One thing no one talks about was Norm’s use of “by god”. He constantly cast himself as this clueless old codger just shocked by the ways of this newfangled world, before immediately saying some completely unhinged bullshit. It was an incredible gift
I can’t remember which comedian said this, but they described Norm as “the smartest person in the room, pretending to be the dumbest person in the room.”
One of the things I loved about Norm was how he clearly valued comedy as a profession, and he was never selfish about it. He wanted others to keep up. When Conan does the “Bosco’s chocolate” line, you can see him react with sheer pleasure.
@@zacktonatureThe defining riff was Conan getting upset at Norm's tendency to tell extremely outdated, hokey, vaudeville-style jokes. Norm pokes at this by mentioning the "1935 comic" halfway through. Conan ends the segment by leaning into that: He adopts a mid-atlantic old-timey radio voice, and acts like they're about to cut to an ad for an equally old-timey product. It's not even a joke or a punchline as much as a hyperspecific riff on how we think people acted back then. I personally find it HILARIOUS, and it's consistently my weak point. I can't explain why; old-timey shit is fun to hear and fun to say. Does any of that help?
Understood,I say "terlet" for toilet and spout largely old school shit precisely because it's hysterical! You can make everything into a Three Stooges episode if you like.....
You can always tell how much these two loved having each other around. Seems Norm would always find a way to sabotage Conan's show with the dirtiest or most obscure jokes he could get away with!
Haha, well ... 'throwing shoes' or not, while Norm's appearances sometimes have the veneer of a "Watergate" (to be set straight, say), the actual ... substance ... was so often deeply amusing and entertaining. I will write, though, that while Norm could be dirty, he was no Gilbert Gottfried, AFAIK. His comedy is definitely similar in some ways, but I always associate Gottfried with just going so 'low' and 'dirty'. I love both, personally - Norm much less for his dirtier jokes, usually, Gottfried absolutely for his ability to just 'go there' and yet still be surprisingly funny and somehow 'elevate' absolute filth to a level of (perverse) art. I'll always be glad we have these videos of them, a gift they left the broader public with, in particular.
It's because they were old SNL buddies....back during the time when we can make sick jokes and not get offended and just laugh......Sad place today is!
Norm was Conan’s “emergency” guest, so to speak. When they couldn’t book enough guests for the show he’d just get Norm to come on and have him do his thing which was basically hm doing jokes from the 40’s 😂😂😂😂
Everything about this clip is gold, first of all how into the joke Norma's, he's just loving and delighting and waiting for that punch line that he knows is just going to cross the line but kill, then you got Conan, so perfectly just listening to the joke, not trying to interject, not trying to become part of the joke, just forming the frame around the joke, and literally dying at the middle because he knows how great this joke is going to be but not laughing until the punchline, and then you got Andy just dying at the end, but unique comic genius in his own right laughing at something I don't even understand but no is funny, Understanding everything that just went on in front of them and just breaking up. This is comedy art.
“I like to think of myself as a generous host, or at least I tried to be. Sometimes when I had a guest on and they were telling a story or a joke, I would laugh at the joke anyway to help them out, even if the joke wasn’t the funniest. But I always tell people, if you ever want to see me laughing, truly genuinely laughing, then watch me in any Norm MacDonald clip. Sometimes I’ll be laughing so hard that I put my hands on my stomach, and I think that’s my tell.”- Conan O’Brian
Norm was, indeed, awesome, but Conan just seems half-witted and is incredibly annoying. Then again, I don't believe I've ever seen a talkshow host that I've actually enjoyed...
@@dehumanizedanomaly3413 By this time, I think Conan's thing with Norm was acting shocked with Norm. Norm went there with the goal of having a Rodney Dangerfield-like talk show appearance, but he didn't tell Conan about it. So it actually did shock him this time. He was shocked that Norm would actually attempt those super old, very corny jokes.
@Brother Cheerio That's George Carlin for me. Preaching his political opinions and not being funny. My parents watched him and even when I was like 9, I would think, "Who is this bitter old man?"
