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.
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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
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
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August 20th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
[…] I’ve added the clips back to our initial post here. […]
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:37 am
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 23rd, 2008 at 3:16 am
I believe that those who don’t understand are doomed never to and furthermore aren’t deserving to either. 🙂
August 23rd, 2008 at 4:06 am
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 24th, 2008 at 12:07 am
[…] 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 25th, 2008 at 9:11 am
He was brilliant!!! So funny I forgot to laugh!!
August 25th, 2008 at 9:13 am
I hope someone gets it.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Anti-humor is a sophisticated concept. Your average American has no chance of grasping it.
August 31st, 2008 at 9:43 pm
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 9th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
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!
November 24th, 2009 at 8:25 am
Wow. I hope you’re trolling. Roasts have a long history and the goal these days in a roast is to be as vicious as possible. Norm brought in a bunch of hack jokes from 40 years ago to shit on the entire show. It was ballsy as fuck and as it went on I swear some of the people there got it, including Saget and Gilbert Gottfried. It’s too late now, but if you had watched a lot of roasts maybe you’d eventually figure out what he’s doing here. It’s brilliant. It’s intentionally awkward. And you’re unforgivably stupid if you really don’t get it.
October 12th, 2012 at 3:00 am
Right on the money!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:32 am
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 21st, 2008 at 10:21 am
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 29th, 2008 at 12:12 am
“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 12th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
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.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:27 am
And he wrote jokes that had been used at earlier roasts. Wow. Maybe he was channelling. He was doing a crossword puzzle. It was part of the act of shitting on the entire roast.
December 26th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
No those are classic bad jokes from the 60’s. Only Norm could pull that off
January 25th, 2009 at 12:08 am
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 26th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
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 3rd, 2010 at 7:04 am
The guy was being rude as fuck to him, wouldn’t call it a meltdown. If you thought it was bad taste that’s your opinion though. I personally feel people are away too sensitive these days on racial issues.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
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 11th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
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 14th, 2009 at 7:54 am
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 16th, 2009 at 4:36 am
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 20th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
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?
December 12th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
There are plenty of dipshit posts on this thread, but your post is the worst. Congratulations. What would you have Norm do…should he be more direct and confrontational with his jokes so that you can understand his point? Is that really your argument? So the rest of the comics are “trying to say something funny” by your standards. Do you notice that their jokes didn’t stray far beyond sex jokes for two fucking hours? Is that all a comic needs to do for you to laugh? Beyond that, are those jokes the only ones at which you can laugh? Finally, great job, you have identified that Norm’s individual jokes, like your stupid attempt, are not that funny…but everyone who enjoyed it is talking about the performance in context and in its entirety. Bitch, damn.
To echo what others who realize this was an actually funny performance are saying: Norm refused to do the standard jokes, and in fact made awkward, terrible but clean jokes in historical styling to point out how mindless and repetitive the other sets were. His skill came in delivery and sticking to his jokes for his full set. That’s it. You don’t need a dissertation to break this one down.
Beyond that, his post-roast interview, which he clearly doesn’t care about, shows his disdain for the show (http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/2008/09/03/norm-macdonalds-post-roast-interview/).
This isn’t a hard concept to grasp. He’s not going to go up there and rant against the comedy establishment, but he did obviously get across his point to a sizable part of the audience. If you think it was un-funny because you didn’t hear about some 80 year old’s vagina or a race joke, you are absolutely right, Norm didn’t say those jokes. That’s all the complexity your brain needs to understand in order to “get” his set. The bar isn’t set to high, so everyone crying “elitist” or “intellectual bullshit” really should re-examine how much brain power he/she is capable of mustering.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:50 am
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 16th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
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 16th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
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 20th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
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 20th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
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 15th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
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.
September 9th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Geeze get over yourselves. Cool, you noticed he was purposefully using jokes that weren’t funny. Ya he was making fun of the roast but he wasn’t “spitting in its face”. They were all having a good time, he was just fucking around. That gave people a good laugh.
This does not take a genius to figure out, nor was it genius. It was funny but not that great.
