The resurrection of Norm Macdonald

The comic's new memoir is an ambitious, literary roller-coaster

Norm Macdonald's new memoir is quite revealing.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Mark Blinch)

Norm Macdonald peaked in the '90s, with Saturday Night Live, Dirty Work, and several legendary live TV appearances, from the ESPYs to Conan. The Canadian comic was O.J.'s greatest detractor, Burt Reynolds' most memorable imitator, and David Letterman's biggest fan.

In an SNL cohort dominated by friendly hams like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, Macdonald stood out for how thoroughly he refused any complicity with the audience; his "Weekend Update" was an oddly confrontational mix of dry sarcasm and non-joke jokes. Viewers liked it so much that Macdonald's "Update" has been credited with setting the stage for Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. When Macdonald got fired (ostensibly for his jokes about O.J. Simpson), it made a big splash. Macdonald immediately went on Letterman to talk about it — Letterman lovingly called him a quisling — and returned to SNL a year later to host with a funny but pointed monologue. "I don't know if you remember this, but I used to be on this show," Macdonald said. "That's where I did the make-believe news jokes. That was me!" Macdonald's fortunes declined after that; he got a sitcom on ABC called The Norm Show (here's the Pokémon-themed episode), but it was canceled after being moved to the Friday night slot.

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Lili Loofbourow

Lili Loofbourow is the culture critic at TheWeek.com. She's also a special correspondent for the Los Angeles Review of Books and an editor for Beyond Criticism, a Bloomsbury Academic series dedicated to formally experimental criticism. Her writing has appeared in a variety of venues including The Guardian, Salon, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and Slate.