I rarely have much reaction to a celebrity passing, but fuck this news. Will disappear down a rabbit hole of talk show appearances later. Actually, will just enjoy them itt.
One of the funniest people to ever live, and the greatest talk show guest of all time, period. I will forever remember this Conan appearance as the hardest I've laughed at a talk show.
RIP. So many good quotes. His commercial for that grill tool that sponsored his podcast is burned into my brain.
As of late I had mostly been letting YT just play me random norm talkshow clips while falling asleep. dang
Norm was one of the smartest comedians ever to do it, and what made him so great was he was never afraid to appear like his joke bombed, only because the audience failed to get the joke, or because he was playing a very long con before hitting the punchline. Maybe my favorite bit is the moth joke, but I also have this one saved on my YouTube playlist and go back to it regularly...
One of my favorite Norm stories from former SNL cast member Jim Breuer who does a fantastic norm impression.
Norm famously would do a typical rehearsal for his late night interviews, talk about all the normal things a guest would do and then, when the show actually recorded, he'd go entirely off script with some oddball routine. Most of the time he did what he did to get a laugh out of himself. David Spade mentioned once that he his friends would sometimes call him up just to talk and he'd never answer the phone. And then, like three months later, at 3 in the morning, would call them back acting like he had no idea who they were. There'll never be another like him.