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Norm Macdonald

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Norman Gene MacDonald (born October 17, 1963 in Quebec City) is an actor and comedian. He is known for his biting sarcasm, distinct muttering, and slurring delivery, all of which were in full force during his three years as anchor on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment.

Norm Macdonald
Born
Norman Gene MacDonald
Height6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
For other people named Norm Macdonald, see Norm Macdonald (disambiguation).

He performed as a stand up comedian in comedy clubs across Canada before eventually moving to Los Angeles, California. In Los Angeles, he became a writer for the popular situation comedy Roseanne and also acted on programs including The Drew Carey Show and NewsRadio. Comedy Central named him #83 on the five part mini-series 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.

Early life

Information about MacDonald's past is difficult to ascertain because, as with many comedians, many of his personal revelations are part of his performance.

His father, Percy MacDonald, served with the Canadian Army during the Second World War and helped liberate the Netherlands from the Germans. After the War, he became a teacher and with his wife Fern, raised two sons, Norm and Neil, and a daughter, Leslie.

Norm MacDonald attended grade school in the early 1970's at Alexander Wolff School on CFB Valcartier outside Quebec City, where his parents were both teachers. His father was his home room teacher for grades 6 and 7, and Norm was required to address him as "Mr. MacDonald". After completing Grade 7 at AWS he continued his education at Quebec High School in Quebec City.

There are a number of conflicting stories about his educational background:

  • He dropped out of high school at the age of 15.
  • He has also claimed to have attended Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario to study math, and to have played Junior AAA hockey in Ottawa.

Saturday Night Live

MacDonald joined the cast of NBC's popular Saturday Night Live (SNL) program in 1993, where he occasionally did impressions of Larry King, Burt Reynolds, David Letterman, Charles Kuralt, Bob Dole, and others.

However, his most notable position on Saturday Night Live was as anchor of Weekend Update. Chevy Chase, the first anchor of WU, has opined that MacDonald is the only anchor since Chevy's tenure to have "done it right." .[1] MacDonald used a deadpan style during the segment, which included running gags such as repeated references to the Germans and their love of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, regular jokes about prison rape, 'crack whores' and some comedic attacks on public figures such as O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson. Throughout the Simpson trial, MacDonald constantly pilloried the former football star, suggesting that Simpson was guilty of the brutal slaying of his wife Nicole. In the broadcast following Simpson's acquittal, MacDonald opened Weekend Update by saying: "Well, it's official: murder is legal in the state of California."

After the announcement that Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley planned to divorce, MacDonald joked about their irreconcilable differences on Weekend Update: "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 recent collapse and hospitalization. Referring to a report of how Jackson had decorated his hospital room with giant photographs of Shirley Temple, Norm stated that viewers should not get the wrong idea: "We'd like to remind you that Michael Jackson is, in fact, a homosexual pedophile." The joke elicited audible gasps from some audience members.

MacDonald made another controversial joke during the February 24, 1996, show when he commented on the sentencing of John Lotter, who was convicted of brutally slaying transgender male Brandon Teena: "In Nebraska, a man was sentenced for killing a female crossdresser [sic] who had accused him of rape and two of her friends. Excuse me if this sounds harsh, but in my mind, they all deserved to die." [2]

Another uncomfortable moment occurred during the April 12, 1997, show when, during a "Weekend Update" story about Tabitha Soren, he accidentally coughed in the middle of a sentence and, live on the air, muttered, "What the fuck was that?" The audience applauded, and MacDonald laughed the error away. At one point, he called it his "farewell performance" and, in closing, said, "Maybe I'll see you next week." NBC only received three complaints about the gaffe, and MacDonald was not punished.

A Rolling Stone magazine article about the show during that time period seemed to suggest that he had difficulties getting along with some of the other cast members, whom he taunted frequently. In the article, Chris Kattan described him as "an asshole."

