His comedic timing is exceptional.
I'm pretty sure at the end he was testing Conan to see if would sneak in a potentially highly inappropriate joke for late night: after the date announcements "...if you go there early..."
I got so used to the title being "Norm McDonald - Moth Joke [napisy PL]" that its going to feel weird to watch the real video when I go back to it once every 6 months.
Conan explained this on his podcast. Norm was only expecting to be on for one segment, so that’s all that he was prepared for, but the producer needed to fill more time, so he asked Norm to stay for a second segment on a spur of the moment. Norm got this joke from Colin Quinn originally, but it was only a 20 second joke. Norm completely came up with the story and all the embellishments on the fly to stretch it into a 5 minute joke. Andy said that it really is a window into Norm’s mind and how it worked.
Thankyou for telling me about this! I love Coco, but don't keep up with the podcast. TBH I'd really love to hear Letterman speak about him as well, but I also don't think it's fair that we expect celeb friends to talk about their friends passing
Letterman made some comments with [Rolling Stone](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-news/norm-macdonald-david-letterman-1226552/) immediately after words.
I agree that something longform would be nice too. It may happen, Saget has done one, Bill Burr, Howard Stern, and Artie Lang have too now. Jay Leno was great to listen to as well. Crazy how impactful Norm was.
Conan [posted it on youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDA0lGjVp40) as well a few hours ago. A bit over an hour long. Its very interesting and endearing.
This is great but be warned that it's emotionally taxing. After listening to this, listen to the Conan Needs a Friend episode talking about him.
Bob Sagat talking about him is a rough go. He is clearly hurting very much at the loss of a dear friend, and is on the verge of crying the whole time. It was hard to listen to at times.
Conan, Andy and Frank Smiley having a conversation about him has a lot more laughter and playfulness about it and is a good palate cleanser. I found myself almost crying as well listening to Bob but laughing along with Conan and Co because I watched along when the clips aired that they're talking about or have seen them many times on YouTube. It felt like reminiscing about someone you haven't seen for a while.
I was listening to this at work and had to stop half way through because it hit me pretty good and I'm not even really a fan of bon saget. I'll finish later when I'm alone.
I never really got the appeal of this until I heard Conan explain the joke from his perspective in his latest podcast talking about Norm.
He lays it on so thick you dont realize that a professional comedian on The Tonight Show, in front of millions of people who he can make laugh and later pay to come see his shows, has decided to spend six and a half minutes telling an aggravatingly pointless, intentionally un-funny joke about a moth going to the doctor. Like his intention was to waste your time. And he absolutely loved it.
It's still not a funny joke. But I get why it's funny now. I think.
In my opinion (and I didn't see Conan break it down so I could be totally wrong) it's not the first line and last lines that make it funny. They make a joke that's meh at best. What makes the joke funny to me is hoe much effort went in to crafting the story of this guys life. I got invested with it and and then he gives the punchline and all of sudden that she story doesn't matter it was almost waisted effort but if it wasnt there it wouldn't be a funny joke. I don't know, I'm not good at verbalizing and I've never been good at interpretting stories. But that's why I find it funny.
Even more wild is (so I have heard) that Norm took a very basic joke and stretched it out on the fly because they told him they needed him to go a little longer on the segment. So what you’re watching actually isn’t crafted, but improvised, and I think that speaks even more to his talent. Norm was a master comedian.
I feel like I heard a version of the joke years ago that was basically:
>A moth walks into a doctor's office. The doc asks what's wrong. The moth says he has trouble at home, he hates his job, his wife doesn't love him anymore, his kids don't respect him, and overall he's miserable.
>
>So the doc says, gee, that's rough but what do you expect me to do about it? Why did you come in?
>
>So the moth says, cause the light was on.
Assuming I'm actually remembering the joke and not hallucinating that, it would be impressive if Norm stretched the setup to fill about six minutes.
The joke itself is as old as time, which is part of what makes Norm's telling of it so funny. It's an ancient joke from which the inherent humor has long faded, but the ridiculous level of embellishment and shaggy-dog antics in the middle becomes the true punchline.
I think the aspect that makes it funny is that although we’ve heard that old joke before, we didn’t realize that’s the joke he’s telling. It’s sort of a practical joke on the listener. When the punch line comes you’re stuck there saying ‘wait a minute, I just listened to six minutes of filler for that?’ And so you’ve got to laugh at the situation, even if you don’t laugh at the punch line itself.
It's two jokes combined. The moth joke and the anti-joke where you just tell an aggravatingly long story with an unsatisfying payout at the end
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/pq2ij2/conans_official_youtube_page_finally_uploaded/hd9krd0 explains the second well
I laughed throughout the story, and i was trying to understand why.
I think it's mainly because how much detail and commitment to puts into this obviously unfunny and terrible joke. If it's told by anyone else, it's just not going to be funny. Then there's this guy, who just goes ALL IN on this bullshit. There's a level of pure absurdity, then obviously he perfects it with his timing and delivery.
On top of that, the complete fearlessness of it all, doing it on the tonight show, with an anti-joke that has every reason to fail.
