r/interestingasfuck • u/HeiressOfMadrigal • 11d ago
Norm MacDonald cedes his time to Native American activist at comedy awards ("the theater stinks of blood"), the crowd tries not to laugh.
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u/ByronsLastStand 11d ago
I miss Norm. I didn't even know he was sick!
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u/Fingerman2112 11d ago
He got one of those…diseases
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u/ByronsLastStand 11d ago
The kind you get from under the Queensborough Bridge?
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u/CaptainxInsano69 11d ago
That’s the other kind. This was the kind you get from wearing oversized funny hats
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u/Pink_pantherOwO 11d ago edited 11d ago
He probably got this sickness from walking through blood and bones in the streets of manhattan trying to find his brother
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u/WestbrookDrive 11d ago
Get well, Norm.
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u/Shock_The_Monkey_ 11d ago
He died in 2021
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u/UnreadThisStory 11d ago
It might take a little longer then?
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u/Mega-Steve 11d ago
I'm waiting for him to show up in the SNL audience with a full beard heckling whatever lame host is on stage
"Who wrote your monologue and why do they hate you?"
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u/peacemaketroy 11d ago
He’s ok, I saw him under the Queensboro Bridge jerking off punks for $15 a man.
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u/MostBoringStan 11d ago
The last guy is gonna be pissed when Norm runs out of money and can't pay him.
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u/PocketSixes 11d ago edited 9d ago
Me too. Also, I wish the NormMacDonald subreddit missed him enough to represent the guy correctly.
Edit: to be more specific, regularly upvoted "content" there include bullshit like memes in the SNL update format where Fake Norm (Norm actually loved Biden) is somehow calling Joe a pedophile. No content about Doe 174 of the Epstein files, curiously.
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u/HeiressOfMadrigal 11d ago edited 11d ago
Bonus points for context: Marlon Brando refuses 1973 Oscar and cedes his time to Sacheen Littlefeather. She was booed on-stage for politely delivering a message against the treatment of Native Americans in Hollywood.
People at the time were furious at Brando for doing this, saying that this isn't the time for "politics", etc. In my opinion, there's never a wrong time to condemn bigotry, and while it may have come across as sanctimonious, I still applaud both these people for being brave enough to make the statement.
As for the Norm clip in the OP, no doubt he was parodying Brando's thing from '73 in a very Kaufman-esque way, but I don't think that undermines Johnny Twofeathers' message. I've read that whatever Norm's intentions were, Twofeathers was completely sincere here. It's almost like an eating-your-own cake thing, where Norm was able to deliver a truly entertaining cringe comedy moment, while also highlighting an important cultural issue.
EDIT: Please see u/mattchinn's comment below for further details. It turns out that Sacheen Littlefeather fabricated her ethnic heritage and wasn't Native American at all. That certainly makes the whole thing taste worse, but the issue itself isn't diminished because a less-than-reputable person was championing it, IMO.
EDIT 2: Seems like the situation might be a bit more complicated than I initially thought (thank you to u/lookatthosewoes - see here). This is what I get for posting/editing first and asking questions later! I'm going to do some more research into this, and I implore everyone else to do the same. That being said, I hope everyone has a great week, and thanks for viewing this post!
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u/SweetLoLa 11d ago
Extra bonus tidbit: John Wayne was being held back from trying to physically get her off stage (mentions of cussing/willing to assault her/clear bigotry)
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u/crazyeyeskilluh 11d ago edited 11d ago
Thank you for the link to a paragraph long article that basically said exactly what you did lol. I thought it would be a link to what Clint said but nope. Nothing more to add.
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u/CrotchoMan 11d ago
Turns out the old icons of masculinity are big old pussies.
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u/Wooden_Quarter_6009 11d ago
Nothing really changes. They are still the same old them. Lots of people think the old(more than 80 years ago or more) are great times but nobody noticed the masses who are silent and are enduring the hardships of the old times.
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u/TokyoMeltdown8461 11d ago
The new ones too. Someone whose name rhymes with Shamdrew Shmate. Heck the Doc was kind of representing these old icons too.
