Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!


Contact
Ace:
aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck:
buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD:
cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix:
mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum:
petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton:
sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com


Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups






















« Democrat Hack, Working for Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs, Accidentally Calls Daryl Issa's Office And Asks For Help In Spinning IRS Scandal | Main | AOSHQDD Primary Night: #NHSEN, #NH01, #NH02, #MA06 (D) »
September 09, 2014

Recommendation: Norm MacDonald Live

Norm MacDonald does about twelve podcasts a season. He started in 2013, and is either in the middle of his 2014 season or is just finishing up. The first show was with Super Dave Osborne.

They're an hour long. If you just want a selected clip to sample it, you can watch the end of the Fred Stoller episode, beginning at 59:10 as they begin to discuss the news. It's pretty funny, but not safe for work. The funny stuff involves the singer Adele, then there's some random chat that goes mostly nowhere, then they begin talking about the infamous serial killer Albert Fish, and it gets funny again.

Another really good show is with David Koechner. MacDonald does this thing with Koechner, similar to Steven Potter's "Gamesmanship" theory of cutthroat-ness in social interactions, where he keeps undermining/sabotaging Koechner, while pretending to be innocent.

He accuses Koechner of racism, for example, for no reason, and then later in the interview accuses him of sexism, again for no reason except to socially trump Koechner and show how he (MacDonald) is ready to white-knight on behalf of the women whom Koechner secretly hates. (He's kind of doing a parody here of what passes for "political" discussions.)

In running this game, he ultimately says one of the funniest little cheap subversions I've heard, but I don't want to tell you what it is or where it is, because I think you sort of have to see it in context, the context of MacDonald attempting to one-up and put down Koechner throughout the interview. That one is here. (If you want to skip to the joke I'm talking about -- it starts at about 52:00, when he begins asking Koechner James Lipton's list of questions. Maybe I'm overselling the joke, but if you keep in mind that Norm keeps sticking little knives into Koechner with a holier-than-thou deadpan on his face, I think it's pretty funny.)

Finally, there is a two parter with Gilbert Gotfried, if you don't mind complete gutter filth and also don't mind Gotfried's beat-the-joke-to-death-until-it's-funny-again-then-beat-it-to-death-some-more style.

Oh, and the first Gilbert episode contains an extended attack on "serious" comedians, like Bill Hicks and Jeanine Garofalo. The premise is that Norm has decided to be a "serious" comedian like those two.

They're all pretty good though. He has a great rapport with his sidekick Adam Eget, with whom he has an antagonistic relationship, like David Letterman and Chris Elliot did, except here, MacDonald is the meaner and crueler one.

At the end of every show, they do "Jokes," where MacDonald passes out five-by-seven cards upon which he's written some jokes, and MacDonald, the guest, and Eget take turns reading the jokes assigned to them by MacDonald.

MacDonald gives Eget jokes which are horrible and produce deathly silence every single time. Eget reads them with resignation, and with the body language of a beaten child who flinches at the sound of father's footsteps.

And then, having forced Eget to read the terrible, pointless joke MacDonald wrote for him, MacDonald looks at him with pure icy contempt.

It's kind of funny.

One thing, though: While they're campaigning to take over the 12:30 slot on CBS, the show is as far from a network comedy show as possible. It's deliberately shabby and rambling.

A network show hates silence and discomfort; this show loves it, and tries to make failed jokes, flop sweat, and pointless personal attacks funny. I think that works pretty well, but don't expect the rat-a-tat joke format you might remember from a more professionally-produced show, like his old Weekend Update gig.


digg this
posted by Ace at 05:43 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
Seems Legit: "How odd, I thought everyone understood that electr ..."

rickb223 Gold & Silver Spot Prices [s][/b][/i][/u]: "You’d think they would’ve come up with ..."

Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle : "MiG-29 has two sets of intakes Bonus hole. ..."

It's me donna : "270 242 To be fair, Elon did advise that there isn ..."

West Frisian Women's Auxiliary : "The red head gene mutation also enables them to dr ..."

eleven: "If there wasn't a steel re-enforced concrete wall ..."

SMOD: "DC_Draino @DC_Draino Think about this If Tr ..."

Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden: "[i]thus, his push to ship congolese lithium mining ..."

garrett: "What is the increased Mass of an Electric School B ..."

Thomas Paine: "242 To be fair, Elon did advise that there isn't e ..."

Skip : "Bet they won't get 10 years of use out of a EV Bus ..."

Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden: "[i]They handle 25% more pain than others, and repo ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64