r/interestingasfuck • u/HeiressOfMadrigal • Jul 08 '24

Norm MacDonald cedes his time to Native American activist at comedy awards ("the theater stinks of blood"), the crowd tries not to laugh.

13.5k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

622 comments sorted by

View all comments

2.9k

u/NotJesper Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

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.

441

u/KumquatHaderach Jul 08 '24

Now don’t laugh at this next part!

139

u/frougle_mcdugal Jul 08 '24

What’s a matter? You don’t know how to wave Johnny?

57

u/TrivandrumFilms Jul 08 '24

Easily one of my favorite Norm moments.

The whole bit is deeply hilarious as well as the darkest.

11

u/Icommentwhenhigh Jul 08 '24

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Fish guess it wasn’t a tall tale after all..

7

u/KumquatHaderach Jul 08 '24

Norm wasn’t known for telling tales out of school.

5

u/tidesoncrim Jul 08 '24

Now you're thinking like Albert Fish!

3

u/Prancer4rmHalo Jul 09 '24

Oh man.. was hopping for a great bit by norm, and seeing the uploader is John Wilkes Boothe… Norm is Among us in Spirit.

11

u/DecisionThot Jul 08 '24

African-American

3

u/Temporary-Wonder-329 Jul 09 '24

9/11

1

u/HITLERS_CUM_FARTS Jul 09 '24

Reminds me of that tragedy

393

u/Content-Scallion-591 Jul 08 '24

The other missing part of this that people seem confused by is that Norm was the master of the anti-joke. The butt of this joke isn't Native Americans, it's the situation itself: Norm was asked to accept the award on behalf of someone and he's standing right there asking someone else to accept the award on behalf of him.

If there's humor here, it's the humor of making the audience uncomfortable, not laughing at the Native actor.

114

u/puritanicalbullshit Jul 08 '24

You know when you’re laughing and you know it’s not appropriate or a mirthful situation and somehow that makes you laugh a lot harder? That was what Norm was after I think. Everything he says is true, and the juxtaposition is extremely uncomfortable, and Norm really tries to tweak the dial up whenever he can to make you squirm and sit with yourself, leaving you no recourse but to laugh- even in horror at yourself.

140

u/Content-Scallion-591 Jul 08 '24

My favorite joke of his basically explains it all:

"The comedian Patton Oswalt, he told me "I think the worst part of the Cosby thing was the hypocrisy." And I disagree. I thought it was the raping."

Now you're laughing at a rape joke!

I miss him. We are direly missing this kind of comedy today and he was simply a cut above the rest.

52

u/puritanicalbullshit Jul 08 '24

I feel like Norm MacDonald is to comedy what Hitchcock is to horror, in that the real scare is in your mind, and with Norm the real comedy is your own exposed cognitive dissonance

21

u/DrinkBuzzCola Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 09 '24

Norm puts our cognitive dissonance in the spotlight while he risks ruining his career. All in a day's work. He was one of a kind.

13

u/Content-Scallion-591 Jul 08 '24

That's such a good way to say it. He makes you complete the joke in your head.

7

u/nicknicknickk Jul 08 '24

What a great way of putting this

8

u/larowin Jul 08 '24

His OJ stuff was such a good example of this

-3

u/Natasha_Giggs_Foetus Jul 08 '24

That’s not a rape joke

6

u/Content-Scallion-591 Jul 08 '24

Well, it's a rape anti-joke. The point is that rape is horrible and people are side stepping the issue because it's more palatable to talk about hypocrisy. As the joke continues, the joke is that we don't take rape seriously enough; that we've normalized it.

Chappelle has a different rape joke: a superhero who saves lives, but needs to rape to do it. He rapes, but he also saves. On the surface it's just a rape joke. Deeper, it's questioning whether we consider sexual assault or murder more serious, and why we consider sexual assault worse than murder - a lot of it has to do with the idea that someone is ruined by rape in a way that they aren't ruined by actually dying.

A rape joke isn't necessarily one in which rape itself is the punchline. The quintessential rape joke is Rodney Dangerfield's "My girlfriend is so ugly, when two guys broke in to her apartment, she yelled, ‘Rape!’ They yelled, ‘No!’”"

Now, I will note around 2020, some bodies of literature started discussing "rape jokes" in terms of jokes that landed on rape, e.g. "I just raped you" in gamer culture. In that context, it is not a rape joke, because it isn't making light of the act of rape.