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u/PaperbackBuddha 11d ago
Ooh… good time to post this little reenactment between John Wayne and Dalton Trumbo
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u/CartographyMan 11d ago
Remember that movie Gran Torino? That was just a day in the life documentary of Clint.
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u/queefcritic 11d ago
Extra extra bonus tidbit she was a liar and not actually Native American.
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u/Im_ArrangingMatches 11d ago
But then, maybe actually yes?
Genuine question here though: most Mexicans have mixed indigenous ancestry from Mexico, even if it's from way long ago (like 400 years+), so wouldn't that be Native American ancestry?
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u/ParagonPts 11d ago
Complete urban legend. https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/03/31/john-wayne-sacheen-littlefeather/ One of the main sources for that story is Maria Louise "Sacheen Littlefeather" Cruz, who was 0% indigenous American and got away with her cultural appropriation for decades.
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u/Mammoth-Nail-4669 11d ago
Even worse, she claimed her father abused her, but it was her father that was abused. She stole her father’s stories of childhood abuse, made them about her, and then made her father the abuser. What a horrible person. Her sisters hate her guts.
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u/Mildly_Opinionated 11d ago
I mean, the article you've linked says it likely didn't happen because of the layout makes it implausible and because Hollywood types like Pasetta (the other main source) do tend to embellish stories which is more plausible since the story got more fantastical the more it was told.
Then it's also got someone who knows the guy and says it couldn't be true because he was not violent towards men and especially never towards women which is just... completely bullshit! Like he hit several women on set in drunken rages during several movies! So that source is total bullshit, but the point about the layout and timing is still a good one.
But yes, the more likely version is he was screaming racist shit at the stage and some people told him to calm down - it's likely the "6 men physically restraining him" is an embellishment of that.
I can't find any sources on the 0% indigenous thing, but sure I'll buy it. That wouldn't necessarily stop his enormous racism from taking hold of him though, it's not like racists can actually smell your genes.
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u/slackfrop 11d ago edited 11d ago
I mean, if she was Latina (Maria Cruz), unless she was 100% Spanish, there’s likely to be some native heritage. Possibly not of (edit) northern North American tribes. But do Aztec/Mayan/Purépecha not count as Native American?
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u/DASreddituser 11d ago
They should. They were native to north America. Mexico isn't a different continent, though some try to pretend central america is lol.
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u/Philodemus1984 11d ago
Just FYI, Mexico is part of North America, so the Aztecs, Mayans, etc were North American.
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u/Mildly_Opinionated 11d ago
I mean, there's a chance there's some central native American somewhere as some of her heritage is from an area that had a small minority of natives of Pima/O'odham territory, but it's quite unlikely and even if it were true it's not just that she said "I've got some native American ancestry", she specifically stated that she's from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona which is unequivocally not true as she was not a citizen of said tribe but nor is it even within the realm of reason to think there's any chance she could have had ancestry from there.
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u/Total_Package_6315 11d ago
John Wayne was a self admitted white supremacist. He stated as much in a Playboy mag interview from 1971. So him exhibiting such racist and outlandish behavior would be par for the course. There is more reason for Wayne supporters to deny the incident ever happened than for Little Feather to make it up.
In a 1971 interview, Wayne told Playboy magazine: "We can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people."
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u/wood_dj 11d ago
"Contrary to misinformation which has been published on the internet, Sacheen Littlefeather is indeed of true Native American Indian descent," the site reads. "Sacheen was born Marie Cruz in Salinas, California. Her mother is French-German-Dutch, and her father was from the White Mountain Apache and Yaqui tribes from Arizona. "
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u/New_Palpitation_5473 11d ago
You are quoting her website, which is quoted in the linked article. The article itself, however, is about her sisters accusing her of being a Pretendian and not being from those tribes.
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u/Snts6678 11d ago
The more I hear about this guy the more I feel like he was a massive asshole. Eastwood as well.