It's the look (at 0:26). Did the same with the Cosby joke - such a master of setup and pacing, then confirms he's got them to where he wants, and boom. A master joke teller.
@@lastplayer5838the joke is that you’re led to believe that oral sex meant that he’d go down on her, but instead he ends up shoving his pipe down her throat and giving himself the oral treatment. She then chokes on his ejaculate. The punchline is when he says “that’s modern medicine for you” which is just a way of saying that shooting out your gunk is the “medicine.” It’s a nonsense joke, but the genius is in how he delivers it.
Norm Macdonald had been saying that he wanted to have a Rodney Dangerfield-style of late show appearance. I think this was it.
The episode aired twelve years to the day of Rodney's death. Norm is knowingly paying tribute.
@@georgesotiriou7051 yeah I don’t think many realize this.
He did a few of them didn't he?
"You won't hear this from any 1935 comic." Possibly... but _Groucho Marx_ would have loved it!
@@brothercheerioI don't think you realized this.
One thing no one talks about was Norm’s use of “by god”. He constantly cast himself as this clueless old codger just shocked by the ways of this newfangled world, before immediately saying some completely unhinged bullshit. It was an incredible gift
Exactly! It's his "By God" and "By jolly" that crack me up. It's the faux seriousness that he puts up while telling something funny.
I can’t remember which comedian said this, but they described Norm as “the smartest person in the room, pretending to be the dumbest person in the room.”
@@MiddleAgedBob Well said.
His delivery of "by god" honestly made me laugh harder than the punchline haha
That’s the funniest part and that’s saying something because the punchline is damn funny
My experience attempting to tell this joke on a family camping trip gave me even more appreciation for Norm's delivery and timing.
I know what you mean.
Tie.
Ming is everything.
He needed one of those Evel Knievel "Don't try this at home, kids!" disclaimers up front.
He got serious with it which sells it I believe.
I've told this joke many, many times, always giving credit to Norm.
“I said, by god” 😭😭😭
That line with his the face he makes is priceless.
I need to make a concerted effort to work this into my vocabulary
Wallahi
Norm's ability to pace a joke was so delightful. It seemed like he always knew the phrasing to get the best response.
He was an expert.
And this poster's thanks to him is to chop a segment of his routine out of context as if it didn't matter. Great job!
@@sgarrett453 the whole set was hilarious.
I've heard him do the joke lots of times, but it still gets me.
@sgarrett453 damn bro who hurt you?
Andy's reaction to 'That's modern medicine for you' is absolute gold.
It was! It took a second to fully hit him.
@@brothercheerioit has taken like a year to hit me and I still don’t fully understand it.
@@weglarz we’ll wait for you dude.
Ha! That comment tickled Andy just right. 😅
That was the REAL punchline.❤
I liked how Norm told a joke like he wasn't very good at telling a joke which made it even funnier.
Norm was always the smartest guy in the room, but perfect at pretending to be the dumbest.
This is the best way I've ever heard his style described! I'm definitely using your phrasing from now on. Marvelously insightful!
His "I said 'By God'" is amazing
And then the look over right after
I lost my wife after she had been in a coma for several months. It was all very careless of me and l still haven't found her.
It's alright, keep looking. It's not like she's going anywhere
You know, the more I learn about Norm Macdonald, the more I care for him.
It's the lack of hypocrisy that really gets me.
You don’t sound like a guy that owns a doghouse
he had dementia at the end
@@justgrey3114no he didn't. He put out a comedy special from his home right before he died. He knew he was dying.
@@ObiWanShinobi67 he died? I didn't even know he was sick
One of the things I loved about Norm was how he clearly valued comedy as a profession, and he was never selfish about it. He wanted others to keep up. When Conan does the “Bosco’s chocolate” line, you can see him react with sheer pleasure.
I didn't get that joke. Is there context?
@@zacktonatureThe defining riff was Conan getting upset at Norm's tendency to tell extremely outdated, hokey, vaudeville-style jokes. Norm pokes at this by mentioning the "1935 comic" halfway through.
Conan ends the segment by leaning into that: He adopts a mid-atlantic old-timey radio voice, and acts like they're about to cut to an ad for an equally old-timey product.
