I feel like a lot of his jokes actually went over really well with the crowd, which only makes the fact he decided to drive off a cliff with the OJ joke that much funnier
@@mervinprone I know it genuinely baffles me that they excuse what the man did to his wife. When Chris Benoit murdered his family I don't know ANYONE who excused what he did.
That's the thing with those people, they will take a comedians impression of an angry New York sports crowds heckle at a bad player from a joke and turn it into his personal statement. People like that loose an opinion and should never have their feelings even considered valid
After reading your comment, I was waiting for it, and I still laughed. I was expecting Norm to make a typical pigeon/mike tyson mysteries kind of salacious comment, and was completely caught off guard.
@@manuelromerobackupchannel6799 East Germany were doping their Olympic athletes back in the 70s and 80s. Lots of the women athletes developed masculine features; moustaches, hairy armpits, penises, that sort of thing.
Except the Wall fell in 1991... so there was no such thing as East Germany. They were known for having some very "strong girls" back in the 80's though.
Mel brooks did it first, and still does it ...ex: Men in Tights, Springtime for Hitler, Blazzing Saddles Ending with the gay chorus line bit, the song from the producers literally called, "keep it gay". Seth worships the ground Mel Brooks walked on. If you need an over-the-top gay musical, Mel Brooks will deliver with an original song and make it incredibly uncomfortably gay. ha
Perfect choice to host this awards show because Norm MacDonald loves, watches, and knows a lot about sports. He did a brilliant job. He really was a gift to the world. God Bless. RIP.
I don't think anyone expected Norm... remember this year he also did the white house correspondence dinner. At least there they made him submit his act beforehand.
Funniest comedian ever. Up there with Rickles. It's hard to believe how he embodied funny and it's equally hard to believe he is not with us any longer. RIP buddy, you will never be forgotten.
Watching Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters is also a fantastic Duo. I think Norm and Don would have gotten along well. Makes me wonder if they ever did any talk shows together.
@@JJJameson. Its true man. I think he was such a polarizing amazing man that there are people like us who truly loved a man we never met. I just KNOW how big his heart was and how he was kind to people regardless of their “stature” in this paper society.
I love how the guy next to Griffey (on Griffey's right) at the end is cracking up, Griffey looks over at him sternly and the guy looks at Griffey like "Sorry man, that was pretty funny."
If there would have been some place to show how it offend people back in the day(like Twitter), you would have got same outrage as today. But there was no way you can express yourself so it looked like people didn't get offended back in the day.
His entire set was hilarious, but he got banned from the ESPYs for this. And the reactions on people's faces show it was controversial even then. But don't let that stop you from complaining about "the way things are today"
This was one of Norm MacDonald's finest appearance - he killed! Why was Ken Griffey, Jr. so upset about the jokes? Those jokes were hilarious and they weren't even directed at him!
Some of them were racial. Also on the last joke, A LOT of black people, especially in sports, were defending OJ and thought it was set up by racist cops who could not stand seeing a black man being successful.
There was racism surrounding the OJ case - OJ Simpson was found not guilty by a racist black jury. It is definitely fair game, and not racist, to make OJ jokes
didn't like that OJ dig at the end. LOL. Hopefully the default support for the guy who killed his wife and a waiter has come to its senses. Norm DGAF on SNL and DGAF in front of a room full of sports stars either. Dude had a pair.
A moth goes into a podiatrist’s office, and the podiatrist says, “What seems to be the problem, moth?” The moth says “What’s the problem? Where do I begin, man? I go to work for Gregory Illinivich, and all day long I work. Honestly doc, I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t even know if Gregory Illinivich knows. He only knows that he has power over me, and that seems to bring him some happiness. But I don’t know. I wake up in a malaise, and I walk here and there at night. I sometimes wake up and I turn to some old lady in my bed that’s on my arm. A lady that I once loved, doc. I don’t know where to turn to. My youngest, Alexendria, she fell in the in the cold of last year. The cold took her down, as it did many of us moths. And my other boy, and this is the hardest pill to swallow, doc. My other boy, Gregarro Ivinalititavitch… I no longer love him. As much as it pains me to say, when I look in his eyes, all I see is the same cowardice that I that I catch when I take a glimpse of my own pitiful face in the mirror. If only I wasn’t such a coward, then perhaps I could bring myself to reach over to that cocked and loaded gun that lays on the bedside behind me and end this hellish facade once and for all. Doc, sometimes I feel like a spider, even though I’m a moth, just barely hanging on to my web with an everlasting fire underneath me. I’m not feeling good. And so the doctor says, “Moth, man, you’re troubled. But you should be seeing a psychiatrist. Why on earth did you come here?” And the moth says, “‘Cause the light was on.”