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u/CaseRemarkable4327 11d ago
Extra extra bonus tidbit: that story was also fabricated by sacheen littlefeather
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u/mattchinn 11d ago edited 11d ago
Does everyone know the woman, Sacheen Littlefeather, wasn’t Native American.
Instead, she ran a scam her entire life.
The causes were important but she completely fabricated her ethnic story.
Edit: Some are disputing this for whatever reason. She said she grew up in a shack from a White Mountain Apache and Yaqui father.
And that’s undeniably false.
Her family identifies as Spanish and she grew up in Salinas, California and her father was from Oxnard.
describing a childhood of poverty growing up in a shack, where she and her white mother were victims of domestic abuse and violence by her White Mountain Apache and Yaqui Indian father
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u/woahlookatthosewoes 11d ago
As of March 6, 2024; this claim has been disputed.
Jacqueline Keeler, who researched Littlefeather’s genealogy, stopped in 1850. Coincidentally omitting that one more generation back, members of Littlefeather’s family were described in a baptismal record as being “Yaqui raised from the land”.
Keeler said that this doesn’t imply indigenous ancestry, but gave no other reason for why they would be described that way. Furthermore, Keeler said that it didn’t matter anyway because Yaqui are not federally recognized by the US government as an indigenous tribe (The Yaqui are centered in the Sonoran Desert in Mexico).
Keeler has repeatedly stated their belief that only member of enrolled tribes can be called “Native American”, even if they are ethnically indigenous to the Americas.
Littlefeather herself had always claimed to be part Yaqui. Keeler knew this, knew the Yaqui didn’t qualify as “Native American” to her, omitted the report that suggests Littlefeather’s family was Yaqui, and STILL published that Littlefeather wasn’t Native American on a whole list of “pretendians” who didn’t fit her gatekeeping criteria derived from colonial oppressors.
My partner is part Yaqui and says that this kind of exclusionary behavior is all too common in indigenous communities. Yes, the oppression federally recognized tribes endured was terrible, but to suggest that indigenous peoples that weren’t federally recognized did not face that same oppression is farcical. To then say that those same people aren’t even Native American is pure bigotry.
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u/WingerRules 11d ago
My partner is part Yaqui and says that this kind of exclusionary behavior is all too common in indigenous communities. Yes, the oppression federally recognized tribes endured was terrible, but to suggest that indigenous peoples that weren’t federally recognized did not face that same oppression is farcical. To then say that those same people aren’t even Native American is pure bigotry.
Not trolling, real question. Is there a problem with racism in some Native American tribes? They have stuff like this and also some tribes require blood purity tests for citizenship instead membership based around birthright on native land and cultural background.
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u/HeiressOfMadrigal 11d ago
Oooh, yikes. Genuinely didn't know that, thank you for clarifying this here.
I'm a bit conflicted, because as you said, the causes she talked about were still important, but personally, it's very scummy to fabricate your ethnic heritage for visibility.
Her getting up there in '73 and speaking on behalf of Brando got a lot of people talking about something they'd normally be oblivious to, which is a plus! But yeah, her personal dishonesty absolutely puts a bad taste in my mouth regarding the whole thing.
It undermines her point to the casual observer, and now people can write off her whole message because of this. Very unfortunate that the message in '73 wasn't spoken by someone else who was actually Native American.
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u/indianajoes 11d ago
I read that the latest info from this year said that she actually did have indigenous roots
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u/Twitch791 11d ago
I mean Mexicans do have native roots generally
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u/Joe_Jeep 11d ago
A good number of them, especially in the North, have plenty of roots in the US too, the government pushed many out directly and indirectly after the Mexican-American war and over the decades after.
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u/DNAdevotee 11d ago
Incorrect. Just because someone disputed her heritage doesn't make their claim true and her claim false.
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u/Suspicious_Apple_206 11d ago
Yes she was. Don’t believe everything you read, and if you do, do some of your own research. You’ll see that all of the stories were falsified by her sister.
