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There were three types of jokes made during last night’s mostly disappointing Comedy Central Roast Of Bob Saget:
1. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen sexual jokes.
2. Gay jokes.
3. Jokes about Cloris Leachman’s vagina.
Yawn! Gay jokes, really, still? Just when I was about to turn off the TV, though, the incomparable Norm MacDonald took the stage and turned the roast on its head with his own form of subversive comedy. Word is, the Comedy Central suits almost didn’t use his set, which makes sense because it was the only original part of the entire thing. What scoundrels! After the jump, Norm’s roast in its entirety, in which he proves that old lady vagina jokes are for the birds.
Leave it to the chronically misunderstood MacDonald to have the network’s Carlos Mencia fans scratching their heads. Next year, as a creative challenge, Comedy Central should write a list of banned subjects, like that fun game, Taboo, only for tired old roast cliches.
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allot of the jokes were to old or clever for our time.He was at one point the funniest man I’ve ever heard but I was deeply hurt by his part in the roast as I’m sure that this is a shared experience.
I’m actually thrilled that most of you didn’t appreciate the humor. Lets me tower over you from my elitist perch once again. This is why there should be an intelligence and humor caste system.
Ugh, it’s late but I’d like to get my thoughts out before going to bed. ._.
First off, the most interesting part of Norm’s roast, to me, was not what seemed to be a satire on the roasting itself, but how much admiration and respect he showed for Bob Saget at the end of his bit. “Bob was the first comedian I ever saw perform when I was a boy, live, and I loved him… and I hope everyone else does. I just wanted to say that”. His final comment seemed bitter-sweet. He admitted that he was envious of Bob’s success, but also attested to his admiration for him.
So, then, why the choice in what many would consider out-dated comedy? Clearly, this is been a big issue amongst many who have watched the bit. From what I can gather, it seems that Bob’s style of comedy has changed quite a bit over his career. I.e, his early family-friendly antics to his present day, more vulgar comedy. Maybe Norm felt as though Bob sold-out when his comedy became identical to the vast majority of up-and-coming comics and did this as a homage to Bob’s early works, which seemed to have a significant impact on the young Norm. Maybe Norm believed Bob deserved something more unique and original than the material other comics had. Or just maybe he did it out of spite and jealousy.
I can only speculate and guess as to what his purpose was on that evening, but I think that it has more meaning than some subversive ploy to poke fun at contemporary comedy. Norm seemed too sincere and endeared to Bob to think otherwise. But again, I can only speculate. I think Norm, Bob, and their fellow comedians have more of a clue than those who only have a hat on their minds.
nobody likes dry humor anymore… its all nigga this, nigga that nowadays
See Heather, this is the reason why I dumped your loser ass, because you are just as much of a bitch on the internet as you are in real life. That and your a bad lay.
Bob Saget and Norm are good pals. You noticed that when he ended on a sincere note. Norm didn’t care about the crowd reaction in the least, he just wanted to make his pal Bob laugh.
If you don’t get it, then you just don’t get it. Norm MacDonald basically planned his set to be the exact opposite of what everyone else was doing, which is what makes him a genius. He didn’t use one curse word, which shows what a classy guy he is. I was literally in tears. One of the best sets of all time on Comedy Central’s roast series. You can see the unedited version on Youtube; Norm’s set is longer than what is played here. The look on the other comedians’ faces says it all. I’ll say it again. Norm is a comedic genius.
Norm actually did curse.
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norm WAS NOT FUNNY AT ALL. everyone can say and assume he was hilarious by doing something different and being clean about it. it wasnt funny at all. his technique to writing jokes was horrible. when people want to hear comedy they don?t want to think about the joke it should just standout to them so they can process ?oh thats funny? time to laugh now. any good comedian or writer knows that and oh umm let me see werent there comedians on that stage who have studied different types of comedy? obviously they didnt get it because they werent laughing and it showed in the crowd as well because nobody was laughing either. you know those times when you feel embarrassed for other people but you dont want them to feel bad about their crappy jokes so you laugh just to comfort them??yeah. wen all the other comedians told a joke theyd show someone in the crowd laughing. how many times did they do that for norm? and how does anyone know for sure that he was roasting roasts? maybe he just was terrible and everyone would like to assume he was just doing a clean genius act. please explain to me why his joke about bob sagets face looks like a cauliflower and why everyone pisses themself everytime they hear it?
you have completely missed the point. read through the comments for this video.
just like everyone else that’s posted thats your OPINION, and everyone is allowed to have theres
That was a spot of genius.