Its when comics had balls and would poke fun of people. He was fearless...check him out as the host of the Clinton press thingy...its on RUclips...he just rips them a new one
That O.J. Simpson joke at the end was one of the funniest ever! LoL! Those 3 black guys shaking their heads need to stop getting their panties all bunched up.
That’s your takeaway? You didn’t approve of the way some black guys reacted. Why even care? Joke was hilarious enjoy it don’t make it some racial thing!
I have watched the line about "strippers and crack" 15 times because the woman sitting next to boomer in the cutsway is priceless. 0.125% of a grin and the rest of her face is stone cold. Can't tell if it is drugs or shock. Either way
@@scottcharney1091 No chance a modern comedian would make the joke norm made about the Japanese player. They'd spend a month afterwards on an apology tour.
Not one Heisman winner has killed his wife and a waiter since Norm spoke to the sports world. His advice was heeded.
Yeah, okay Mr. Dictionary.
@@thebrazilianatlantis165 articulate or don’t. Doesn’t matter when you don’t want to learn right?
Reggie Bush's Heisman was taken from him though, and he didn't even kill his wife or a waiter!
You think heeded is an obscure word?
That's a really good point.
Norm was on fire. Good Lord, he had no fear.
a perfect monologue mixing sports and current events, hilarious and pushing the damn envelope
That's what make Norm so amazing. He has never given a fuck about who he offends. He picks fights that take years to win, but he wins them.
He had just been fired from snl, so I think he had a "who gives a fck" attitude about it all.
@@Ela.elizabeth Then they brought him back to host.
@@83reggieT And he took no prisoners there either. "Either I'm much funnier than they realized or this show really sucks!"
Ricky Gervais doesn't seem quite so ballsy after watching this
Take that back immediately. You won't get away with this.
@Job NO. Fuck you. Norm would get bummed by Ricky, and that's a fact.
@@markcotton3481 Shut up
Both have balls, but Norm is able to maintain his coolness. Ricky has to break down "I'm just joking, haha" so people get along with it.
@@ZeusTheTornado Come at me bro.
That intro was deeply closeted.
So I'm tellin' ya, it wasn't gay!
@@SamPendleton The ESPY's gave Norm that suit. Now he's not one to take charity.
“Ya got a problem with that?”
That intro doesn't own a doghouse.
Not THAT deep, baby Mega...
I feel like a lot of his jokes actually went over really well with the crowd, which only makes the fact he decided to drive off a cliff with the OJ joke that much funnier
Everybody loved the jokes except the sneering black guys in the front row
It’s like he was always trying to bomb, then getting a joke, then bombing, then joking.
Says a lot about the people who got offended about that joke though. The man got away with murder & was rightfully mocked for it.
@@mervinprone I know it genuinely baffles me that they excuse what the man did to his wife. When Chris Benoit murdered his family I don't know ANYONE who excused what he did.
I don't see how anyone took offence to that, even if OJ wasn't guilty he was still covering for his son who is suspected and is still in hiding.
I don't think any of those fellas dancing on stage own a doghouse
nope
Lol I scrolled to find someone talking about this. WTF was that? XD
My man! Lol
The professor of logic over at the university of science agrees
Lmaoo
The fact they are singing a lot bout balls 💀
At least they're not hypocrites huh?
that oj joke is 100% beast mode.
In a room full of beasts, the alpha beast roars.
That closer is legendary
David Levy True. Absolute Giant Brass Comedy Balls.
Homeboy got pissed, you guys saw that? Lol
@@TheGreatAlan75 LoL. And it's Ken Griffey Jr.
@@TheGreatAlan75 Homeboy.? Bruh, that's Ken Griffey Jr.
whoever OK'd that opening dance has a darker sense of humor than all of Norm's jokes combined. wow.
Chris Kattan directed it
Norm's comments on Kattan are hilarious
I was waiting for Norm to say that was gay
Why is it so, so gay?
@@stang46lhe basically did haha
It's like Norm could see into the future and he knew this opportunity would never happen again. Comedy Gold.
20 years later, and still fresh!
Fresh...
Love your avatar! Is it custom?
man Norm Killed it that night. Absolutely hilarious, his delivery is just amazing.
Only joke I didn't find funny was the Michael Jordan Senor Crappy.
'Cause he was such a GREAT baseball player! lol
Randy: That wasn’t his best one but I’d still call it pretty funny.