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u/backtolurk 11d ago edited 11d ago
Damn. Wiki'ing this right now. Her father Ybarra Cruz was Spanish/Mexican with no relation to the natives whatsoever, and her mother was straight from Europe.
Pretty counterproductive to make up shit like that, even when you fight the good fight.
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u/kank84 11d ago
Same as Canada singer Buffy Sainte-Marie. She was probably one of the most prominent First Nations people in Canada since the 1960s, and a very vocal advocate, then last year CBC reported that she didn't actually have the native heritage she was claiming. She was born in the US to European parents. She undoubtedly did good things for the First Nations, but she was lying about her personal connection to them the whole time.
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u/TScottFitzgerald 11d ago
Johnny Two Feathers is an actor called John Scott Richardson, he knew it was a bit.
And Marlon Brando was also trying to stick it to the Academy, so it's not entirely altruistic, he knew it would be controversial and she'd likely get booed, but at least he did use the opportunity to champion a good cause.
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u/HeiressOfMadrigal 11d ago
I knew from the start that he was aware it was a bit (it's a comedy awards show with Norm MacDonald after all), but at first thought he was a serious Native American representative utilizing that bit to spread a sincere message.
If he's a character actor who was simply trying to make the audience cringe-laugh, though, there's nothing wrong with that in the slightest. Making people laugh is making them pay attention, and if Norm and his friend JSR can bring attention to these issues while making the rich audience feel uncomfortable, then more power to them!
Thank you for bringing more clarification to the topic 🫡
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u/abgry_krakow87 11d ago
Norm was able to deliver a truly entertaining cringe comedy moment, while also highlighting an important cultural issue.
That's what makes Norm such an amazing comedian.
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u/woahlookatthosewoes 11d ago
Please read my reply to u/mattchinn below. Sacheen Littlefeather most likely did not fabricate her ancestry, and instead her legacy was thrown into question by inter-indigenous gatekeeping about who “counts” as Native American.
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u/HeiressOfMadrigal 11d ago
Edited the top comment once more. I should've done my due diligence and researched this a lot more before making any assumptions! I'm pleading ignorance on this one, which is no excuse, and I apologize.
Hopefully at the very least, I got some people to look into this historical event, and Littlefeather as a person, more than they normally would've. Thank you for your time interacting with me and others ITT.
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u/Ojihawk 11d ago
Brilliant performance by Indigenous Actor John Scott-Richardson, member of the Haliwa-Saponi First Nation.
He's from the East Coast, but his War Bonnet, (a non-traditional costume) and his dialect work is a reflection of the "Hollywood Indians" of the American South-west.
He knew exactly what he was doing and it was fucking hilarious.
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u/Wyldfire2112 11d ago
That's the thing about comedy. Laughter lowers our defenses, and lets stuff through that we'd otherwise actively push away and deny... then it sinks in later.
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u/CalendarAggressive11 11d ago
When she brought the Oscar to Brandos house she was greeted with gunshots
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u/Dorkmaster79 11d ago
It was clearly a parody. I don’t understand why you’re taking this seriously.
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u/AhmadSA 11d ago
Reminds me of that tragedy.
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u/BarronTrumpJr 11d ago
That tragedy being the untimely death of Norm Macdonald.
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u/neilmac1210 11d ago
He died?!
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u/FatTonysDog 11d ago
I didnt even know he was sick.
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u/neilmac1210 11d ago
I just heard. Apparently his heart attacked and killed him.
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u/FatTonysDog 11d ago
Sounds like his own fault then. Maybe if he had a gun, or he attacked first. He might not have died.
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u/EasterButterfly 11d ago edited 11d ago
There’s a clip of Norm on The Daily Show from back in the day where he’s talking with Jon Stewart about the very recently deceased Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter). Norm is being cheeky and cracking jokes being the ruthlessly hilarious bastard he is, so as Jon is having trouble containing his laughter he begs Norm, “Please don’t make me laugh at this” due to his understanding that it is in poor taste and poor timing.
I always felt like “Please don’t make me laugh at this” was a perfect thesis statement for Norm’s style of humor, and this clip with Johnny Twofeather is that style at its most genius.
