyer, who was a close friend of Simpson. Macdonald died of leukemia in September 2021, a condition he had not publicly disclosed.

Early life Norman Gene Macdonald was born on October 17, 1959, in Quebec City, Quebec. His parents, Ferne and Percy Lloyd Macdonald (1916–1990), were both Anglophone teachers Their parents worked at CFB Valcartier, a military base north of Quebec City. As a child, his father would not let him learn French, as he wanted the family to speak English. Macdonald's father died in 1990 of heart disease.

He attended Quebec High School before his family moved to Ottawa, Ontario. In Ottawa, Macdonald attended Gloucester High School graduating 2 years early at the age of 14 years old. After high school he enrolled at Carleton University, where he studied mathematics and philosophy before dropping out. Macdonald was later also briefly enrolled in Algonquin College's programs for journalism and broadcasting-television, following his elder brother Neil Macdonald's footsteps. In between periods of school and before starting in comedy, he worked a variety of manual labour jobs, including as a chokerman for a logging company.

Career Macdonald's first performances in comedy were at stand-up clubs in Ottawa, regularly appearing on amateur nights at Yuk Yuk's in 1985. Not appreciating how well his first performance at the club had gone, he bolted out, saying he would never do it again. The club's owner, Howard Wagman, had to persuade him to come back for more. Eventually his confidence grew. Six months later he performed at the 1986 Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, and he was heralded by the Montreal Gazette as "one of this country's hottest comics".

In August 1989, 29-year-old Macdonald made his U.S. network television debut by appearing on The Pat Sajak Show. Over the following seven months, he would go on to make five more appearances on the show. By 1990, he performed as a contestant on Star Search. He also appeared on Late Night with David Letterman in May 1990, and the host became a huge fan, saying: "If we could have, we would have had Norm on every week". He was hired as a writer for television sitcom Roseanne for the 1992–93 season before quitting to join Saturday Night Live.

1993–1998: Saturday Night Live Macdonald joined the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) television program in 1993, where he performed impressions of Larry King, Burt Reynolds, David Letterman, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Charles Kuralt, and Bob Dole, among others. The following year, during the show's twentieth season, Macdonald began anchoring the news satire segment Weekend Update. Frank Stallone took no offence, later stating: "He wasn't really attacking me, it was just randomly thrown in there". Nonetheless, Macdonald stopped the Frank Stallone jokes after a 1997 request from Sylvester Stallone, Frank's brother, who was guest host for SNL.

The comments were met with sharp criticism from activist groups, including The Transexual Menace, who threatened to picket SNL. Upon reviewing the show, NBC agreed the line was inappropriate and should not have aired, and said it would ensure that similar incidents would not happen in the future.

After the announcement that Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley planned to divorce, Macdonald joked about their irreconcilable differences on Weekend Update. "According to friends, the two were never a good match. She's more of a stay-at-home type, and he's more of a homosexual pedophile." He followed this up a few episodes later with a report about the singer's collapse and hospitalization. Referring to a report that Jackson had decorated his hospital room with giant photographs of Shirley Temple, Macdonald added: "But don't get any ideas: Michael Jackson is a homosexual pedophile."

Leaving Saturday Night Live In early 1998, Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC's West Coast division, had Macdonald removed as Weekend Update anchor, citing a decline in ratings and a drop-off in quality. He was replaced by Colin Quinn at the Weekend Update desk beginning on the January 10, 1998, episode.

Macdonald believed at the time that the true reason for his dismissal was his series of Simpson jokes during and after the trial, in which he frequently called him a murderer; Ohlmeyer was a good friend of Simpson and supported him during the proceedings. After being removed from the role, Macdonald went on CBS' Late Show with David Letterman and Howard Stern's syndicated radio show. In both appearances, the hosts accused Ohlmeyer of firing him for making jokes about Simpson.

Ohlmeyer claimed that Macdonald was mistaken, pointing out he had not censored Jay Leno's many jokes about Simpson on The Tonight Show.

