Ask Lemmy

Don Ohlmeyer for one. He’s the NBC executive who had Norm fired as SNL’s Weekend Update anchor because he wouldn’t stop mocking Don’s friend, famous double murderer, O.J. Simpson.

I think the only person offended was that one NBC executive who was buddies with noted double murderer OJ Simpson.

I mean, he said some blunt stuff about OJ being a murderer. It wasn't really "controversial" but he was like, I don't know, man... Okay, here's the simplest way I can explain the whole thing - so I had this friend for a long time (he's passed away at this point), and he always told this same story that I think of whenever people get upset with a comedian like Norm MacDonald. The story is about a moth, but the message inside is universal to anyone:

So a moth goes into a podiatrist’s office, and the podiatrist says, “What seems to be the problem, moth?” The moth says “What’s the problem? Where do I even begin, man? I go to work for this guy, Gregory Illinivich, and all day long I work. Honestly doc, I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t even know if Gregory Illinivich knows. He only knows that he has power over me, and that seems to bring him happiness. But I don’t know, I wake up in a malaise, and I walk here and there… at night I… I sometimes wake up and I turn to some old lady in my bed that’s on my arm. A lady that I once loved, doc. I don’t know where to turn to. My youngest, Alexendria, she fell in the…in the cold of last year. The cold took her down, as it did many of us. And my other boy, and this is the hardest pill to swallow, doc. My other boy, Gregarro Ivinalititavitch… I no longer love him. As much as it pains me to say, when I look in his eyes, all I see is the same cowardice that I… that I catch when I take a glimpse of my own face in the mirror. If only I wasn’t such a coward, then perhaps… perhaps I could bring myself to reach over to that cocked and loaded gun that lays on the bedside behind me and end this hellish facade once and for all…Doc, sometimes I feel like a spider, even though I’m a moth, just barely hanging on to my web with an everlasting fire underneath me. I’m not feeling good." And so the doctor says, “Moth, man, you’re troubled. But you should be seeing a psychiatrist. Why on earth did you come here?” And the moth says, “Cause the light was on."

So that's basically what I think.

Despite his appearance and delivery, i always thought Norm was the most "punk rock" comedian. He actually stood for something, stood by his friends and was true to himself. I did not always agree with his bits... But i never thought he was outright hateful. I think he tried to touch on the humorous or more absurd elements of society, with his commentary. Which was mostly the stuff i liked least... However, i believe that while Norm may not have understood some of these things, he wasn't intolerant of them.

Norm was about as big of an anti-celebrity, celebrity as i can think of. He always seemed eager to be silly and to laugh, and to love his small group of friends. I'm fairly cemented as being left of center, and i adored Norm.

I believe the reason he got fired from SNL was he kept making OJ Simpsons jokes and one of the top NBC execs was friends with OJ. Not quite the same thing as a public outcry, but I’m not sure of any bigger controversy regarding Norm.

Well unfortunately he used his final special to spew transphonic trash. Basically any time he wandered his way into politics it was never good, but he had some amazing jokes when he didn't.

Pretty funny and insightful to me, but I mostly saw him on SNL a long time ago and more recently on Tyson's Mysteries, where he was hilarious.

Plenty of people. Probably the most substantial recent controversy I can think of was when he called out a comedian for an anti-Christianity joke while judging Last Comic Standing. I understand his explanation for why he did it but that doesn't mean it didn't get misinterpreted. Like most of Norm's controversies, I think he was a victim of his own intellect and nuance, and for assuming that other people were as capable of critical thinking as him.

I wouldn't say I was offended, but I did find him more mean than funny.

Most of the people I know who seemed offended were more offended that they just didn't find him funny. I always felt, and still feel, bad for them.

Barbara Walters definitely was...

I honestly don't remember anything that he did that was funny.