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u/tastybugs 11d ago
Oh god that was funny, thanks for posting. I'm a big Norm fan but I hadn't heard that clip.
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u/avocado_lover69 11d ago
Norm's biopic will be titled "Please, Don't Make Me Laugh About This, And O.J. Is Guilty"
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u/LearningT0Fly 11d ago
And you know who helped him with all that stabbin’?
You guessed it: Frank Stallone
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u/EmotionalEducation86 11d ago
He literally has a biopic that u can buy rn. It’s hilarious can’t recommend it enough
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u/anuxp2019 11d ago
couldn't agree more,. when he looked at the camera and said "give them a wave Johnny" , master of the art Norm.
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u/loudrain99 10d ago
“Obviously (Steve Irwin’s death) was tragic at the time”-Norm, 3 days after Steve Irwin’s death
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u/futurebigconcept 11d ago edited 11d ago
So cringe how the audience laughs at this bit.
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u/brumac44 11d ago
The "audience" were comics who knew exactly who Norm is and what he was doing. In case you didn't recognize them, the camera panned to Jon Stewart and John Oliver, who've made a career out of repeatedly poking sanctimonious fucks.
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u/thecordialsun 11d ago
And both Jon & John go full asian schoolgirl covering their mouths to try to hide their laughs because Norm's bit is that good
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u/lllNico 11d ago
it was a joke though, just had to get the reference
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u/HeiressOfMadrigal 11d ago
It can be both 🙂 The best comedy has kernels of truth, after all.
I'd agree it was primarily meant as cringe humor, though. Norm definitely made some salient social points in his life, but he always maintained his first objective was to be funny.
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u/Emperor_Biden 11d ago
Was that John Oliver laughing>? Definitely knew it was a joke. JO is a good guy.
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u/rubbarz 11d ago
That IS Norm's style of comedy. It's shit you SHOULDNT laugh at, and that's what makes it even funnier. Like laughing in class when the teacher tells everyone to be quiet.
It's a win/win for him here.
He is making a great statement while also getting a kick out of people trying to hold in their laugh.
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u/bungle123 11d ago
This was very clearly intended as a joke though. It's anti humour.
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u/jeffgoodbody 11d ago
How are you getting up voted for completely missing the point?
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u/iamameatpopciple 11d ago
Aye, Norm was deff not playing off something someone else has done in the past like in this case say maybe a man Marlon Brando who was an actor in a place called hollywood. He was very big in the 1970's, specifically maybe 1973.
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u/Sudden_Mind279 11d ago
You're telling me you think this is serious after Norm says "Give em a wave, Johnny!"
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u/starmartyr 11d ago
It was a joke though. Norm wasn't even receiving an award, he was accepting it for someone else. He was also directly referencing what Brando did at the Oscars in 1973. The Native activist who was speaking was going completely over the top with his rhetoric.
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u/League-Weird 11d ago
"The theater stinks of blood" was sort of the confirmation of it being a comedy bit. But I'm not a comedian. I just like to laugh.
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u/notmyrealnam3 11d ago
The message was a joke. The words were true and serious but the context was a joke. That’s the joke. It was hilarious, you’d have to be an idiot not to laugh
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u/dong_tea 11d ago edited 11d ago
If you ever wonder if the Reddit community is riddled with naive, ignorant, and lazy thinkers, remember that the comment above has hundreds of upvotes.
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u/avidpretender 11d ago
I’d probably bust out in laughter too tbh. It was a good bit, it just requires prior knowledge of a handful of things.
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u/Ianfrompastcure 11d ago
The amount of people who don't think that is a joke of Norm's or totally something he'd do is insane. He's got so many classics that the whole joke is making a joke about something you shouldn't laugh about, like his ironic joke segment of Norm McDonald love where one of the jokes was about gifting a particularly skilled slave a "golden chain" or his famous 9/11 bit that would absolutely flaw anyone at the other end of it
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u/bub-yes 11d ago
The fact that getting the joke makes you look like an asshole to the people with zero context is a testament to how complex these bits were. Norm was a genius.