Also I am sure that most everyone in the crowed got it.
January 3rd, 2010 at 7:50 pm
The joke is that he’s purposefully reading off terrible jokes and doesn’t care about being funny. This really confuses people and it’s funny to watch people’s reactions when they’re uncomfortable and “don’t get it”. Seriously, that’s it. That’s what everyone here thinks is funny and that’s basically anti-humor.
I know it doesn’t seem funny when I describe it like that but no joke is when you have to explain it.
March 31st, 2010 at 10:52 pm
If you dont get what he’s doing then you dont deserve this brilliance.
August 31st, 2010 at 2:17 am
How was this a bomb? It was the funniest part of the roast, i don’t understand.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
wrong he was funny he wasn’t uspet at success of bo saget he was just being funny and had a a gag it was funny
April 1st, 2011 at 6:14 am
Wow after watching this again. I tried to look up what people had to say about his routine…
and everyone has it wrong. I will say this first, all of Norms jokes came from full house. The funny thing he was doing was making fun of Bob Saget by directly using his own jokes live, and making them see how lame they are.
Imagine if someone stands up in front of you and does parts of your act, an act your famous for, and people go “my god thats awful” thats why its funny.
April 13th, 2011 at 10:51 am
If you think Norm was serious in this then honestly please look again, or atleast try and see the humor in this set. I remember watching this air a few years ago and thinking “wtf” but this is really golden.
First things first… you can freaking google old roast jokes and half of them are on the front page
Second, Norm was fired off of SNL for being TOO VULGAR, yeah this guy was fired for saying stuff too over the top NOT on a roast, do you honestly think he couldn’t write a few pussy and gay jokes for this one? I mean this guy has said Fuck on just about every talk show hosts live shows and on SNL and in this roast he says “What the H”…
Definately a trolling performance from norm, one of the best
April 21st, 2011 at 6:15 am
It was brilliant if only for context, delivery and timing. The constant leering down at the cards, repetition, using the sort of hokey jokes commonplace in the 60s and 70s was effective, but I wasn’t laughing hysterically like many of the highbrow fucks posting on here as if you’re a mindless tit for not liking the set.
It was effective, worked to a tee and if you understood the gig, it made what roasting has devolved into look like a joke but it didn’t blow me away or anything of the like.
November 3rd, 2012 at 2:24 pm
He might have been “smarter” than the audience, but they are the ones paying to be entertained. Insulting the intelligence of the audience is just pompous and arrogant. How would anyone think he was going to do an “anti-roast” show on a “roast” show? Take that shit somewhere else.
May 3rd, 2011 at 4:53 am
It was clear what Norm was doing, it just wasn’t funny. Anyone who thinks it was a poor performance is dumb, Norm came across exactly how he intended to.
I get that he thought the roast was too much of the same humor/lame in multiple ways, but why even go on then? One less comedian wouldn’t have even been noticeable. If they had cut him out, I wouldn’t have felt like I missed out, and usually I find Norm to be hilarious.
July 28th, 2012 at 10:48 pm
I’m not that big of a Norm fan, but I couldn’t stop laughing throughout his entire set. pure genius. taking a roast and turning it on its head at the expense of an entire audience waiting for penis jokes and gay bashing. funniest thing I have ever seen.
October 2nd, 2012 at 12:44 am
i think theres 2 reasons an audience doesnt laugh: they dont get it, or it just isnt funny. its not called THE sense of humour, but A sense of humour, and people think different stuff is funny. i thought he failed at failing. eventho his execution may have been perfect. its nice to experiment, but personally i thought he just wasnt funny. besides, i think theres something really pedantic about the concept of trying to be bad at being funny to make a point. and even if he hated the concept of the show, if they are good enough for you to let them pay you, you should do the fucking efford to make people laugh. so that theory doesnt fly with me either.
October 17th, 2012 at 5:52 am
I agree with Steve. I appreciated the subversiveness, but I also wasn’t laughing.
October 17th, 2012 at 5:57 am
But I do have to say, even while I didn’t laugh at the subversive set, I did think he had a funny comeback to the comedian that came after him.