UPDATE: Comedy Central’s CC Insider Blog has FINALLY released the Norm clips, to which I added to this entry. Though many kudos to Videogum for getting it online before hand.
Old-lady vaginas, Olson insults, and gay bashings were a-plenty at Comedy Central’s Roast of Bob Saget. The only thing missing (purposefully?) was the audience baffling, genius set delivered by one Norm MacDonald.
Luckily us, Videogum snagged his set before the comedy gold was brushed aside. If you’ve ever wanted to see a huge room simutaniously fake understanding of something that clearly is over their heads, continue to watch on. below
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August 20, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Comedy Central Releases “Lost” Norm MacDonald Roast Clips «
[...] I’ve added the clips back to our initial post here. [...]
August 22, 2008 at 2:37 am
Normal Don
Personally, I thought Norm was really not funny.
It didn’t help that he read most of his “jokes.”
“She’s a vegetarian, but I think she’s full of baloney.”
Oh wait, you’re right, he’s a genius.
August 23, 2008 at 3:16 am
K-Dogg
I believe that those who don’t understand are doomed never to and furthermore aren’t deserving to either.
August 23, 2008 at 4:06 am
GA Reader
That’s exactly what he’s saying…..over your head. You, like most of the audience, don’t grasp what Norm McDonald was doing in his set….his jokes were supposed to be like that. His reading the cards was part of his joke. Genius set is right. But way over the heads of the audience.
August 24, 2008 at 12:07 am
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[...] Ridiculous: Norm MacDonald’s Bob Saget Anti-Roast Gets Left on Cutting Room Floor UPDATE: Comedy Central’s CC Insider Blog has FINALLY released the Norm clips, to which I added to this entry. [...] [...]
August 25, 2008 at 9:11 am
Salkencat
He was brilliant!!! So funny I forgot to laugh!!
August 25, 2008 at 9:13 am
Salkencat
I hope someone gets it.
August 28, 2008 at 8:59 pm
1980 David Bowie
Anti-humor is a sophisticated concept. Your average American has no chance of grasping it.
August 31, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Hobo
Anti-humor? People don’t understand it? Forgive me, but it sounds like you are just trying to excuse a terrible set by a favorite comedian. He wasn’t funny…he wasn’t subversive…he simply sucked. Mind you, the rest were not particularly good either, but whatever Norm was trying to do just was not funny. If that was his intent, fine, you have to experiment with material, but remember not every experiment by your idol is a success.
This one was a total failure to all but his die hard fans.
May 9, 2009 at 7:22 pm
wade
I think you need to have another look at it. Basically he roasted the roast with crappy jokes from roasts of the 60s era…It was a gem!
September 2, 2008 at 3:32 am
NormsADumbass
anti-humor, eh? that’s rich – I’m just thinking it must have been funnier when he was high writing it. It reminded me of the pathetic jokes Jr. High kids make up. Even on SNL he was only funny because he was the butt of so many jokes. He has played the dumbass in all of his roles because let’s face it, he IS a dumbass.
September 21, 2008 at 10:21 am
Sarkazein
Id like to think most viewers at least realize that Norm knew what he was doing. He knew people wouldn`t laugh but didn`t even care. The over-the top emphasis on the lameless of the material, the obvious showiness of using cue cards, (ESPECIALLY obvious considering how it was pointed out that they were using a teleprompter by an earlier comic), everything was done for effect. `Watch his face as he repeats some of the exceptionally bad material later on in his set staring sardonically at Bob, and how some of the other comedians, (at first VERY skeptical), gradually catch on and start digging what he`s putting down. Watch the fake innocence he puts on while he is READING A PAPER in the middle of the Roast for crying out loud. He proved that he can be funny with improvised comebacks elsewhere in the roast, (the sarcastic Marmaduke reference killed me), and Google Norm mocking carrot-top on Conan if you want a good example of him wanting to be funny. This was done to spit in the face of the Roast, the audience, and everyone who didn`t get that the best way to mock someone for being terrible is to be truly terrible yourself and bring everything crashing to a halt. If you need further proof, google some of the jokes he used, they are actually jokes used in previous Roasts from the 60`s and 70`s. But hey, he knew plenty of people would call him a dumbass. Those people are the punchline to him.
December 29, 2008 at 12:12 am
Ryan
“Forgive me, but it sounds like you are just trying to excuse a terrible set by a favorite comedian.”
It wasn’t a bombed set. It wasn’t even about hyper-irony or anti-comedy.
Look, he was reading jokes done in the style of Saget’s most-notable way: America’s Funniest Home Videos. Instead of making direct fun of those unfunny years, he played it out for everyone by being Saget’s alter-ego. The fact that he seems to bomb at first sets up the point at the end – that comedians are upset at commercial success that is sell-out and unfunny (i.e. Full House and Funniest Home Videos). How does no one else get this?
The joke’s on you for not seeing the big picture.
MacDonald is not only a trail blazer, but he’s got balls and isn’t afraid to try something that’s doomed to fail for most people.
January 12, 2009 at 11:11 pm
mo
Did’nt anyone see the actual Roast, He was writing the friggen jokes at the beggining of the show, every time one of the comedians insulted him and the camera goes to Norm, you could see him writing the jokes, later on in show he pretended to be reading news paper while still writing, the set sucked, because he came to the Roast unprepared without any jokes, all this anti- joke crap, and funny to be not funny wtf are you talking about, what is real funny is how all these people overanalyzed a guy who set was shit becouse he was unprepared, telling jokes he made up right before his set. get a clue will ya.