Macdonald remained on SNL as a cast member, but he disliked performing in regular sketches. On February 28, 1998, in one of his last appearances on SNL, he played the host of a fictitious TV series titled Who's More Grizzled?, who asked questions from "mountain men", played by that night's host Garth Brooks and special guest Robert Duvall. In the sketch, Brooks' character says to Macdonald's character, "I don't much care for you," to which Macdonald replies, "A lot of people don't." He was dismissed shortly thereafter.

The situation re-ignited in early June 1998 when Ohlmeyer prevented NBC from airing advertisements from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for Macdonald's new film Dirty Work out of retaliation for what he saw as Macdonald's disparaging SNL and NBC with Letterman and Stern. Macdonald continued to insist that he did not personally dislike Ohlmeyer but that Ohlmeyer hated him.

In later years, he came to the conclusion that Ohlmeyer had not removed him from Update for his Simpson material; rather, he felt he was removed because he was seen as insubordinate: "I think the whole show was tired of me not taking marching orders. Lorne would hint at things... I'd do Michael Jackson jokes. And Lorne would say, 'do you really want a lawsuit from Michael Jackson?' And I'd say, 'Cool! That'd be fuckin' cool, Michael Jackson suing me!'" Elsewhere, Macdonald would concede, "In all fairness to him, my Update was not an audience[-]pleasing, warm kind of thing. I did jokes that I knew weren't going to get bigger reactions. So I saw [Ohlmeyer's] point. Why would you want some dude who's not trying to please the audience?"

Macdonald returned to Saturday Night Live to host the October 23, 1999, show. In his opening monologue, he expressed resentment at being fired from Weekend Update, and then he concluded that the only reason he was asked to host was because "the show has gotten really bad" since he left.

1998–1999: Dirty Work and The Norm Show Soon after leaving Saturday Night Live, Macdonald co-wrote and starred in the "revenge comedy" Dirty Work (1998), directed by Bob Saget, co-starring Artie Lange, and featuring Chris Farley in his last film; the film was dedicated to his memory. Later that year, Macdonald voiced Lucky in the Eddie Murphy adaptation of Dr. Dolittle. He reprised the role in both Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) and Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006).

In 1999, Macdonald starred in The Norm Show (later retitled Norm), co-starring Laurie Metcalf, Artie Lange, and Ian Gomez. It ran for three seasons on ABC. Earlier in 1999, he made an appearance in the Andy Kaufman biographical drama Man on the Moon, directed by Miloš Forman. When Michael Richards refused to portray himself in the scene reenacting the famous Fridays incident in which Kaufman threw water in his face, Macdonald stepped in to play Richards, although he was not referred to by name. Macdonald also appeared in Forman's previous film The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) as a reporter summoned to Flynt's mansion regarding secret tapes involving automaker John DeLorean.

2000–2005 In 2000, Macdonald played the starring role for the second time in a motion picture alongside Dave Chappelle, Screwed, which fared poorly at the box office. He continued to make appearances on television shows and in films. Also, in 2000, Macdonald made his first appearance on Family Guy, as the voice of Death. That role was later recast to Adam Carolla. On November 12, 2000, he appeared on the Celebrity Edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, winning $500,000 for Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Charity Camp, but could have won the million if he had ignored the advice of host Regis Philbin.

In 2003, Macdonald played the title character in the Fox sitcom A Minute with Stan Hooper, which was cancelled after six episodes. In 2005, Macdonald signed a deal with Comedy Central to create the sketch comedy Back to Norm, which debuted that May. The pilot, whose cold opening parodied the suicide of R. Budd Dwyer, featured as a cast member Rob Schneider and never turned into a series. Later in 2005, Macdonald voiced a genie named Norm on the Nickelodeon cartoon series The Fairly OddParents.

2006–2009

In 2006, Macdonald again performed as a voice actor, this time in a series of commercials for the Canadian mobile-services provider Bell Mobility, as the voice of Frank the Beaver. The campaign was extended through 2008 to promote offerings from other Bell Canada divisions such as the Internet provider Bell Sympatico and the satellite service Bell Satellite TV. In September 2006, Macdonald's sketch comedy album Ridiculous was released by Comedy Central Records. It features appearances by Will Ferrell, Jon Lovitz, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon, and Artie Lange. On the comedy website Super Deluxe, he created an animated series entitled The Fake News. Macdonald filled in during Dennis Miller's weekly "Miller Time" segment on O'Reilly Factor, and guest-hosted Miller's radio show, on which he was briefly a weekly contributor.