MacDonald's time for all intents and purposes with Saturday Night Live ended in late 1997 when he was fired from the Weekend Update segment upon the insistence of NBC West Coast Executive Don Ohlmeyer, who pressured the producers to remove him, stating that MacDonald was "not funny." Some believe that Don Ohlmeyer's friendship with O.J. Simpson — a celebrity whom MacDonald often antagonized on the show — may have fueled Ohlmeyer's decision.[1] Ohlmeyer denied the rumor, arguing that other NBC late-night comedians (e.g., Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and other SNL players) also constantly lampooned Simpson with little to no sanction, and that his decision was based solely on audience reaction through tapes he had personally reviewed. Despite the incident, MacDonald left the show the following year under decent terms with Ohlmeyer, who originally pushed for producer Lorne Michaels to give MacDonald a shot at the Weekend Update desk in 1994. His last appearance on the program as a cast member was on February 28, 1998, portraying a host of a fictitious TV show entitled Who's More Grizzled?, asking questions to mountain man characters played by that episode's host Garth Brooks and special guest Robert Duvall. In the sketch, Brooks' character remarked to MacDonald's character at one point, "I don't much care for you," to which MacDonald replied, "Not a lot of people do."

After MacDonald left the show, his successor, Colin Quinn, gave a short monologue before his first starring role in a Weekend Update segment implying that MacDonald had shown him "the ropes" to being a Weekend Update anchor. Quinn asked the audience if they had ever gone to their favorite bar looking for their favorite bartender and found out the bartender had been replaced (by a less qualified man named "Steve"). After a brief pause, Quinn looked flatly at the audience and proclaimed, "Well I'm Steve." Only a few minutes after Quinn's "I'm Steve" remark, SNL castmember Will Ferrell appeared with Quinn as Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray. In the segment, Ferrell continuously referred to Quinn as "Norm," once commenting on Quinn's girth by saying "Norm, have you gained some weight?"

In a Late Show with David Letterman interview, MacDonald said that once fired, he was not allowed to have a show competing against Saturday Night Live's timeslot.

Recurring Characters on SNL

  • Stan Hooper, a cynical man who exploits other people (the short-lived FOX sitcom, A Minute With Stan Hooper, used this character, but changed his personality)

Celebrity Impersonations

After Saturday Night Live

Soon after leaving Saturday Night Live, MacDonald starred in his first movie, the "revenge comedy" Dirty Work, which was released in 1998. The film featured performances from comedians including Jack Warden, Don Rickles, Chevy Chase, Chris Farley, Artie Lange, and Adam Sandler. Later that year, MacDonald also lent his voice to one of the animals in the Eddie Murphy remake of Doctor Dolittle (and its 2001 sequel Doctor Dolittle 2). He would reprise the role in 2006's Doctor Dolittle 3, which did not star Eddie Murphy.

MacDonald voiced the character of Death on an episode of Family Guy. Due to a conflict with his stand-up comedy schedule, he was unavailable to voice the character the next two times it appeared and the role was voiced by Adam Carolla.

In 1999, MacDonald starred in a sitcom called The Norm Show (later renamed Norm), co-starring Laurie Metcalf, Artie Lange and Ian Gomez. It ran for three seasons on American Broadcasting Company.

Also in 1999, MacDonald was the voice of the Hardee's restaurant's (Carl's Jr. on the U.S. West Coast) costumed mascot, the Hardee's Star in advertisements. MacDonald also appeared on Miller Lite commercials that year.

He appeared (to much applause) on the September 1999 Saturday Night Live primetime special celebrated the program's 25th year on the air. MacDonald was one of only three former Weekend Update anchors to introduce a retrospective on the segment.

MacDonald returned to Saturday Night Live to host the October 23, 1999 show alongside musical guests Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem. In his opening monologue, he expressed resentment at having been fired and deduced that the only reason he was asked back to host was because the show had gotten worse since he was fired ("the show blows")[3]. His multiple utterances of "God damn" were edited out of future repeats of the episode.

In 2000, MacDonald starred in his second motion picture, Screwed. Like Dirty Work, it fared poorly at the box office.

Despite his alleged lack of higher education, MacDonald reached the $1 million question on the Celebrity Edition of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? on November 12, 2000[4]. He guessed correctly for the $250,000 and $500,000 questions. Host Regis Philbin convinced him to stop at $500,000, since the loss of the prize money could have affected MacDonald's chosen charity. His after-game guess on the last question was revealed to be correct, so he would have won the million dollars.