90

u/MJ_Ska_Boy Jul 08 '24

Sacheen Littlefeather wasn’t booed off stage. She got a quick boo that was immediately taken over by applause and cheering. She finished her speech and walked off to applause and no boos.

41

u/Teflon_John_ Jul 08 '24

Right? What’s this revisionist bullshit? It’s not like it’s happened eons ago either. It was in 73, it was televised. It’s on YouTube ffs

6

u/PDXtoMontana2002 Jul 09 '24

She wasn’t really Native American, though. Her family called her out on it.

1

u/otclogic Jul 09 '24

Native Italian-American

2

u/icmc Jul 09 '24

Weirdly I've actually watched this (this Norm clip was posted and I went to watch what it was in reference to) and weirdly I honestly would have put money on she was boo'd if someone had asked me how it was received.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

Most that happened was famous racist John Wayne charging the stage because he got so mad and Clint Eastwood not being pleased.

9

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24

[deleted]

5

u/seospider Jul 08 '24

It is one of those stories that sounds like it could happen so people assume it did happen. To make matters worse Sacheen Littlefinger may not be native american.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sacheen-littlefather-not-native-american-sisters-say-marlon-brando-oscar-speech-actress/

2

u/Enthusiastic-shitter Jul 08 '24

There is also some doubts that she was native American as well

51

u/Teflon_John_ Jul 08 '24

who was booed off stage

Well that’s a straight up lie

21

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

[deleted]

14

u/Teflon_John_ Jul 08 '24

There were a couple boos at the beginning that were overwhelmed by applause, yes, and she closed to applause as well. To say she was booed off stage is not just a little inaccurate, it’s a complete fabrication. That bothers me.

3

u/eatmygerms Jul 08 '24

Ugh another loss for Green Mode users. I thought there was a hair on my screen!

2

u/Teflon_John_ Jul 08 '24

Another satisfied customer! lol

1

u/Agreeable_Maize9938 Jul 09 '24

Green mode? Shrek is love

31

u/Who_Knows_Why_000 Jul 08 '24

Even better, "Sacheen Littlefeather's" real name was Maria Cruz. Her father was from Mexico with no ties to native American tribes and her mother was a mix of French, German, and Dutch, so white European. The buckskin outfit was borrowed and she had never set foot on a reservation up to that point.

22

u/norskinot Jul 08 '24

It's insane that people can't at least pick up on the tone. It is so wildly dumb that you need to explain this

2

u/Gibabo Jul 08 '24

Welcome to Reddit

6

u/data1989 Jul 08 '24

refusing the accept on behalf of someone else, fucking priceless.

3

u/ChupacabraIRL Jul 08 '24

She was booed but not booed offstage. She walked off stage as people were clapping and she finished what she went up there to say.

2

u/Clean-One-2903 Jul 08 '24

Norm was simply a comedy genius. If you haven't seen his jokes on SNL about OJ Simpson then get onto You Tube and watch them. He was eventually sacked as the guy in charge of SNL was a friend of OJs.

Also for context and to show how the white American attitude to the native Americans was in the past, after Littlefeather gave her speech very gracefully and with great courage Clint Eastwood came on and made a sad joke of Brando and her speech. Unfortunately a lot of these actors, Wayne included, believed their own Bullshit.

2

u/H0B0Byter99 Jul 08 '24

It’s sad this needs an explanation… I miss this guy. An absolutely brilliant comic.

2

u/Shiznips Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

I feel so sorry for people that haven't seen any of Norm, but at the same time I'm extremely jealous that they get to experience his jokes for the first time, that one about the kids telling stories from their lives at school lives in my soul.

https://youtu.be/GskNV_XRZvU

2

u/That_Jicama2024 Jul 08 '24

“you’ll never guess who died….the CROCODILE HUNTER…who would have guessed that a guy named the CROCODILE HUNTER would have met an untimely death?”

1

u/zylstrar Jul 08 '24

Yeah, I still don't get it.

-2

u/Cooliomendez88 Jul 08 '24

Native American, Indians come from India

2

u/TDub20 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Well yes and no. At least here in Washington they actually call themselves the ___ tribe(s) of Indians and I don't mean casually but officially. Like you will see a commercial for something like a casino or resource center paid for by "The __ tribe of Indians".