It's not even a joke or a punchline as much as a hyperspecific riff on how we think people acted back then. I personally find it HILARIOUS, and it's consistently my weak point. I can't explain why; old-timey shit is fun to hear and fun to say.
Does any of that help?
@@Miksho7 Great explanation thanks
@@Miksho7Conan always knew how to play along with Norm, even if he didn’t see the endgame. It’s why they gelled so well together.
Understood,I say "terlet" for toilet and spout largely old school shit precisely because it's hysterical! You can make everything into a Three Stooges episode if you like.....
Conan is such a great host to comedians. He always plays along without overdoing it
I think Norm is one of the only people that made Conan laugh like that
He constantly tries to outperform a lot of his guests tho non comedians
Okay but he was totally unprepared for Eric Andre
I love the look on Conan's face because he knew what was coming with the first two lines of the joke.
Let's be honest. Norm was the only comic who could make any audience laugh with any joke he chose to.
9/11
I don’t understand the joke
The doctor meant using your mouth, not _her_ mouth
@@alexsan1991x 🤣
Norm told the "crocodile hunter" joke about a week after Steve Irwin died and it was fcking hilarious. Not many people could pull that off.
I worked for WB at the time and was there for this. The laughter continued long after the cut. Love ya, Norm
I think Norm and Andy Kaufman are two of the only truly fearless comedians I've seen.
Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Buddy Hackett, don Rickles ?
@@edwardscovill7081 Don Rickles for sure....
I think what the original commenter meant was that those two comedians are funny in ways that aren't usually seen as funny.
…and please, don’t forget Bill Hicks! 😮
Steve Martin, particularly in his early days, as in pre-SNL, was truly unafraid.
Norm was one of a kind. R.I.P. Norm, you are truly missed.
I loved Norm Macdonald. His jokes, his Sitcom (highly underrated), his timing. What a comic genius. RIP Norm. 😢
Is he dead? I didn't even know he was sick.
@KomodoKebab he left us with one more.
@@KomodoKebab Yea. Died a few years ago. Norman Gene Macdonald (October 17, 1959 - September 14, 2021)
@@Raiderhays37 Aye, referencing his own joke.
You can always tell how much these two loved having each other around. Seems Norm would always find a way to sabotage Conan's show with the dirtiest or most obscure jokes he could get away with!
Haha, well ... 'throwing shoes' or not, while Norm's appearances sometimes have the veneer of a "Watergate" (to be set straight, say), the actual ... substance ... was so often deeply amusing and entertaining.
I will write, though, that while Norm could be dirty, he was no Gilbert Gottfried, AFAIK. His comedy is definitely similar in some ways, but I always associate Gottfried with just going so 'low' and 'dirty'. I love both, personally - Norm much less for his dirtier jokes, usually, Gottfried absolutely for his ability to just 'go there' and yet still be surprisingly funny and somehow 'elevate' absolute filth to a level of (perverse) art.
I'll always be glad we have these videos of them, a gift they left the broader public with, in particular.
It's because they were old SNL buddies....back during the time when we can make sick jokes and not get offended and just laugh......Sad place today is!
Norm was Conan’s “emergency” guest, so to speak. When they couldn’t book enough guests for the show he’d just get Norm to come on and have him do his thing which was basically hm doing jokes from the 40’s 😂😂😂😂
@@garrghhhGilbert is about an mediocre as they come, even at dark comedy.
We miss Norm every day!!
He was the best!
So true!!! ❤🦋
This is just too funny. God bless Norm he was a comedic genius❤
I just want to know where he got all his ideas from.
God bless Norm.
Everything about this clip is gold, first of all how into the joke Norma's, he's just loving and delighting and waiting for that punch line that he knows is just going to cross the line but kill, then you got Conan, so perfectly just listening to the joke, not trying to interject, not trying to become part of the joke, just forming the frame around the joke, and literally dying at the middle because he knows how great this joke is going to be but not laughing until the punchline, and then you got Andy just dying at the end, but unique comic genius in his own right laughing at something I don't even understand but no is funny, Understanding everything that just went on in front of them and just breaking up. This is comedy art.