Macdonald was a guest character on My Name Is Earl in the episode "Two Balls, Two Strikes" (2007) as Lil Chubby, the son of "Chubby" (played by Burt Reynolds), similar to Macdonald's portrayals of Reynolds on SNL. On June 19, 2008, Macdonald was a celebrity panellist on two episodes of a revived version of the game show Match Game. On August 17, 2008, Macdonald was a participant in the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, performing intentionally cheesy and G-rated material that contrasted greatly with the raunchy performances of the other roasters. In AT&T commercials around Christmas 2007 and 2008, Macdonald voiced a gingerbread boy in a commercial for AT&T's GoPhone.

In 2009, Macdonald and Sam Simon pitched a fake reality show to FX called The Norm Macdonald Reality Show, where Macdonald would play a fictional, down-on-his-luck version of himself. The show was picked up and Garry Shandling was added to the cast, but it was cancelled halfway through filming. On the May 16, 2009, episode of Saturday Night Live, Macdonald reappeared as Burt Reynolds on Celebrity Jeopardy!, and in another sketch. On May 31, 2009, he appeared on Million Dollar Password.

2010–2012 Macdonald became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien during its 2009 and 2010 run. He made frequent appearances on the Internet talk show Tom Green's House Tonight, and on May 20, 2010, was guest host.

In September 2010, Macdonald was developing a series for Comedy Central that he described as a sports version of The Daily Show. Sports Show with Norm Macdonald premiered April 12, 2011. Nine ordered episodes were broadcast. Macdonald's first stand-up special, Me Doing Stand-Up, aired on Comedy Central on March 26, 2011. On February 26, 2011, he became a commentator and co-host (with Kara Scott) of the seventh season of the TV series High Stakes Poker on Game Show Network.

Early in 2012, it was reported that Macdonald was developing a talk show for TBS titled Norm Macdonald is Trending, which would see Macdonald and a team of correspondents covering headlines from pop culture and social media. Clips for the unaired pilot published by The Washington Post resemble a sketch comedy show in the vein of Back to Norm.

2013–2016: Norm Macdonald Live

In 2013, Macdonald premiered the podcast Norm Macdonald Live, with sidekick Adam Eget, streaming live weekly on Video Podcast Network and posted later on YouTube. It received positive notices from USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and the "America's Comedy" website, while the Independent Film Channel stated that while Macdonald remained "a comedy force to be reckoned with" and "did not quite disappoint," the show was "a bit rough around the edges." The second season of Norm Macdonald Live began in May 2014, and the third began in September 2016.

Macdonald played the role of Rusty Heck, Mike Heck's hapless-yet-crafty brother on the sitcom The Middle, which ran from 2009 to 2018.

Macdonald also joined Grantland as a contributor in the first two months of 2013.

2014–2022 In 2014, Macdonald unsuccessfully campaigned on Twitter to be named the new host of The Late Late Show after then-host Craig Ferguson announced he would be leaving. On May 15, 2015, Macdonald was the final stand-up act on the Late Show with David Letterman. During his set, which ended with him breaking into tears as he told Letterman that he truly loved him, Macdonald included a joke Letterman had told the first time Macdonald had ever seen him during a 1970s appearance on the Canadian talk show 90 Minutes Live, where a 13-year-old Macdonald had been in the studio audience. Also in 2015, Macdonald was a judge for the ninth season of NBC's Last Comic Standing, joining the previous season's judges, Roseanne Barr and Keenan Ivory Wayans and replacing fellow Canadian Russell Peters from 2014.

In August 2015, he succeeded Darrell Hammond as Colonel Sanders in TV commercials for the KFC chain of fast food restaurants. Macdonald was replaced by Jim Gaffigan in the role by February 2016.

In September 2016, Macdonald's semi-fictional memoir Based on a True Story was published by Random House imprint Spiegel & Grau. It debuted at number 15 on the New York Times Best Sellers list for hardcover nonfiction, and made number 6 on the Best Sellers list for humour.

