Norm MacDonald

So THAT's why he was fired from SNL. I remember this now. Don Ohlmeyer, then-West Coast NBC president, was a good friend of OJ's (I cant imagine why) and got butthurt about Norm's jokes about his pal and got him fired. And then he stated flatout that Norm "wasn't funny". And then Norm came back to host SNL a year later and sarcastically stated how badly the show was doing. Heh. But does anyone remember Norm's anti-SNL comments at the 25th Anniversary special? He showed up in the segment with most of the past Weekend Update hosts and remarked how he was going to a party at Eddie Murphy's house, where they were "making fun of the show". Well, it was actually David Spade's "Hey look everybody, a falling star" comment that made Murphy hate SNL in the mid 90's, it was nothing Norm did or said. Anyway, Norm went on to do a sitcom on ABC that was never any good, and 1998's "Dirty Work" bombed pretty badly as I recall. And recently, yes, he was fired from playing Col. Sanders, and he has had a recurring part on The Middle as Mike's sad sack brother. I dont really dislike Norm per se, he has been funny in the past, but he is not one of my favorites either. But I did like his Bob Dole, I have to admit that. And remember when he did a scathingly nasty David Letterman? THAT was something else. Norm portayed Dave as a incomprehensible crazy person as I recall. And then in the last decade Norm would appear on Letterman and apparently all had been forgiven. Because it was Norm's bosses at NBC who made him do that, it wasn't his fault. And Dave understood that and didnt hold a grudge. That was good!

And you know what other jokes he told all the time in his WU monologues that some people got tired of? Prison rape jokes. Classy. Even David Spade got sick of them and told Norm that to his face at one point, LOL.