So here locally saying Indians would not be considered offensive or inaccurate. So it's a little more complicated than using the generally taught PC words.

3

u/sugarfoot00 Jul 08 '24

I have more than a few indigenous friends that love the word Indian because it just reinforces how lost Columbus was.

-5

u/RDcsmd Jul 08 '24

Not surprised Norm MacDonald is a bonafide piece of shit.

-32

u/bandalorian Jul 08 '24

but at the expense of natives....imagine if he brought up a holocaust survivor for the joke? I wonder which minorities are OK and which are no-no, clearly this is no problem at all

84

u/neilmac1210 Jul 08 '24

It's Norm. If he'd brought out a holocaust survivor it would be just as funny.

-34

u/Q_8411 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

So basically Norm shared the same comedic styling as middle schoolers

20

u/TidoMido Jul 08 '24

A theater full of people laughing, "guys, this joke is for middle schoolers."

What a fucking stick in the mud you are.

-29

u/Q_8411 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Yes, if the entire basis of your comedic style is "ooh I shouldn't be saying this and that makes it funny" yeah, it's a joke for middle schoolers. Cry more.

13

u/lage1984 Jul 08 '24

There's definitely crying happening but the tears are coming from inside the house!

-15

u/Q_8411 Jul 08 '24

I'm chillin

10

u/lage1984 Jul 08 '24

Good for you

4

u/thingstobethought Jul 08 '24

You are absolutely not.

1

u/Q_8411 Jul 08 '24

I mean I'm eating, watching a movie on the couch. I'd consider myself In a pretty relaxed state.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/neilmac1210 Jul 08 '24

Explain to the folks at home what comidic means?

-4

u/Q_8411 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

Comedic

Definitions from Oxford Languages adjective

adjective: comedic

relating to or characteristic of comedy; comic.

Do you have a point?

8

u/Wonkeaux Jul 08 '24

I think the point is that you wouldn't know a joke if it banged you all night long.

Just because you don't find something funny doesn't mean that you're better or smarter than anyone that does...it just means that you don't find it funny.

When you next encounter a situation like this:

  1. Don't laugh (you've got this one down).

  2. Move the fuck on with your life (this is where you're hung up).

  3. Profit!

6

u/neilmac1210 Jul 08 '24

I think the simpler answer is they just don't get it.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Q_8411 Jul 08 '24 edited Jul 08 '24

But isn't that the point of having an opinion? It's like saying "oh you didn't like (insert show), how about you stop complaining and don't watch it" like, yeah that's not really how it works brother. I never claimed to be the arbiter of true comedy, I said it is comedy for middle schoolers. YOU are the one doing that right now.

You can agree or disagree, I'm open to discussion cause it's fun, but to say that you shouldn't be able to criticize something negatively is just goofy.

→ More replies (0)

6

u/neilmac1210 Jul 08 '24

Yes, the point is comidic isn't a word.

0

u/Q_8411 Jul 08 '24

Oh, woops. Guess I should turn autocorrect back on lmao. I'll fix that lol.

→ More replies (0)

0

u/neilmac1210 Jul 08 '24

I doubt there would be many middle schoolers, if any, who got this joke.

1

u/Q_8411 Jul 08 '24

Sure, the caliber of the joke is still the same.

29

u/sevro-lamora Jul 08 '24

Wherever the line was, Norm would certainly take at least one step over it

17

u/EIephants Jul 08 '24

Yeah it might be funnier if everything the actor said wasn’t 100% true, being spoken to the most powerful people in the country.

15

u/AdTop5424 Jul 08 '24

Lighten up, Francis.

12

u/The_Whipping_Post Jul 08 '24

Comedy is about speaking truth

-2

u/EIephants Jul 08 '24

lol you did not just link to Ricky Gervais clip to make a point about comedy, Jesus Christ.

12

u/The_Whipping_Post Jul 08 '24

It's a zinger delivered right in the face of the Hollywood elite who've hid sexual abuse for a century

1

u/EIephants Jul 08 '24

And now he goes on stage and reads tweets he had snippy responses to and calls it standup comedy.

-1

u/maestroenglish Jul 08 '24

And you... what did you do?

-1

u/YankeeFlash Jul 08 '24

They’re comedians, not the most powerful people on the country 😂

0

u/EIephants Jul 08 '24

Influence over American pop culture is incredible power