MacDonald continued to make appearances on television programs and in films, including Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo and The Animal, all of which starred fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus Rob Schneider and were produced by Adam Sandler.

In 2005, MacDonald signed a deal with Comedy Central to create a new sketch comedy pilot called Back To Norm, which debuted that May. The pilot was never turned into a series. Its infamous cold opening parodied the shocking suicide of Budd Dwyer, a politician who, facing decades of incarceration, committed suicide on live television in 1987. Rob Schneider appeared in the pilot.

Also in 2005, MacDonald performed as a voice actor, portraying a Genie named Norm, on two episodes of the cartoon series The Fairly OddParents. MacDonald, however, could not return for Norm the Genie's third episode, Fairy Idol, due to a scheduling conflict.

In 2006, MacDonald again performed as a voice actor, this time in a series of commercials for Canadian cell provider Bell Mobility, as the voice of "Frank the Beaver". The campaign had a commercial tie-in with 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and with the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The ads ran heavily on CBC during the Olympics and throughout the NHL's postseason. Due to its success, campaign was extended throughout 2006 to promote offerings from other Bell Canada divisions such as Bell Sympatico internet provider and Bell ExpressVu satellite service.

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 September 14, 2006, MacDonald appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" to promote his new comedy album, "Ridiculous". During his appearance, MacDonald made some controversial jokes about the recent death of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. Stewart, holding back laughter, pleaded with Norm to change the subject.

MacDonald is associated with a variety of films due out in 2007. (see "Filmography" for details)

Political humor

Paradoxically, while referring to himself as apolitical, MacDonald has made controversial reference to politically-charged issues, with mixed humorous results.

At the end of the Weekend Update segment before the 1996 presidential election, Norm urged viewers to vote for Bob Dole (MacDonald frequently performed a comic impersonation of Dole). In 2003, MacDonald appeared on Barbara Walters' program The View and publicly renounced his Canadian citizenship over his home country's decision not to participate in the Iraq War, and said that he would be becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States (as of January 2006, he stated that he remains a Canadian citizen. "I just keep renewing my green card," said MacDonald in a telephone interview[5]). During the same interview, MacDonald said that he thought George W. Bush was "a decent man" and he jokingly called Bill Clinton a "murderer" (see Vince Foster). MacDonald later stated in Maxim magazine that he is completely apolitical, and that he was joking for comedic effect when he said Clinton "killed a guy," a statement which was, according to MacDonald, taken far too seriously by the hosts. [6]

Filmography

  1. Billy Madison (1995)
  2. The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
  3. Dirty Work (1998)
  4. Dr. Dolittle (1998) (voice)
  5. Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999) (cameo)
  6. Man on the Moon (1999) (cameo)
  7. Screwed (2000)
  8. The Animal (2001) (cameo)
  9. Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) (voice)
  10. Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) (cameo)
  11. Dr. Dolittle 3 (2006) (voice)
  12. Farce of the Penguins (2007) (voice)
  13. Christmas Is Here Again (2007) (filming) (voice)
  14. Rob Schneider's Hard R (2007) (in production/unknown)
  15. Senior Skip Day (2007) (post-production)

References

  1. ^ a b Shales, Tom. Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Back Bay Books, 2003. Cite error: The named reference "Live From New York" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ Riki Anne Wilchins (1996-02-28). "Saturday Night Live: Brandon Teena & Friends "...deserved to die."". qrd.org. Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  3. ^ Saturday Night Live (1999-10-23). "Norm MacDonald's Monologue". snltranscripts.jt.org. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  4. ^ "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire(1999)". imdb.com. 11-12-2000. Retrieved 02-02-2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  5. ^ Guy MacPherson (2006-01-17). "Phone Interview with Norm MacDonald". Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  6. ^ "We Want Answers: Norm MacDonald". maxim.com. 2004-01-15. Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
Preceded by Weekend Update
1994–1997 		Succeeded by
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