Watch Norm Macdonald's beloved, infamous 'moth joke'
Comedian Norm Macdonald, who died on Tuesday at 61 after a private battle with cancer, was known for many things: his bizarre, deadpan tenure as Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update anchor, his career-damaging feud with NBC's Don Ohlmeyer, and his cult movie Dirty Work. But he was most revered as a pure comedian, an inimitable standup whose seemingly random constructions worked almost in spite of themselves.
The best example of this is undoubtedly "the moth joke," a Dostoyevskian tragedy about a troubled moth's visit to a podiatrist. It's an epic, four-minute-long mess that GQ once admiringly described as a "groaner" that "shouldn't work." But it did work, beautifully, on a Macdonald appearance on The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien. When the punchline finally came, O'Brien, after a spell of relieved laughter, offered "congratulations to anyone who stuck it through to the end." See if you can make it to the absurdist kicker in the video below.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Film reviews: ‘Send Help’ and ‘Private Life’Feature An office doormat is stranded alone with her awful boss and a frazzled therapist turns amateur murder investigator
-
Movies to watch in Februarythe week recommends Time travelers, multiverse hoppers and an Iraqi parable highlight this month’s offerings during the depths of winter
-
ICE’s facial scanning is the tip of the surveillance icebergIN THE SPOTLIGHT Federal troops are increasingly turning to high-tech tracking tools that push the boundaries of personal privacy
-
‘One Battle After Another’ wins Critics Choice honorsSpeed Read Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, won best picture at the 31st Critics Choice Awards
-
Son arrested over killing of Rob and Michele ReinerSpeed Read Nick, the 32-year-old son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, has been booked for the murder of his parents
-
Rob Reiner, wife dead in ‘apparent homicide’speed read The Reiners, found in their Los Angeles home, ‘had injuries consistent with being stabbed’
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literatureSpeed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
