Is it just me, or is this a remarkably unfunny program?
Somehow I get the impression he is reading other people’s lines and doesn’t quite buy into them.
This show is totally hilarious. It’s like Letterman in the sense that it’s best when Norm are just doing his own thing (i.e. the lengthy bit about Michael Jordan’s Hitler mustache).
I only saw the first episode, but I thought it was very good and much, much funnier than I expected. MacDonald has been one of those guys I wanted to like, but he never really did it for me. I liked what I saw in that episode, and I thought Blake Griffin was also good.
When he’s just talking, it’s great. Reminds me of when he did Weekend Update. It’s very dry, and certainly not for everyone. Most of the skits are pretty dumb though.
“See that American Flag on the moon?”
We saw what I think was the first episode, too, and we laughed our asses off. I haven’t seen any other episodes.
I’ve quite enjoyed it. Norm MacDonald really hits my funnybone, but i can see where it might be a taste thing.
Norm is an acquired taste. I has it. I even liked his short-lived, little-remembered sitcom.
Hey, I like him. I thought he was great as the SNL newscaster. I even like him in that comedy about revenge for hire, which I can’t remember the name of right now.
Dirty Work. A truly underrated comedy.
“First we eat the pig, then we burn!!” Yeah, it had its moments.
I find myself laughing about every 30 seconds throughout Sports Show. I especially like the “Wait, what?” segment, and have deliberately tried to say “Wait, what?” wherever I might have said “Huh?” or “Excuse me?” before, just because it makes me laugh.
Norm’s awkward, phony delivery style is definitely a matter of preference, however. For me, it adds to the humor more often than it detracts, but I can totally see how someone would land on the other side.
I guess my question has been answered. It IS just me.
That was a VERY funny movie. It’s pretty hard to make me laugh out loud, but there are lines from that movie that make me laugh every time I think of them.
Norm did one of the Comedy Central roasts a year or two ago, and did kind of a bumbling, too-square series of clean jokes among all the other guys doing really raunchy stuff, and I laughed my ass off.
Found a sample:
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=179722&title=norm-macdonald
You know what hurts the most is the… the lack of respect. You know? That’s what hurts the most. Except for the… Except for the other thing. That hurts the most. But the lack of respect hurts the second most.
Hit and miss for me, but worth watching for when he hits. I usually catch up On Demand. I thought the Blake Griffin sketch was hilarious.
“Cameron Diaz is producing a baseball movie starring her boyfriend Alex Rodriguez. Look for my review of this film in Norm MacDonald’s Suicide Note.”
This is what Norm’s act is. His general approach is to induce nervous laughter as he acts like a bumbling idiot trying to do comedy. Then the actually funny punchlines catch you off guard.
Paraphrased example from last night:
First the lame joke:
How does the guy in the San Diego Chicken suit go to the bathroom?
Pause
Then the real joke:
Or not kill himself
I’m laughing out loud just reading his jokes here. 
I remember that. Probably three-fourths of the audience was just looking at him funny, and the other quarter (and all the comedians, and me) were dying of laughter.
One of my favorite jokes from his new show: “It has been announced that Ultimate Fighting Championship is joining with Mixed Martial Arts to form a new league. The new league will be called Murder.”
Any thread about Norm McDonald requires this link.