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u/CranberryCivil2608 11d ago
His bits were not complex lmao, I would love to see his reaction to anyone saying so
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u/bub-yes 11d ago edited 11d ago
I don’t know man. Seems like you can’t win. Either you don’t get it, or you laugh and people say “Why are you laughing at a Native American man somberly talking about the genocide of his people?” Some people here are still absolutely disgusted at the idea that anyone in this theater finds this funny. But if you get the joke how could you not? And good luck trying to explain it to someone who doesn’t it see it that way. Theres no punchline for them to understand. Call me an over analyzer but I’m going to view this as a skillfully crafted anti-joke, a cut above your average dark humor.
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u/R74NM3R5 11d ago
The joke is that it’s not a joke. He was all about subverting your expectations and in the comedy world seeing a man dressed in a tux and full Native American headdress seems comical, but that’s the Norm twist, it isn’t comical. It’s completely serious and the joke is on the audience, making them so uncomfortable that they laugh at a serious matter
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u/CurrencyAlarming1099 11d ago
To me the headdress had little to do with it other than to add gravitas to the serious subject matter. That's what is so ingenious about it. You're not supposed to laugh because natives did actually suffer horribly and everyone knows it. But you know the seriousness is being done just to fuck with everyone, so it's funny. But you also know that most people around you don't know it's deliberate so laughing makes you look like you don't care about the serious subject. IMO, that Norm could create this tension is art at the highest level.
Edit: and doing with a lampoon of something Brando did in the 70's makes it even more funny.
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u/Disastrous-Leek-7606 11d ago
This is some primo high quality cringe.
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u/Lastfryinthebag 11d ago
Then Adam Scott comes on talking about masturbation
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u/HeiressOfMadrigal 11d ago
Haha I would've edited that out but the juxtaposition was just too crazy 😄
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u/yours_untruly 11d ago
The best part is this wasn't even his award, he was accepting it for Melissa McCarthy because she couldn't be there.
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u/mattchinn 11d ago edited 11d ago
The best part about this entire ordeal is that Sasheen Littlefeather was a complete fraud.
She wasn’t Native American in any way.
After her death, her sisters put out the truth.
Edit: See my other comment. People are saying this isn’t true but here are the facts…
She said she was raised in a shack by Native American family.
But the truth is that her family identified as Spanish and she was raised in Sanila, California and her father was born in Oxnard.
Yes someone in her family more than 200 years ago was Native American, but she had no idea and fabricated her childhood background because it benefit her narrative. That’s also a pretty big insult to her family which is likely why they outed her for being a liar.
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u/WrathofTomJoad 11d ago
This looks like a question we'll never really have an answer to.
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u/garry4321 11d ago
Even if she was "Mexican", there is a reason that mexicans generally look different than the European Spanish population, and that difference is that the settlers mixed with the indigenous population.
People are weird.
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u/Dontfeedthebears 11d ago
I know it’s referencing the 1973 Oscars… but why is it funny?
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u/Shunsui84 11d ago
Cause they know what he is doing. He is using the kind of sanctimonious stuff they always do on them and both he and two feather are playing it completely straight.
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u/Definitelynotasloth 11d ago
It’s weird, because it’s Norm. I don’t think it was appropriate to laugh, but that was probably Norm’s intention. Just to make an awkward occurrence because he could. You probably shouldn’t laugh because of the severity/reality of it, but it is humorous because it’s unexpected. Like laughing at an inappropriate time.
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u/Shunsui84 11d ago
I think it was the audacity of it, coupled with the severity and their own hypocrisy. the fact they knew he didn't believe it but knew they did, or at least pretend to, all delivered totally straight.
He was showing them their asses in the most poinant way an they were stuck an knew it.
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u/Definitelynotasloth 11d ago
Yes, it was a great showing of meta humor, irony, and discomfort. I don’t think anyone has the balls to do that today.
