Some hopeful laughter greeted Norm MacDonald as he took to the podium to “roast” his dear friend Bob Saget. What filth and sin was the famous angry cartoon trying to inflict on its victims?
As usual, McDonald’s started by targeting master roaster John Stamos. “John has a reputation for being a swinger,” he began. Oh boy. Let’s go. Then came the punchline.
“Did you know he was born with a bungee cord instead of an umbilical cord?”
Confused silence. While reading what turned out to be a joke book from the 1940s, McDonald aimed a few more ancient zingers at Stamos before moving on to Saget. He continued like this for 20 minutes (the network cut it down to seven hours) with almost no laughs, after which he fought back tears to tell Saget he loved her.
Many people cited this when McDonald passed away suddenly in 2021.
2008 performance A great anti-comedy piece. And it’s true that McDonald’s brave “failure” is one of the most memorable examples of that form. However, his ultimate motivation was personal rather than professional. Saget recalled that four months before his untimely death, McDonald warned him, “Oh, Saget, I can’t say anything mean about you. You’re my friend.” Ta.
MacDonald knew at the time what was even clearer almost 15 years later. Unfounded public disgust is no longer shocking and therefore no longer funny. Much of our humor today pretends to resist civility that no longer exists.
Snobs vs. Slobs? We’re all slobs now. So how do we surprise them? (Surprise is the essence of humor, after all). The best way is to follow the guidance of a complete professional like MacDonald. Just tell the truth.