@@randybradley4151 Agreed. Another nickname would be funnier
Who else watched after listening to “Conan O’Brien needs a friend” podcast? Absolute OG Norm!! RIP
One of the Funniest things I’ve ever seen, and to make that OJ joke at that time took Balls, Norm has the best timing of any Comic I’ve ever seen!!
You know he lost his job at SNL because he wouldn't stop telling OJ jokes, right?
@@joeraguso5376 OJ and Michael Jackson jokes!
@@rebelp311 OJ, Michael Jackson and Clinton jokes.
@@LugiThePainDrinker Yep! Now they are even worse off, seeing as they opted for political opinion rather than comedy
Nothing like this will ever happen again. "GO BACK TO JAPAN YOU DIRTY FOREIGNER." Over the top, brilliant, and once in a lifetime
hahahahaa
That's the thing with those people, they will take a comedians impression of an angry New York sports crowds heckle at a bad player from a joke and turn it into his personal statement. People like that loose an opinion and should never have their feelings even considered valid
Hideki Irabu was found to have committed suicide. Some would say that joke killed 😃
Senor Crappy XD
So true. Imagine 10yrs from now.
Just a word of advice. That's incredible. Norm has the biggest balls out there.
Been waiting five years for that advice
All the giant black people in there might not necessarily agree
lol as soon as Norm starts the monolog and has that impish smile you know something is coming xD
i should've had a norm macdonald poster on my wall when i was a kid instead of griffey jr.
lol agreed
He is a douchebag in real life like for real
Put it right next to Bonds and have two GOATs..
Ken Griffey Jr. is a humorless douchebag.
i did.
That last joke is so great.
and ken griffey jr's reaction is priceless!
I’ve watched this 10 times and still bust out laughing about the East German joke.
LOL, nearly a decade after in 1998!! Norm's a genius.
After reading your comment, I was waiting for it, and I still laughed. I was expecting Norm to make a typical pigeon/mike tyson mysteries kind of salacious comment, and was completely caught off guard.
I dont get it
@@manuelromerobackupchannel6799 East Germany were doping their Olympic athletes back in the 70s and 80s. Lots of the women athletes developed masculine features; moustaches, hairy armpits, penises, that sort of thing.
Except the Wall fell in 1991... so there was no such thing as East Germany. They were known for having some very "strong girls" back in the 80's though.
Seth Macfarlane must've produced the singing bit
very family guyesk
He means its GAY!
deeditmane Seth MacFarland is just that good at mocking different genres
That result can only be born from irony and satire, so yes. McFarlane.
Mel brooks did it first, and still does it ...ex: Men in Tights, Springtime for Hitler, Blazzing Saddles Ending with the gay chorus line bit, the song from the producers literally called, "keep it gay". Seth worships the ground Mel Brooks walked on.
If you need an over-the-top gay musical, Mel Brooks will deliver with an original song and make it incredibly uncomfortably gay. ha
Man he was so ahead of his time with this. Rip to a legend
Rest in Peace Norm. Your comedy will never be matched.
21 years later and still hillarious
the reaction to the jokes are a mix of wild laugher and wow did he just say that.
amazing stuff
He will be so missed. When comedians weren't afraid to be funny. RIP Norm :-(
Perfect choice to host this awards show because Norm MacDonald loves, watches, and knows a lot about sports. He did a brilliant job. He really was a gift to the world. God Bless. RIP.
Yes, very true. His personal sports fandom added so much to this.
They had to know what to expect when they hired Norm. He's always been edgy.
They probably watched one SNL bit before hiring him.
I don't think anyone expected Norm... remember this year he also did the white house correspondence dinner. At least there they made him submit his act beforehand.
Fearless.
Anthony Mason joke was fire
Funniest comedian ever. Up there with Rickles. It's hard to believe how he embodied funny and it's equally hard to believe he is not with us any longer. RIP buddy, you will never be forgotten.
Watching Robin Williams and Jonathan Winters is also a fantastic Duo. I think Norm and Don would have gotten along well. Makes me wonder if they ever did any talk shows together.
@@FH-cn3mg No but they were both guests on a show just nothing at the same time. I've looked through the internet twice for it.
The intro alone is hilarious enough. Norm took the biggest sports award show and made it into a mockery. Classic Norm.
My god that man was funny. I'm still wiping away tears of laughter. RIP Norm.
Damn I miss the 90s
I am quite sure I want to get to know anyone who loved Norm McDonald as much as I do. It screams character, a sense of humor and a heart.
Not trying to compete here, just show respect, I love norm as well and he will live forever if it depends on us
@@JJJameson. Its true man. I think he was such a polarizing amazing man that there are people like us who truly loved a man we never met. I just KNOW how big his heart was and how he was kind to people regardless of their “stature” in this paper society.
