I think last night, Norm MacDonald expressed the thoughts of a lot of television viewers.He was a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and he started off by talking about how he started on Saturday Night Live the same year that Conan started on Late Night. Then he told Conan that it was "stunning how Jay Leno outfoxed you again." Conan tries to laugh at all of it, but you can sense it's sort of an uneasy, "oh no, where is Norm going with this?" sort of laugh. MacDonald says that everyone thinks Leno is the funny, high-pitched voice guy, but he's incredibly shrewd, because he beat Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and now Conan in the late night wars. "You're in good company."
The funniest part is when MacDonald reenacts a conversation that NBC had with Conan: "remember that discussion we had where you said I'll never have to f***ing follow Leno ever again?" Conan laughs again but quickly (and oddly) changes the subject to the bad economy. Video after the jump.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-11-2009 @ 5:26PM
Clayton said...
Classic! Should go down in television history.
http://makeasitcom.com
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2-11-2009 @ 6:39PM
Paul said...
That whole episode last night was one of the best "Late Night" episodes ever.
I'm looking forward to Norm being on "The Tonight Show" a lot, since he lives in L.A. (yeah, he's on the current "Tonight Show" every so often, but he was ALWAYS on "Late Night" back when he lived in NYC).
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2-11-2009 @ 6:54PM
0megapart!cle said...
The rest of his time was kind of painful. But yea, his grilling of Conan about the late night move was great!
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2-11-2009 @ 7:10PM
Andrew said...
Yeah he was horribly unfunny the rest of the time. I also noticed he was pretty unfunny at the roast of Bob Saget.
2-12-2009 @ 2:41AM
Dan Y. Shin said...
Norm was BRILLIANT at the Saget roast! It was comedic genius.
2-12-2009 @ 5:44AM
Paul said...
Yeah, Dan knows what he's talking about.
Norm's set at the Bob Saget roast was probably one of the 2 or 3 greatest comedy sets I've ever seen. And you could tell in the audience -- have the people didn't get it, but the half that did (and a lot were fellow comedians) were loving the crap out of it.
Being purposefully unfunny, consistently, at a televised roast? With perfectly-crafted 1920s-style humdingers? Utter brilliance.
2-12-2009 @ 11:16AM
0megapart!cle said...
I didn't see the Saget roast. But Norm was painfully unfunny in this interview, other than the initial grilling of Conan about his move in Late Night
2-11-2009 @ 6:55PM
Robert said...
This is great stuff, I saw Norm live a month or two ago, and he has that awkward comedian thing down pat. That whole economy thing was right from his stand up act.
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2-11-2009 @ 7:31PM
BLV said...
"also noticed he was pretty unfunny at the roast of Bob Saget."
What are you talking about.. The Saget roast was a classic. Maybe the best roast of all time..
Norm is best guest ,you can have on a talkshow..
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2-11-2009 @ 7:57PM
Adam said...
You should also post the cooking segment Conan and Norm did with Gordon Ramsay. Probably the most disastrous cooking segment of all time thanks to Norm hahaha. Ramsay was so frustrated.
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2-11-2009 @ 8:23PM
Justin said...
Last night's whole Conan was one of the better ones in the past few years and it couldn't have come at a better time. The cooking segment was great and how can you top a musical guest the likes of Levon Helm?
The only thing that bombed were the MacDonald as the Hudson pilot sketches.
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2-11-2009 @ 8:26PM
Michael said...
Wow... Conan doing nothing for 3 minutes except laughing uncomfortably. Meanwhile he's thinking, "How the hell can I transition off of this absolutely horrible subject? Uh... Should I ask Norm what the hell happened to his career or talk about the economy? Let's go with the economy... Oh, please make it stop! The economy! The economy!"
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2-11-2009 @ 8:29PM
corey said...
I've searched the depths and darkest places of the intertubes and for the life of me I can't find a "canadian" site to view this clip on! Someone please help!
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2-11-2009 @ 8:41PM
Adam said...
Corey, download hotspot shield here: http://anchorfree.com/
Just turn it on anytime you need to view a US video.
But shhh keep it quiet. It's kind of like Fight Club.
2-12-2009 @ 1:50AM
Jen said...
Was Norm drunk or stoned or something? What the heck was this?
N: "And they use that stick for more than carrying, uuuuh, a pouch on, I'll tell you that."
C: "I don't even know what that means."
N: "What that means is they'll drive your head, uuuuh, like an overripe cantaloupe it looks like -"
C: "What?" (high-pitched laugh) "What the hell is that?"
N: "They'll club you to death for a sandwich!"
(Conversation moves on to more talk about hobos that are still living...)
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2-12-2009 @ 6:45AM
Jimmy said...
Norm is a comic genius, and clearly there is no love lost between him and NBC (I'm talking to you, Don Ohlmeyer).
Bottom line: Leno is a douchebag, and Norm is right to call him out.
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2-12-2009 @ 8:57AM
guimmer said...
Damb Hulu WORK IN CANADA!
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2-12-2009 @ 10:10PM
sid said...
dude, bittorrent and mininova (or eztv)
2-12-2009 @ 11:34PM
Dan German said...
HULU SUCKS! STOP USING A USA ONLY VIDEO SERVICE! THE INTERNET IS WORLDWIDE!
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2-13-2009 @ 3:40AM
Adam said...
www.anchorfree.com