From May 2017, Macdonald moved his comedy to a more reserved, deadpan style. On stage, he claimed to have "no opinions" and the minimalist delivery was described as "reduc[ing] gesture and verbiage down to an absurd minimum."

In March 2018, Netflix announced it had ordered ten episodes of a new talk show titled Norm Macdonald Has a Show, hosted by Macdonald. The series premiered on September 14, 2018.

In September 2018, Macdonald sparked controversy after the publication of an interview in which he appeared to criticize aspects of the #MeToo movement and defend friends and fellow comedians Louis C.K. and Roseanne Barr. Macdonald's scheduled appearance on NBC's Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was subsequently cancelled.

In 2019, Macdonald appeared on Lights Out with David Spade and claimed to have changed his mind on O. J. Simpson's guilt, alleging that he could have rushed to judge the man. It was unclear if Macdonald's comments were meant to be taken as a joke, but Macdonald's close friend Lori Jo Hoekstra claimed Simpson himself reached out to Macdonald to thank him for the gentler commentary and offered to play golf.

In February 2020, Macdonald launched Loko, a dating app he co-created that relies heavily on video to make first impressions.

That summer, he had a stand-up set prepared for a final Netflix special, and he taped his audienceless dry run with the intention of filming it professionally to an audience. While the proper filming never materialized, the run-through was released posthumously as Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special on May 30, 2022, to critical acclaim. The special was followed with a discussion with Dave Chappelle, Molly Shannon, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, David Spade, and Adam Sandler.

He had a recurring role as Yaphit, a gelatinous engineer, on the Fox science fiction series The Orville, whose third season, subtitled New Horizons, premiered in June 2022; Macdonald appeared posthumously in his last casting.

Influences and views on comedy Macdonald said his influences included the comedians Bob Newhart, Sam Kinison, Rodney Dangerfield, and the writers Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov. In a 2006 interview to promote his new album Ridiculous at The Daily Show, Macdonald mentioned how he grew up listening to albums of fellow Canadians Cheech and Chong all the time, and wanted to make an adult comedy album once he became a professional comedian; Macdonald was also a big fan of Bill Cosby and George Carlin.

Speaking about Canada's homegrown comedy industry, Macdonald reflected that he would have liked there to have been more opportunity for him to stay in the country early in his career, stating:

Reflecting on the state of modern comedy, he bemoaned the influx of dramatic actors into comedy and comedians into dramatic acting.

Personal life In 1988, Macdonald married Connie Vaillancourt, with whom he had a son, born in 1992. The couple separated in April 1999 and divorced later the same year. Macdonald's views on faith have been compared to those of Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and Cardinal John Henry Newman.

While judging on Last Comic Standing, Macdonald criticized a contestant for a joke about the Harry Potter books and the Bible, saying: "I think if you're going to take on an entire religion, you should at least know what you're talking about." He pointed out that J. K. Rowling was a Christian who once said: "If you were familiar with the Scriptures, you could easily guess the ending of my book."

Gambling Macdonald had a gambling addiction he claimed started with a six-figure win at a craps table in Atlantic City. In an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast in 2011, Macdonald revealed that he lost all of his money gambling three times, and the largest amount he lost at once was $400,000. He went bankrupt twice. In the 2007 World Series of Poker, he came in 20th place out of 827 entrants in the $3,000 No-Limit Texas Hold 'em event, winning $14,608. He also frequently played live cash games

Illness, death, and legacy In 2013, Macdonald was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He disclosed his diagnosis only to his family, agent, and former wife, fearing that revealing his condition to the public would "affect the way he was perceived", according to his brother Neil. Macdonald received several stem cell transplants, using aliases to avoid attention.

Jon Stewart called him the funniest person he knew in Macdonald's first interview at The Daily Show to promote The Norm Show. According to Conan O'Brien, "Norm had the most unique comedic voice I have ever encountered and he was so relentlessly and uncompromisingly funny. I will never laugh that hard again." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter: "The world was a much funnier place because Norm Macdonald was in it. We've lost a comedic genius, and a great Canadian." Both John Oliver and Lorne Michaels dedicated their victories at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards to Macdonald's memory. Season 3 of The Orville opened with an onscreen dedication to Macdonald. Long time friend and collaborator Adam Eget named Macdonald as his "hero" when discussing his passing on the Chubby Behemoths YouTube podcast, and said he was "the most original voice in comedy since Sam Kinison" on an Instagram post dedicated to Macdonald.