Thank you for your comment.
Andy was cracking up for the Modern Medicine bit Norm added to the end.
“I like to think of myself as a generous host, or at least I tried to be. Sometimes when I had a guest on and they were telling a story or a joke, I would laugh at the joke anyway to help them out, even if the joke wasn’t the funniest. But I always tell people, if you ever want to see me laughing, truly genuinely laughing, then watch me in any Norm MacDonald clip. Sometimes I’ll be laughing so hard that I put my hands on my stomach, and I think that’s my tell.”- Conan O’Brian
I thought the punchline was gonna be "your wife's in a coma, how long do you want me to keep her in it?" 😂
Me too!
“I said my god..” best part 😂
I watched this video at least 30 times in the last hour, can't get tired of it! RIP Norm
The face of Conan when he said “oral sex” it was like “remind me to kill this crazy sob after we are done” 😂😂
I love how Conan cuts to commercial like it's the 1930's after Norm's ancient corny joke.
... and that is when Norm MacDonald began his second career as a visiting lecturer at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine ...
When you can make Norm laugh you know you're good
That's gonna be future clip of mine. I don't think I've seen anyone make Norm laugh as hard as David Spade did.
@@brothercheerio : I’m a lucky guy.
I think nobody made Conan laugh like Norm did. RIP Norm
"That's modern medicine for you" ✊😂
Holy cow, I've been telling this joke for 20 years, it's so surreal to see this from the master.
Andy is like the king of riffing and even he is just sitting there laughing
If that isn't the perfect joke, I don't know what is! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It is! Lol
I kind of expected what he was going to do to his wife
Perverted world
@@Will502x it's a joke, chill
We all knew exactly where that was going, and we just followed right along😂
Conan’s face turning from utter fear and anticipation to hidden joy behind his hand is so funny
My favorite comic of all time.
Epic. This man was a timing genius. ❤
Miss this LEGEND!!!! RIP Norm❤
Norm was awesome, and Conan was/is the best night time show of all time.
They had good chemistry.
Norm was, indeed, awesome, but Conan just seems half-witted and is incredibly annoying. Then again, I don't believe I've ever seen a talkshow host that I've actually enjoyed...
@@dehumanizedanomaly3413 By this time, I think Conan's thing with Norm was acting shocked with Norm. Norm went there with the goal of having a Rodney Dangerfield-like talk show appearance, but he didn't tell Conan about it. So it actually did shock him this time. He was shocked that Norm would actually attempt those super old, very corny jokes.
@@brothercheerio Not relevant.
Johnny Carson wasn't too bad either .
I've watched pretty much all of Norm's material and I can say with confidence he was the best comedian to ever live.
I feel the same way. He took comedy to a whole other level because he lived comedy. Patrice O’Neal is way up there for me as well.
That's Bill Hicks at his best
@Fernando Vargas Mejía He was overrated as hell. Not funny.
@@mr.constitution I found him funny when he wasn’t doing “I’m smarter than you” humor.
@Brother Cheerio That's George Carlin for me. Preaching his political opinions and not being funny. My parents watched him and even when I was like 9, I would think, "Who is this bitter old man?"
One of his best jokes by far! A real gem!
if the doctor would have communicated the remedy more specifically, they could have avoided a lot of additional medical issues.
RIP Norm. One of the greatest comedians of all time.
He's still giving me a good laugh from the Afterlife 😂 may he rest in eternal peace 🌹
Okay but why is this funny besides the shock factor?
And you have to keep trying until she wakes up😂
See that's a genuine laugh. Jimmy Falon would be bursting with his fake laugh after hearing the wife is in a coma
I sure miss Norm. What a character, so funny!
No better example of how delivery and timing are the foundation on which great jokes are built. Norm was a master
It's the look (at 0:26). Did the same with the Cosby joke - such a master of setup and pacing, then confirms he's got them to where he wants, and boom. A master joke teller.
The one and only Norm Macdonald 😂
R.I.P. Norm, you truly were one of a kind. ✝️
During the commercial break, Connan to his producer: "Are we getting fined for that one? How many complaint letters should we expect?"
