I had something completely different planned for today, in fact I had already started writing it but when I heard that Norm Macdonald had died, I had to say a few things about him.

If you have heard of the doppelganger theory, then some people say that I look like Michael Keaton (that is a story for another day). I feel like Norm was my comic double. I am probably not as good of BS-er as I think he was, but I feel like he can really deliver one liners like nobodies’ business. So, if I think I was ever going to be a comic, then I would look to Norm for inspiration.

I am not going to go on and on about him but I thought that it was worth mentioning that he was probably my favorite comic. I liked that fact that he would would just keep plowing through jokes that ended up being terrible. It was probably the years of training at Saturday Night Live. See below for an example.

He also seemed to be able to fit in a wide variety of situations. Not everything was filthy/raunchy but he could keep right up there with the Eddie Murphy’s of the world if he chose to. I read this joke on Wikipedia yesterday and I was laughing at the punch you in the face technique Norm would use.

After the announcement that Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley planned to divorce, Macdonald joked about their irreconcilable differences on Weekend Update. “According to friends, the two were never a good match. She’s more of a stay-at-home type, and he’s more of a homosexual pedophile.”

I listened to his podcast a couple of years ago, at times it was pretty rough. But again, despite the disaster of the show, Norm kept going. This was going on at the time that he was also playing Colonel Sanders for KFC so he also new how to make fun of himself too.

End Your Programming Routine: Life is short. We should laugh once in a while including at ourselves. We don’t always have to get so offended either. Norm was a writer and a comic more so than an actor which means that he liked to make others laugh. I know that I am going to miss his work.