I remember crying tears when watching this.....Norm is the man!
I love how the guy next to Griffey (on Griffey's right) at the end is cracking up, Griffey looks over at him sternly and the guy looks at Griffey like "Sorry man, that was pretty funny."
I dont think thats how it went down, do you have eyes
Lavender: Like Griffey, you obviously have no sense of humor.
12:42
The guy to the right of ken griffey jr is clearly cracking up while the man to Ken's left clearly hates it. Such a comedic contrast....😅
I think that was Bobby Bonilla next to him.
@@NickC1966 I think that was Harold Reynolds. Same guy Bo Jackson threw out with an amazing throw back in 1989!!!!!
I wish they taped when the network tried to scold him afterwards. I can only imagine the comedic gems he dropped on the execs. Norm is the best.
a perfect monologue mixing sports and current events, hilarious and pushing the damn envelope
I’m not so sure.
That might be the PR story.
WOW I simply cannot imagine a more perfect dance choreography to introduce such a deeply, deeply closeted individual
How can you not love Norm... The best comedian ever... Just born with natural wit... He doesn't even have to tell a joke and it's funny
Norm is a Savage 😂. I wish they could still do this type of comedy today
You can still do this comedy today
I always thought the Espy Awards were pointless, dumb, and completely unnecessary. Now I see they served a purpose: those 13 minutes I just watched.
Norm was 38 here and looked very dapper, one forgets he was a handsome man when he was younger.
he banged Elle MacPherson in her prime
Marcus Maloney yep. kept it fairly quiet but Artie and Jay Mohr both talked about it.
He was very handsome no doubt... My favourite comedian
No fucks given. Norm was a legend years ago. Rest in Peace Brother.
This is something you show your kids to teach them what free speech in comedy was like back in our day.
If there would have been some place to show how it offend people back in the day(like Twitter), you would have got same outrage as today.
But there was no way you can express yourself so it looked like people didn't get offended back in the day.
His entire set was hilarious, but he got banned from the ESPYs for this. And the reactions on people's faces show it was controversial even then. But don't let that stop you from complaining about "the way things are today"
@Eric Van Mother Theresa was a horrible person
Yeah fast forward to norm on the view. Lol. People fuckin blow now
Billy.
Billy don’t you lose my number!!
Norm & Rodney D were my 2 favorite comedy acts of all time R.I.P to both
A fearless, comedic genius. He will be missed.
This was one of Norm MacDonald's finest appearance - he killed! Why was Ken Griffey, Jr. so upset about the jokes? Those jokes were hilarious and they weren't even directed at him!
Some of them were racial. Also on the last joke, A LOT of black people, especially in sports, were defending OJ and thought it was set up by racist cops who could not stand seeing a black man being successful.
There was racism surrounding the OJ case - OJ Simpson was found not guilty by a racist black jury. It is definitely fair game, and not racist, to make OJ jokes
Facts are never racist.
The Post Sasso Era has hit Ken hard.
Because is a d#*K head !!!
RIP Norm MacDonald
Thank you for entertaining us 💙
This man. This man makes my life better. Thanks Norm. 😀
The Heisman trophy joke may have been "too soon" for *that* room. But that's a great fuckin joke!!
Gotta love the look of fear every time the camera goes live on the person he just mentioned.
What a legend! RIP Norm🖤
Can't believe I hadn't seen this till now. Norm, you're a genius. We miss you bro.
Norm is a beast at setting people up and then roasting the fuck out of them...
Wow
The beginning was the future of sports
Hahahaha
This is my favorite stand up from Norm. Laughed the entire time
He was fearless. He's missed by all of us every single day.
Rest in piece to a true brother.
Biggest set of Balls ever!! Norm is one of the all time greats!!
that intern joke would of got Norm in trouble in todays lame world. Love this man.
Calling that chick "sexy" at the start of the show would have had him crucified
It was a joke aimed at Clinton because of Monica Lewinsky. It wasn’t a joke about sexually assaulting young women.
I don't get it
@@user-ps6iz6bd9t You don't get why a joke about interns was funny in 1998? I gather you were born yesterday?
A young Ricky Gervais takes notes
I just hope Ken Griffey Jr developed a sense of humor since this.
didn't like that OJ dig at the end. LOL. Hopefully the default support for the guy who killed his wife and a waiter has come to its senses. Norm DGAF on SNL and DGAF in front of a room full of sports stars either. Dude had a pair.
Greatest Comedian of all time
I expected that final- and brilliant- punchline to get a lot more appreciation.
