YMMV / Norm Macdonald

• Crosses the Line Twice: Everything in "Best Disease Ever" stand-up routine from the title onward, concluding with hypothetical Alcoholics Anonymous member Richie K in Norm's cheerful deadpan.
  One time I was under the influence of the demon rum, and I started punching my newborn in the face. I kinda looked down on my fist and it was all bloody with, uh, I don't know what it was. It was either from my knuckles or my son's skull.
• Funny Moments: His Take That! against SNL when he returned to host the show after being fired (season 25 episode with musical guests Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Dr. Dre) His whole monologue was about this, pointing out that he was fired for not being funny but was now qualified to host the show and, believing he hadn't gotten any funnier, deduced that the only reason he was brought back was because the show has gotten bad ever since he left (which was met with laughter, cheers, and some mild booing). SNL, to its credit, continues to air that episode in its reruns and put it in the Best of Norm compilation. Also a Moment of Awesome, as he was still pretty sore over being fired and took a shot at the show the only way he could: by joking about it. He even ends the monologue with "we got a bad show for you tonight!"
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Trope Namer, one of his Running Gags on Weekend Update.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • “I’m pretty sure, I’m not a doctor — but I’m pretty sure if you die, the cancer dies at the same time. That’s not a loss. That’s a draw.”
  • In one video, he suggests killing Adolf Hitler; his response when informed that Hitler is already dead: "I didn't even know he was sick." These exact words were later uttered by many a personality in response to Norm Macdonald's own death, and given that his diagnosis predated the Hitler joke, this was likely intentional on his part.
  • During his time on Saturday Night Live, he would often portray and parody Bob Dole. In December 5, 2021, Dole passed away in his sleep from stage IV cancer, while Norm himself died two and a half months earlier from acute leukemia. Dole even remarked on Norm's death, with many observers expressing shock that Dole had actually survived him.^note Dole died at age 98; Norm was 61, or 37 years younger (short of 62, or 36 years younger).
• Heartwarming Moments: He was the last ever stand-up on the last ever The Late Show with David Letterman, having made his TV debut on the same show with the same host 25 years earlier, and after casually referring to Letterman as "the greatest talk show host who ever lived", he finished his act by telling a joke that he, as a teenager, had seen Letterman perform on a Canadian talk show. And the memory of it made him tear up.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In one of his Celebrity Jeopardy skits on SNL, where he impersonated Burt Reynolds, he passively mentions Scooby-Doo, saying "He rode around in a van and solved mysteries." Norm would later star in the Scooby-Doo spoof Mike Tyson Mysteries, where he'd voice a talking animal who rides around in a van and helps solve mysteries.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Now this might strike some viewers as harsh, but I believe everyone involved in this story should die."
  • A screenshot of Norm's face where he reads Adolf Hitler's Wikipedia article and pretends to be surprised that Hitler "hated Jews" is sometimes used on social media as a sarcastic reply to someone calling out a celebrity or historical figure for bad deeds that are already well-known.
  • "No offense, but that sounds like a bunch of fuckin' Commie gobbledygook!"
  • Many clips from Norm's podcast went viral after he passed away, including the one where he declares he "will not eat a single morsel of food until Margaret Thatcher is dead and buried!" and, upon being informed by his co-host that she died three weeks prior, immediately diving into a bucket of KFC.
• Values Dissonance: One of his Take Thats to Michael Jackson during his first child molestation trial was referring to him as "a homosexual pedophile". (For example, after a raid at Jackson's home found a large portrait of Shirley Temple, Norm reassured viewers that while Jackson was accused of being a pedophile, the portrait shouldn't raise concerns, because he was being accused of being "a homosexual pedophile".) That was what Jackson was accused of being, but nowadays the "homosexual" qualifier would probably be left off as irrelevant to the charges.

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