hph6203 said:

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Don't think this one was posted.

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So good.

I love this one. You have to skip through some weird edits this guy made on it, but the very last retort from Norm just shows his true genius. Plays dumb the entire time, and then turns Jerry's joke around and throws it back at him, which genuinely makes Jerry laugh his ass off.

Sea Speed said:

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Conan was preaching about the insensitivity of norms jokes?

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No, "Swedish German" was a reference to Andy, from an old timey joke Norm involved him in.

But at the end of the broadcast, Andy said that friends would ask him if it bothered him when Norm would involve him in jokes or make him the butt of jokes, and he said "No, not at all. It was like he was inviting you to play." It just made him uncomfortable that gay family members, or gay staffers at the show would see that stuff and wonder why they were making gay jokes. It wasn't an all out attack on Norm; he also talked about what a great guy Norm was and how he took time with regular people (like Andy's sister) in a positive way that no one else in the business ever did.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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God he is brilliant - the was so old school humor but he sells it so well. Conan making fun of it for being a 30s routine was spot on. Nobody else could do it really. He doesn't care about the idiocy of the situation in fact I think we reveled in it.

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I don't think there's another comedian who would do what he did at the Bob Saget roast. None of the jokes were funny and most of them didn't even make sense, and that was the joke! Bombing the roast through an apparent complete lack of preparation WAS the roast. Most comedians wouldn't think of it and none would commit to the bit the way Norm did.

The subtlety of this one is so great. I seriously don't think any of them know they're being trolled. Skip ahead to about 5:00 if you want to see the best parts. The eating of the mints is freaking great.

Ulrich said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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God he is brilliant - the was so old school humor but he sells it so well. Conan making fun of it for being a 30s routine was spot on. Nobody else could do it really. He doesn't care about the idiocy of the situation in fact I think we reveled in it.

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I don't think there's another comedian who would do what he did at the Bob Saget roast. None of the jokes were funny and most of them didn't even make sense, and that was the joke! Bombing the roast through an apparent complete lack of preparation WAS the roast. Most comedians wouldn't think of it and none would commit to the bit the way Norm did.

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But you could see the other pros in that clip on the stage were dying laughing at it. They knew how brilliant that was.

Norm was fearless and unbound by PC, wokeness, social conservatism or anything else. I'm going to miss him.

Quote:

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None of the jokes were funny and most of them didn't even make sense

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What? They all made perfect sense, they were just really old jokes. He took them from an old fashioned joke book his dad had given him when he was a kid. I guess they don't make sense if you don't know what an Underwood typewriter is, or cauliflower ear. But there was nothing really crazy about it. He didn't want to do mean jokes because Bob was a close friend, and he notoriously hated sexual innuendo. So he just got out this old book of old-fashioned retirement party-style jokes and blew off the producers who were trying to tell him to do the typical Comedy Central roast routine.

Going on national TV and reading corny jokes from a book his dad had given him as a kid, at a roast for a good friend who knew exactly what he was doing, is actually kind of sweet and one of the ultimate Norm moments.

TCTTS said:

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I heard that producer on The Bill Simmons Podcast yesterday and it was somewhat eye-opening. He said when he met Norm, literally all Norm ate was ice cream and that he basically couldn't feed himself. Or, at least couldn't feed himself healthily. Said he disliked most foods. Norm never drove either. So he had woman with him for years and years who was both his business partner and handler, basically, who did everything for him; arranged meals and rides for him, etc. Sounded kind of sad, honestly. Almost like he was such a savant that he couldn't concentrate on certain basic tasks.

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I'd take that with a grain of salt. Laurie Jo was his longtime personal assistant/manger/collaborator, not some secret "helper." And it was well known that he didn't drive; he actually did a segment on Jay Leno's Garage where Jay took him out to drive on a road course. No doubt he was a little eccentric; he admitted to gambling away most of the money he ever made and could recite all kinds of obscure literature. But he was also an active dad and fairly close to his family, close friends, and all that normal stuff. I think he obviously kept some of his personal life separate from people he just worked with on occasion.