I have to address one thing though: in the comment section I saw some disses towards the Chappelle Show. Now listen, just because the network keeps renewing Carlos Mencia’s crapfest doesn’t mean they have put out some genius shows. Like Chappelle’s Show and South Park.
But yeah, Norm was amazing.
He said it himself best.. (in the roast)
“That’s what it says.. on this card.. ”
and my favorite moment:
“How do you not get that?”
whatever I thought the whole roast was great, tho norm macdonalds bit really made me laugh for an entirely different reason
gotta disagree with you completely on this one, lindsay, unless un-funny, old jokes (some with incredibly obscure references) are the new funny. all my friends watching this were completely at a loss for words for how badly his roast failed.
Warren,
You’re kidding yourself.
McDonald stole the show. If you like the template, run of the mill roast joke then bravo. I hear they’re roasting Larry the Cable Guy this week (or last week).
McDonald flipped it and turned it on everyone involved with the roast.
Fail? Only to those who didn’t get it.
Norm Macdonald is a comedic GENIUS!
I have found what i was looking for !!! thx )
It’s not funny because the jokes he’s telling are funny, it’s funny because they AREN’T. I think most people are simply unwilling to exercise the miniscule amount of intellect required to make this connection. This guy probably said it best:
“when people want to hear comedy they don?t want to think about the joke it should just standout to them so they can process ?oh thats funny? time to laugh now.”
Yikes. Really sad to learn that people simply don’t want to have to think. You don’t have to like Norm MacDonald, but if you’re complaining that the one-liners weren’t funny, you are completely missing the point.
That is all
Sorry, I got the joke within a bunch of bad jokes and I didn’t find it funny at all. Yeah yeah, Norm was basically “shooting the moon…” making us uncomfortable with how unfunny he can be. Definitely very Andy Kaufman, but ultimately it fails. If he wanted to “roast the roast”, maybe he should have written a witty essay. Genius, yes. Ballsy, definitely. Funny? No. Not even a little.
People who complain that the jokes weren’t funny or that they were nicked from an old joke book miss the point. It’s not the jokes that were funny; it’s the routine.
this discussion never needed to go beyond the anti-comedy guy who said “it’s so unfunny that it’s funny.” say what you want about it, but if you don’t think it’s performance art you’re crazy.
Incredible subversive humor. Comedy Centrals buisness model is to allow the comedians tell very dirty jokes then use the censorship as an excuse to hype the “uncensored” DVD sales. McDonald’s brilliant performance is justified by the reaction’s alone. Other Comedians and some of the audience were falling over themselves laughing, and everyone else was in stone silence. Jon Stamos was like a deer in the headlights. In addition to the jokes themselves the delivery was fantastic, he did everything stand ups are NEVER supposed to do: Explain the joke, repeat or stutter the punchline, ask the audience how can they NOT think that was funny etc.
WTF?! Norm Macdonald is fucking hilarious. He must have been doing this so badly on purpose. I don’t get the joke, but this HAD to have been a joke on us…
Jesus, NONE of you are getting it. And none of you, apparently, know anything about the Friar’s CLub roasts of the past. That’s right, they aren’t from Comedy Central.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Friars%27_Club
Seriously… who are these people???
I’d rather watch Henry Fonda pick blueberries than read any more of your exchanges. It’s like all the people in the audience laughing at the Gavin McLeod joke, knowing that none of the 20 somethings in the crowd know who the hell he is.
The problem with “sophisticated” humor is that it necessarily narrows the target audience. I don’t watch much standup so I had no idea who any of these people were except for Bob Saget and Stamos. He was so awkward when he started his set I wasn’t even sure if he was a comic or a friend who signed on for the show. It was obvious that the jokes weren’t funny but without context there is no metahumor.