On July 12, 2022, Macdonald was posthumously nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for his stand-up special Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special. Following O. J. Simpson's death on April 10, 2024, Macdonald's regular Saturday Night Live jokes about Simpson's trial were shared across the internet. Conan O'Brien remembered the late comic as giving the most notable commentary on the trial and murders, remembering him as having given "some of the most brilliant comedy of anybody" about the incident. He further remembered Macdonald as one of the greatest talk show guests and comedians of all time.

Dave Chappelle dedicated his Netflix special The Closer to the memory of Macdonald, who had died shortly before its release. Chappelle also opened his 2023 special The Dreamer by crediting Macdonald with making him fall in love with comedy again.

Works Comedy

TV series

Literature

Talk shows

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1995 Billy Madison Frank 1996 The People vs. Larry Flynt Network Reporter 1998 Dirty Work Mitch Weaver Also co-writerDr. Dolittle Lucky Voice 1999 Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo Bartender Uncredited cameo Man on the Moon Michael Richards Uncredited 2000 Screwed Willard Fillmore 2001 The Animal Mob Member CameoDr. Dolittle 2 Lucky Voice 2005 Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo Earl McManus Uncredited cameo Christmas Is Here Again Buster the Fox Voice 2008 Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief Lucky Voice (uncredited) The Flight Before Christmas Julius Voice 2009 Funny People Himself CameoDr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts Lucky Voice 2010 Grown Ups Geezer CameoHollywood & Wine Sid Blaustein 2011 Jack & Jill Funbucket Cameo 2012 The Adventures of Panda Warrior King Leo VoiceVampire Dog Fang The Outback Quint 2014 The Seventh Dwarf Burner the Dragon 2015 The Ridiculous 6 Nugget Customer Cameo 2017 Treasure Hounds Skipper Voice 2019 Klaus Mogens 2021 Back Home Again Grandpaws Voice; Final film role, posthumous release

Television Year Title Role Notes 1990 Star Search Himself Stand-up comedy competitor 1991 One Night Stand Stand-up special 1992 The Dennis Miller Show Writer 1992–1993, 2018 Roseanne Writer, story editor and consulting producer 1993 The Jackie Thomas Show Jordan Episode: "Strike" 1993–1999, 2009, 2015 Saturday Night Live Various roles, Host 98 episodes; also writer 1995 The Larry Sanders Show Himself Episode: "Hank's Sex Tape" 1996, 2000 The Drew Carey Show Simon Tate / Himself 2 episodes 1997 NewsRadio Roger Edwards Episode: "The Injury" 1999–2001 The Norm Show Norm Henderson 54 episodes; also producer 2000, 2017 Family Guy Death / Himself Voice; Episode: "Death Is a Bitch; (uncredited); Episode: "Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas" 2003 A Minute with Stan Hooper Stan Hooper 7 episodes; also executive producer 2004 Oliver Beene Hobo Bob Episode: "Girly Dad" 2005 The Fairly OddParentsNorm the Genie Voice; 2 episodesBack to Norm Various roles Television special; also writer and producer 2007, 2009 My Name Is Earl Little Chubby 2 episodes 2008 The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget Himself Television special 2010–2018 The Middle Orville "Rusty" Heck 10 episodes 2011 High Stakes Poker Himself (host) Season 7 2014–2020 Mike Tyson Mysteries Pigeon Voice; 69 episodes 2015 Real Rob Himself Episode: "The Penis Episode Part 1" Last Comic Standing Himself (judge) 8 episodesSunnyside Hole 12 episodes 2016 4th Canadian Screen Awards Himself (host) Television special 2016–2018Skylanders Academy Glumshanks Voice; 38 episodes 2017 Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee Himself Episode: "A Rusty Car in the Rain"Girlboss Rick 4 episodes 2017–2022 The Orville Yaphit Voice; 22 episodes

Discography