That producer said something on the Conan podcast like he was dropping a big secret only he knew: that Norm had hung out with Bob Dylan. Norm actually wrote about it in his book and talked about Bob Dylan at different times, he just left it kind of ambiguous as to whether it was one of his true or made-up stories. That's what I meant that some of their "insider" stories won't really be new to hardcore fans; it's just interesting to hear perspectives from people who weren't obsessive nerds but knew him from professional interactions.

Belton Ag said:

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Ulrich said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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God he is brilliant - the was so old school humor but he sells it so well. Conan making fun of it for being a 30s routine was spot on. Nobody else could do it really. He doesn't care about the idiocy of the situation in fact I think we reveled in it.

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I don't think there's another comedian who would do what he did at the Bob Saget roast. None of the jokes were funny and most of them didn't even make sense, and that was the joke! Bombing the roast through an apparent complete lack of preparation WAS the roast. Most comedians wouldn't think of it and none would commit to the bit the way Norm did.

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But you could see the other pros in that clip on the stage were dying laughing at it. They knew how brilliant that was.

Norm was fearless and unbound by PC, wokeness, social conservatism or anything else. I'm going to miss him.

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Same here. Unbound, untethered. That's what Norm seemed to me. Everything seemed plausible to him. I heard a replay on sxm the other day and it was the appearance where Howard would cringe at the "r" word and Norm didn't skip a beat, replacing it with "downs syndrome" and he wasn't being mean about using that and he wasn't being woke or anti-woke. To me Norm has always been about the use of language and how we tell stories to each other, showing us angles that's weren't face value. That's what always drew me to him. Seems like in Norm's world, everything is plausible. You can definitely see that in a gambler's personality.

Norm was face value and never malicious. Even in his most combative modes, he was just calling out bullsh*t wherever he saw it. His special twist on calling out that bullsh*t was never intended to harm or deceive. It was almost like saying "...but here's what could have really happened" at every turn. Just another point of view, and one rarely seen by anyone else.

One of a kind doesn't even say enough.

"Your face. Looks. Like a cauliflower."

Nobody on Earth could make that funny except Norm.

When I talked upthread about him deconstructing comedy, the Saget roast is a perfect example. He was mocking the jokes everyone else tells, and was still funny.' I remember seeing g that when it came out and thought it was one of the most brilliant things I had ever seen comedy wise.
But to Conan's point of him being fearless, who else would get up with revered athletes and do this?

Ulrich said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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God he is brilliant - the was so old school humor but he sells it so well. Conan making fun of it for being a 30s routine was spot on. Nobody else could do it really. He doesn't care about the idiocy of the situation in fact I think we reveled in it.

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I don't think there's another comedian who would do what he did at the Bob Saget roast. None of the jokes were funny and most of them didn't even make sense, and that was the joke! Bombing the roast through an apparent complete lack of preparation WAS the roast. Most comedians wouldn't think of it and none would commit to the bit the way Norm did.

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Yep. It was so "inside" too that the other comedians were laughing their asses off at how bad it was which was funnier than trying to be funny to them.

That reminds me of how I love to tell really bad dad jokes - and the worse it is the more I laugh because it makes everyone else groan. I think similarly Norm was often a different intellectual level and had to do stuff like that just to entertain himself.

And you know he might not have persisted as long with the OJ jokes on SNL until he was told to stop doing them by an executive. He would never cave to a businessman and it became a challenge to him then to work it in in as many ways as possible. Just because he could and was told not to.

Sea Speed said:

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Can anyone remind me what the joke was that got norm in hot water before this appearance on the view? They were saying falling crew was crying just because norm was there.

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Hearing that Fallon's crew was crying about him being there explains so much about why his show isn't very funny overall.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Not to sidetrack, but I hate Fallon as an interviewer. His over the top fake persona is just so grating. Everyone is a pal or buddy, and then the constant interruptions just add to it.

Conan was easily the best for me, even while Leno and Letterman were on. But I'm also a sucker for the super weird and random comedy bits they'd do.

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I do think Fallon is actually funny as a comedian and a writer, he just realized he can have a lot of commercial success doing the very thing a lot of us dislike. He was funny when he and Tina did Weekend Update, but he was not a good sketch performer.
He is kind of like a modern version of Leno, where he just goes extremely safe and vanilla because it appeals to the most people.