I Googled him after the show and while I can appreciate the cleverness its not funny to me because I wasn’t in the same context WHILE WATCHING THE SHOW. Futurama takes a similar approach with some of the science jokes but the jokes are flexible enough to be funny even if you don’t understand the reference. Scott Adams, the cartoonist for Dilbert wrote that comedy needs to have two or more dimensions like meanness paired with cuteness. Cleverness by itself leaves you with jokes like the following:
Johnny was a chemist.
Johnny is no more.
What Johnny thought was H2O,
Was H2SO4.
what is the secret to comedy the secret of comedy is tining.
oh fork.
did norm’s bit make you laugh? I LMAO, but then I’m Canadian (in fact, one of our most significant exports to y’inz/y’all is comedians; that, and water. But who needs more water? You just turn on the tap.)
Those who didn’t get it, don’t get it. Explaining a joke, or a routine, not only tends to kill the bit; it rarely wins over the non-believer because it doesn’t change their fundamental approach to comedy – the sense of humour is individual, and not subject to rules. Here’s a rule that proves the exception: While jokes occasionally equal comedy, comedy does not equal jokes.
I remember the first time I saw Andy Kaufman: the Great Gatsby bit, on SNL… wow…. I realized I was seeing the first person to do something new with standup since Lenny Bruce; and AK is still unsurpassed.
If you found Norm funny, right arm. If not, too bad. Either way, the hating, the dissing, the holier-than-thou, is uncalled for and unhelpful: it just drives us further apart. I don’t love you because you share my likes and dislikes, I love you. The rest is gravy.
BTW, Heather: Superfrankenstein didn’t say he spit out of his nose. Oh, and Superfranketc.: most of us don’t eat the wrapper.
wow thank god some of you out there got this. I’ve read other sites and soooooo many morons just did not get it at all. Norm is amazing, shut the fuuuuuuck up all of you stupid ignoble half retards…
Norm McDonald………..the man is a genius. I heard him say today during a radio interview that he took the jokes from an old book that his father had. His timing and intelligence is incredible. For those who thought that he stunk, well, you are not paying close enough attention to how a classic comedian works.
It all comes down to this, and it’s been said a couple times. It’s all about a persons sense of humor. There are many types of humor, and what is funny to the point of not being able to breathe, is just stupid and so not funny to others. Did I think his material (although copied like almost all material) was funny? No, I did not laugh at it. Did I think it was clever? I don’t know, I called him, but since he didn’t answer his phone I don’t know why he wanted to do this material. If I had to go by my own personal views on why he did it, then yes, it was not just clever but made a great point.
People doing things like a material a comedian chooses is just like lyrics in a song. Everyone can get their own reasons for it being used, but only the comedian and the people he talks to knows why they do it. There were a couple interesting theories on why he did those jokes, but unless you are him, or a personal friend, it’s just a theory.
Roasts of today are ALL about shock value. There was an art form to it at one time. That art form comes through a little today. Mostly it’s covered up by vulgarity and cursing, because if you don’t fucking cuss and you don’t yell out pussy/cock/dick every other word then your not fucking funny in a roast (pointed out IMO by Norm). If people were to get those old tapes (maybe DVD’s now) of Dean Martin roasts, they would see this art form before shock value put a big FUCK over it. I can’t blame comedy central, or the comedians. An artist I don’t think is funny in any way is Sarah Silverman, basically because she is IMO ALL shock value. I don’t hate on her for selling out (even if she don’t know it) by going shock value. She has more money than I ever will, she is more of a successful comedian than I will probably ever be, and if you have to swim along side all the other fish to make it…….well then I guess it’s what pays the bills and for the coke. The comedians on the comedy central roasts and comedy central itself is just doing what makes the money. Our species has become far to desensitized to everything. Once upon a time there were black and white movies that had what we would consider as TERRIBLE effects, but back then, they were scary. Once upon a time, cursing, on scene sex, and violence was not needed to tell a story, make a comedians career, or make an artist successful. Norm (again, only in my opinion, they way I take it) was showing that and I respect him for it…..but I could be wrong, maybe he just sucks at modern day roasts because he won’t go along with the rest of the sheep.
It’s all about perspective because it’s all subjective, Norm obviously is a talented comedian, he makes more and is more well known than anyone leaving comments here about his performance (key word is performance).
Our species has become far to desensitized to everything.