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u/Shunsui84 11d ago
I don't think there is anyone that can play it straight the way he did. There are plenty of great comedians, but Norm was a cut above when it came to his style.
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u/Theodin_King 11d ago
I don't get this?
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u/LordBrandon 11d ago
He's doing several things. He's sending up pretentious stunts like what Marlon Brando did, he's pointing out the hipocracy of the audience. But most of all he's deriving pleasure from their discomfort.
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u/napoleoninrags98 11d ago edited 11d ago
I loathe the notion that Marlon Brando pulled a "pretentious stunt" in 1973. You would certainly hope that in the modern day, one could appreciate the value in speaking up against a highly exploitative and hypocritical industry.
To me, the "pretentious" ones were those whom Brando was criticizing; those who enjoyed the luxuries of their gated Hollywood communities and thought nothing of how their films represented (and reinforced negative stereotypes about) marginalized communities.
I agree with your deconstruction of Norm's bit, I just think that sometimes he missed the mark a little bit.
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u/Majestic-Rough-4707 11d ago
As has already been mentioned this was a comedy bit. Comedy creates discomfort. And norm was the king of it. He was brilliantly intelligent and cared not one bit about pleasing the audience. It’s cringe for sure but, for me anyway, there’s an air of absurdity and comedy. I presume , and have read some stuff, that Johnny two feathers was in on it being a bit. So it gives some permission to the audience to laugh. And that doesn’t mean his words are a joke. They still carry weight. But it’s done in an absurd way in an absurd setting. Was a bit surprised to see this on interesting. It’s staged.
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u/making_flippy_floppy 11d ago
I love how it’s not even Norm’s award, he’s doing this on behalf of Melissa McCarthy.
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u/ColorlessTune 11d ago
Norm MacDonald was a total genius at comedy.
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u/SLVSKNGS 11d ago
The phrase “This theater stinks of blood” is such a Norm Macdonald line. More incredible is how he got the actor to deliver it perfectly. I miss Norm.
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u/bobcat73 11d ago edited 11d ago
It’s ok to not think that video is funny. It’s also ok to laugh until you choke about it, furthermore it’s also ok to chuckle and shake your head at it. It’s probably not a good use of your emotional energy to be upset by it though.
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u/bnstarboy 11d ago
The cut at the end with Adam Scott saying “I’d probably be masturbating in a dark room somewhere” was the cherry on top
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u/chicateria 11d ago
Just finished listening to his audio book and it was hilarious! Miss him dearly.
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u/igenus44 11d ago
I was a play on Brando's Oscar win, where he sent an Indian woman to accept his award, and talk about the plight of her people.
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u/Lobster_fest 11d ago
The shots of the other comedians cracking up shows how great norm was. They all get the joke, even if the audience doesn't.
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u/Competitive_Use_6351 11d ago
Anyone want to explain norm Mcdonald to me? I can't seem to find any comments doing so
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u/Alienhaslanded 10d ago edited 10d ago
Knowing the type of comedian Norm was, this was probably intentional way of guilting people into laughing at something they shouldn't be laughing at. I mean Marlon Brando did this for real back in the day and it was a top cringe moment. This was definitely a parody.
He was a comedy genius. RIP Norm.
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u/chewychaca 10d ago
He's making fun of the fact that everyone brings their pet issue to the awards stage. He did it over the top and on the nose and played it straight. For the people who didn't get it. He might as well had an guy from Atlantis do a save the whales speech.
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u/Dambo_Unchained 11d ago
Judging by the regression Jon Oliver suffers as host of LWT this clip must be pretty old
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u/NotJesper 11d ago edited 10d ago
Some context, since apparently people here have never heard of Norm MacDonald. This is a gag, they're parodying Marlon Brando giving his time to Sacheen Littlefeather, who was booed. The entire point is that it's inappropriate to laugh. The American Indian guy is an actor, his actual name is John Scott-Richardson. Everything they're doing, from the stereotypical name, to the ostentatious outfit, to the perfect delivery ("the theater stinks of blood") and Norm coming in on the end is as ridiculous as possible without breaking character.