Norm Macdonald Clock Joke

Many of you will remember Norm Macdonald from his time hosting Saturday Night Live as the host of Weekend Update, or you might have seen him perform standup at a theater in Omaha or club in Calgary. No matter how you met him, there can be no doubt that he was one of the greatest smartasses of our generation.

He was a sardonic, dry comedian with an acute sense of irony that often surprised audiences, often delivering jokes without internal censorship. Although he was fired from SNL in 1997, he never stopped creating comedy ever since.

Throughout his career, he adhered to one principle when crafting jokes: the punchline should match up exactly with the set-up. This helped keep jokes fresh and made it simpler for people to remember what they had just laughed at.

This is an admirable rule and something all great comics should follow. On an episode of Norm Macdonald’s video podcast, he shares a story about his inspiration for writing jokes.

In his interview, Norm Macdonald explained that he always wrote his jokes with the punchline and set-up in mind, making it simple for him to remember. This philosophy guided everything from his standup routines and interviews with Howard Stern to hosting a Netflix series last year called Norm Macdonald Has a Show.

As a comedian, he was truly blessed to have such an accomplished career. But it also required him to put in extraordinary effort and produce his best work every single time. That isn’t to say there weren’t times where he lost focus or motivation; but he always kept going back up and kept creating comedy sketches.

That’s what made him such a remarkable comedy writer and performer. His insightful observations, exuberant delivery style and twinkle in his eye made him an incredible talent.

In 1996, I had the honor of interviewing Norm Macdonald for my book “Crazy, Cool and Insane: The Life and Comedy of Norm Macdonald.” At that time he was working on a TV show as well as hosting Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live.

He had an extremely busy week, and donned plenty of makeup. Additionally, his molester glasses gave him the appearance of a deranged James Carville trying to grow a woman in a laboratory.

He always had a smile on his face, which always added to the joy of whatever topic was discussed. Perhaps it was some sort of coping mechanism or simply the result of all those hilarious jokes he’d told over time; either way, it made all the difference in how he looked and performed.

On Tuesday, Norm Macdonald passed away at 61 years of age. His passing is a tremendous loss for comedy and its fans around the world, but he left us with an abundance of memories that will always entertain us.