January 25, 2009 at 12:08 am
wilchjaps
the people who don’t get it just don’t have the same sense of humor and they may not ever get it, but in order for anti-humor to be funny there has to be some who don’t get it. and if you don’t believe that it’s anti-humor and think it’s just a sorry bit, look up tim heidecker and andy kaufman. they both use (used) anti-humor. the fact that some don’t get it is part of what makes it so funny.
January 26, 2009 at 4:00 pm
messiahoflibel
Kaufman was the truth.
For a real look at failed anti-humor, I submit Kramer’s meltdown and ensuing apology to Afro Americans on Letterman.
January 26, 2009 at 9:35 pm
eve
From what I heard in a radio interview, what happened is this :
Artie Lange, Norm’s friend who was in Dirty Work (directed by Saget) was supposed to be part of the roast but almost O.D.ed that day and ended up in the hospital and/or rehab. Both Norm and Saget were really concerned about Artie’s health and the producers didn’t want to tell them what happened because they said that the show had to go on anyways. Norm was convinced that Artie had died and was pretty angry/depressed at the producers and he did NOT want to be there. Therefore, he bombed on purpose.
That said, Norm is first and foremost a comedian, and I for one thought his set was really funny. He did read old jokes off cue cards, which to me was a great “f**k you” to the producers, who had to pay him to be there, reading a newspaper and doing bad jokes he read off cue cards. This is also why, at the end of the set, both Norm and Saget seem sincerely emotional when they hug.
I agree to what was said earlier, that Norm doesn’t care if people laugh or not. He’s said many times that he sees the comedy in someone trying to make an audience laugh and miserably failing. So was he trying to be clever or did he just want to read the jokes and get his money while showing the producers that he was not happy with the situation? Who knows. But I for one thought it was great and I think Norm is a very very very funny guy.
February 11, 2009 at 9:50 pm
vids
it was a bombed set. on purpose or not who cares, it was a bombed set during a comedy show. if you say the comedy was funny then you miss the point of anti-comedy. if you say the comedy was not funny then you miss the point of anti-comedy. either way, i think its a cowards act to play AGAINST the audience. theres millions of struggling acts that would have paid to be in norm’s shoes to give the audience some laughs. is that really so much to ask from a “comic”?
March 14, 2009 at 7:54 am
kami
Under normal circumstances, not usually. These “roasts” by CC are really pathetic though. Considering the ensemble they’ve trotted out to get bent over by the professional CC roast crew spits in the face of what an honor it used to be.
Norm’s completely disinterested schtick fit the occasion perfectly. What’s the motivation to put any effort whatsoever into another lame CC roast starring the same old veteran crew slinging tit, dick and fart jokes off a teleprompter?
March 16, 2009 at 4:36 am
David
It took me about a full minute of watching this on TV before I really got it. Once I saw where the set was going, I laughed harder than I ever have before. This really was a brilliant set. I’m not going to ascribe names like anti-humor to it. All I know was I laughed until I had tears in my eyes. I always thought Norm was kind of funny, but this set really put him in a totally new light for me.
March 20, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Vann
Just because someone is telling really bad jokes on purpose doesn’t make them not really bad jokes. These are the kind of jokes a retarded 6 year old crackhead would tell. The well-wishers/well joke, the face looks like a cauliflower joke, something on his mind, he needs a hat…need I continue? The rest of the comics are actually trying to say something funny, and this guy is trying to make fun of them…but he’s really just showing that he doesn’t have any good material. Everyone that’s saying this is above our heads…it’s really above your heads…your intestines, I mean…because your head is stuck way up your ass. Do you find my anti-humor funny, you pretentious poofster pricks?
May 1, 2009 at 10:50 am
Phuzzle
It makes me happy to think how the 50% of you who haven’t gotten it yet will feel when, maybe 20 years or so from now, when you look back and realize what total morons you were.
June 16, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Mbuck
I can’t quite understand why people don’t “get” this performance. It’s confrontational and weird, but it’s not Marcel Duchamp, for christ’s sake. To not get it is to not get why things are funny.
June 16, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Scrubby McGee
I just about p*ssed my pants watching those! Seriously! You either get Norm or you don’t. I happen to think he’s freakin’ hilarious!
July 20, 2009 at 4:13 pm
random dude
Norm’s humor is that he doesn’t use what he calls “savers.” People laugh not just because something is “funny,” but also when they feel anxious, when there is tension, when they are uncomfortable, etc… This is norm’s style and why he is considered one of the best. “Ridiculing” or comedy in general is about having a feeling of superiority… about putting others below someone. Certain people in the “know” will get Norm’s jokes… but the vast majority won’t. That’s why it is so satisfying for those that do get his jokes because the fact that no one else is laughing but that we GET it makes is so much more satisfying. That’s why he is known as a “Comedian’s Comedian”… they all get his jokes but a lot of the audience doesn’t.
July 20, 2009 at 4:17 pm
random dude
Jerry Seinfeld talks about how a joke is the space from jumping from one edge of a cliff to the next… if the space (tension) is too short, there’s no fun… if the space is too long, it’s no fun either… Norm’s jokes take you off the cliff… and you are left hanging… there is no “saver”… there is no landing… there is no other side… so the tension is crazy… until you realize that “no other side” is the other side.. he does this on purpose. that’s why he’s the greatest.
August 15, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Max
Incredible subversive humor. Comedy Centrals buisness model is to allow the comedians tell very dirty jokes then use the censorship as an excuse to hype the “uncensored” DVD sales. McDonald’s brilliant performance is justified by the reaction’s alone. Other Comedians and some of the audience were falling over themselves laughing, and everyone else was in stone silence. Jon Stamos was like a deer in the headlights. In addition to the jokes themselves the delivery was fantastic, he did everything stand ups are NEVER supposed to do: Explain the joke, repeat or stutter the punchline, ask the audience how can they NOT think that was funny etc.