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The sly genius of Norm MacDonald
Norm MacDonald, one of the funniest men in comedy, took the stage a couple of weeks ago for the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, formerly of “Full House” and currently of ironic iconic status as an actor playing himself and overcussing comic. As you may be aware, these roasts usually feature ‘friends’ of the roastee and various comics generally doing very blue humor. Leave it to MacDonald to break the roast mold.
After a scathing first few acts, which, while hilarious, featured mostly homophobic jokes and blue humor that unfortunately can’t be repeated or linked here, MacDonald came out with an intentional ironic juxtaposition of styles and a nod to the meshugeneh comics of the legendary Friars Club in New York, where these style of celebrity roasts became legendary.
MacDonald, who sat reading a sports page through most of the acts, refused to play to expectations of the night, but did play exactly to type. While his dry humor and intentionally flat jokes from 50 years ago may have made many in the audience roll their eyes or wonder what the hell was going on, he absolutely killed with the comics on the stage. Much like his time on the anchor desk at “SNL,” which ended way too soon, it seems MacDonald continues to leave many in the general public scratching their head while his peers roll with laughter.
(If you wanna see some people really get loose, including octogenarian Cloris Leachman, and Gerg Giraldo and Jim Norton, who seem to only kill at the roasts, just search for the roast on YouTube. But it is very blue, as you can imagine; so you’ve been warned.)
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