I could just watch Conan's reaction every time Norm is on! And Bill Burr! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Norm had this appeal that only the greats like Letterman and Conan connected to. RIP
I remember that joke. And I still laughed out loud at the punchline. He had an amazing delivery
One of the best jokes I've ever heard!
So much has to do with Norm's delivery!!!
100%! That mix of confusion and concern :: chef's kiss ::
An oldie but a goldie. Well delivered.
Norm had a unique way of delivering the punch lines!!
He was the GOAT 🐐
man norm was the best
I still miss norm every day
Honestly Conan's "Bosco Chocolate Syrup" joke was equally hilarious. Both of these dudes are just so awesomely funny.
I miss him so much.
Nor was so cool - often you could see the punchline coming a mile a way, but he still delivers it in a way that is hilarious.
His expression after saying "you won't hear this from any 1935 comic" is underappreciated, but it makes the whole thing for me
Greatest story teller ever
savage joke, yet somehow classy
Norm Macdonald is an icon . No replacements . 💯pure comedy RIP Norm
and do you know who that doctor was? Yep, you guessed it. Frank Stallone.
Or so the Germans would have you believe.
.... or so the Germans would have us believe.
The fact that i knew what the punchline was gonna be and i still laughed so hard is why Norm is the goat
Norm was one of a kind. Rest in peace, we miss you every day.
I swear, that was the best joke I ever heard!
Conan's bit at the end makes Norm genuinely laugh, love to see it
Going down a Normie rabbit hole. He never failed to make me laugh
I could tell that was gonna be the punchline and it was still hilarious. What a great comic
Norm's Comedic Timing could not be matched.
That was SO WRONG...I died...😆😆😂😂🤣🤣
That was hysterical and I feel incredibly stupid for not seeing the punchline before he said it!! 😮😂
The way he delivered the joke made it even funnier 🤣
I just miss Norm! He was the best 😂😂😂😂😂
Don't remind me of it man. The only famous person I ever wanted to meet and never got a chance to.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂WROND END,NORMIE!😂😂😂😂😂
I miss that man! What a gem.
This is the best joke ever written
This and the Moth joke. Best jokes!
Professor of logic....look it up.
@@hoanpham4545 I know that one but his delivery is amazing
@@hoanpham4545 yeah the professor of logic joke is hilarious as well.
"But that's modern medicine for ya"
Absolute masterclass.
Great comedic timing, poor Conan can’t even look at him, RIP norm
That was better than expected!
This was one of his best joke
Still makes me laugh. Thanks Norm!
Always on another level.
Legendary Norm
Wow this is one of his best jokes in my book.
Jason. "The silent guardian of Chrystal Lake"!
i love the little smile he gives to Andy after the "1935 comic" bit
I takes real talent to make a joke with a punchline you can see coming; wink; and still deliver it perfectly.
You could only see it coming because you've seen it before.
Conan trying not to laugh during the whole delivery. 😂
Awesome video guys thank you!
Thank you for your comment.
It's no surprise so many other comedians held Norm in such high esteem. Has to be in anyone's top ten. Or higher.
The joke itself was obvious and predictable, but became legendary because Norm was willing to actually tell it on live TV.
I think he was a real jerk, to be honest.
@@thehoodedvagabum7375why?
I don’t get the joke, so the wife was choking and that means she woke up from coma?
@@lastplayer5838the joke is that you’re led to believe that oral sex meant that he’d go down on her, but instead he ends up shoving his pipe down her throat and giving himself the oral treatment. She then chokes on his ejaculate.
The punchline is when he says “that’s modern medicine for you” which is just a way of saying that shooting out your gunk is the “medicine.” It’s a nonsense joke, but the genius is in how he delivers it.
@@lastplayer5838I interpret the joke like this -- doctor was suggesting that the wife should be the receiver, rather than the giver.
Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. Norm MacDonald.
If you are going to be pretentious at least spell it correct..
@@andyt9181 Take ur meds and shut up!
Absolute fucking legend