Hes was on top of the world in 1998. RIP.
The last dangerous comedian. The one and only brilliant Norm
Chappelle and Bill Burr
RIP to one of the greats
Norm's material is timeless.
The OJ joke is why Norm is a legend.
dude that ringing before the closing punchline just makes it all the more epic
The look on every one's face when Norm calls their name is hilarious
A moth goes into a podiatrist’s office, and the podiatrist says, “What seems to be the problem, moth?”
The moth says “What’s the problem? Where do I begin, man? I go to work for Gregory Illinivich, and all day long I work. Honestly doc, I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t even know if Gregory Illinivich knows. He only knows that he has power over me, and that seems to bring him some happiness. But I don’t know. I wake up in a malaise, and I walk here and there at night. I sometimes wake up and I turn to some old lady in my bed that’s on my arm. A lady that I once loved, doc. I don’t know where to turn to.
My youngest, Alexendria, she fell in the in the cold of last year. The cold took her down, as it did many of us moths. And my other boy, and this is the hardest pill to swallow, doc. My other boy, Gregarro Ivinalititavitch… I no longer love him. As much as it pains me to say, when I look in his eyes, all I see is the same cowardice that I that I catch when I take a glimpse of my own pitiful face in the mirror. If only I wasn’t such a coward, then perhaps I could bring myself to reach over to that cocked and loaded gun that lays on the bedside behind me and end this hellish facade once and for all. Doc, sometimes I feel like a spider, even though I’m a moth, just barely hanging on to my web with an everlasting fire underneath me. I’m not feeling good.
And so the doctor says, “Moth, man, you’re troubled. But you should be seeing a psychiatrist. Why on earth did you come here?”
And the moth says, “‘Cause the light was on.”
Thank you
Norm tells it better.
What a bunch of gobbledygook
Love you Norm. RIP you crazy legend.
RIP to one of the GOATs
You can actually see the fear in their eyes when Norm says the name Haha
I would be too
Some of the faces on the audience are so uptight you can practically hear their sphincters tightening.
He was a sage that got it all right. Rip. Norm rip kobe
Omg this would NEVER fly in today’s world. I miss those days.
Its when comics had balls and would poke fun of people. He was fearless...check him out as the host of the Clinton press thingy...its on RUclips...he just rips them a new one
That O.J. Simpson joke at the end was one of the funniest ever! LoL! Those 3 black guys shaking their heads need to stop getting their panties all bunched up.
That’s your takeaway? You didn’t approve of the way some black guys reacted. Why even care? Joke was hilarious enjoy it don’t make it some racial thing!
Norm is a legend!!!
I think Ricky Gervais was inspired by this for the Golden Globes..........
Hugo Nongbri u are dead on
@@triplea1313
Absolutely
Griffey jrs reaction was priceless
Best ESPY host ever!!! Norm was awesome.
Love Linda Kohn here. Still the queen on the throne at espen.
OMG! Thankfully, I wasn't sipping anything or my PC screen would be getting cleaned from the spit-take! That ESPY opening chorus line was hilarious!
R.I.P. Norm McDonald, Stewart Scott, and Rich Eisen Hai, We ALL Miss You Very Much 😋
Norm, you were a legend sir. You had the balls of George Patton
I have watched the line about "strippers and crack" 15 times because the woman sitting next to boomer in the cutsway is priceless. 0.125% of a grin and the rest of her face is stone cold. Can't tell if it is drugs or shock. Either way
Ahead of times. Legend.
Norm was a fuckin Beast! He crushed it . Long Live NORM 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
This is pure gold. Modern comedians would be scared to death to tell these jokes.
Not really. Norm is punching up (at millionaire athletes, especially the misogynist murderer OJ), not down.
@@scottcharney1091
No chance a modern comedian would make the joke norm made about the Japanese player. They'd spend a month afterwards on an apology tour.
@@cc-fl7uj The joke is about Irabu's incompetence, and the rudeness of the Yankees fans.
@@scottcharney1091
Yes it is...
@@cc-fl7uj So what would result in an apology tour?
4:22
The highlight of any man's career, a whoo from Kathy Ireland.
no doubt
That hard cut at the end, Norm is special for this one.
Norm IS the Greatest of all time.
Nobody knows what to think of Norm. Everything he does and says challenges people's illusions, preconceptions, and standards. He's my long lost uncle.
Chris Kattan would have loved to be in that intro song. You just know.
R.I.P Norm... you will be missed!!!
Norm was doing it twenty years before Ricky Gervais at the Emmys
RIP Norm!