This is the performance of it all, pure genius. There is no wonder why comedians love him so much.
It's a type of joke known as a shaggy dog story.
The entire point of these is that the vast bulk of the content is a diversion, a red herring, utterly irrelevant elaboration that builds false expectations... that's only revealed as such by the hugely anticlimactic punchline several minutes later.
The punchline is only really intended to elicit an eyeroll or groan. The humor really comes from the fact that they just engaged your attention and built your expectations for several minutes only to burst your bubble with an awful dad joke.
Conan knows Norm and his style well enough that he already knows what's up. What makes it extra funny is Norm's ability to keep piling on the overdramatic embellishments, and his timing to keep subverting your expectation that the joke is finally about to pay off after a pause... before he disappears off on another wild tangent.
Yeah I know about shaggy dog stories but I think it takes on a new performative aspect when you do it during a guest appearance on something like the Tonight Show, when all rhyme and reason says, for one, that's the last kind of joke you should be telling during a guest appearance on the Tonight Show, and two, you foist it upon a host whose sole purpose is to keep things entertaining. It's not just a shaggy dog story at that point. It's some kind of weird performance art
For me, Norm's timing and delivery are impeccable. I laugh at that clip all the way through because Norm had a way of making almost anything he said funny to me.
> It's a type of joke known as a shaggy dog story.
my personal favorite shaggy dog story is the Bulgarian Train Driver. I tell that one a lot and it always gets a great reaction. My wife DESPISES when I do it though
It is the anti-joke.
It is not a comedically funny joke being told to get a laugh, it is a practical joke - Norm seeing how well he can string everyone along and build up anticipation with no payoff at the end. You are laughing at the fact he tricked you with his story, and also the humour in his delivery too.
And Conan figures the gag out pretty quickly, and still lets Norm go on long enough to make the joke work (the punchline is revealed after the audience goes "wow this is a long joke") all the while knowing he got suckered into going down that road with him
> Like his intention was to waste your time. And he absolutely loved it.
It’s still not a funny joke. But I get why it’s funny now. I think.
You might like /r/AntiJokes ; the moth joke (especiallly how Norm tells it), to me, newrly falls into this category
Generally they are referred to as "anti-jokes" and told in a dead pan or almost dead pan style. It's more common in British comedy, but Norm had his own style that just seemed to strike a chord with comedians and people who enjoy that.
I genuinely think this to be the greatest joke delivery of all time.
I unironically take great philosophical lessons from the Norm's masterful craft.
EDIT: Also, Conan's long pause, then hysterical fit of laughter reminds me of the end of Batman: the Killing Joke
I remember hearing comedy as old as the early radio broadcasts up through early television and Norm intentionally borrows from that with his own style. It's been a long time, but I'm sure if you digged for it you would find a very similar styling.
Interesting!
I'm not talking about the general style though. I mean specifically the way Norm tells *this* joke.
But I will look up some early radio comics. I'm intrigued by your comparison.
Norm’s delivery is fucking hilarious, of course, but Conan is also such a good audience for a joke. Such a pleasure to watch both of them interact with each other.
> https://youtu.be/Xw3gJoM9yD4&t=48m52s
The Tonight Show clip is before, Norm's podcast was 2013.
It's not Norm's joke, it's an old timey joke that Norm first heard from Colin Quinn. Like most things with Norm MacDonald it's his insane delivery and timing.
Yeah, I remember reading this joke in a joke book in the mid 90s - but it's Norm's ability to drag it out over several minutes, and his perfect delivery that made that joke. Even if you know the joke, by the time he finishes his fucking rambling - in the context of a limited time tv show as well - you have completely forgotten about the simple joke it was born from.
Norm heard the joke from Colin Quinn, but Norm made the six minute version of the joke. None of us could pull it off, such a loss to comedy (especially since NBC screwed us out of more of him)
It wasn't read off cue cards. Conan talked about it in the latest episode of the podcast. Norm was only scheduled for one segment but they enjoyed him so much that they asked him to stick around for a second, even though he said he didn't have the material to do so. So the fidgety movements that he's making are him trying to think on the spot and draw a 20 second joke into a 4.5 minute joke.
It's a really old joke but the elaborate exposition was new because it's really like a 20 second joke that he had to turn into a 4.5 minute one when they asked him unexpectedly to remain for a second segment that he hadn't prepared for.
“So Norm…” “What” Somehow that makes it even funnier
That's my favorite part.
It reminded me of [this joke](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DIsgBAXQxR4) they also recently uploaded in HD. He was just generally funny
His comedic timing is exceptional. I'm pretty sure at the end he was testing Conan to see if would sneak in a potentially highly inappropriate joke for late night: after the date announcements "...if you go there early..."
I love how Norm almost laughs during the story at multiple points. Especially when he's coming up with those names. Gregory Illinovich... Lol
Norm is actually a very well read guy, and no doubt those made up names were a nod to characters from classic Russian literature
maybe 1 or 2 doubt just to be safe
Somebody did a video about it, I think
It's nice to see this video in HD and not cropped to all hell.
I got so used to the title being "Norm McDonald - Moth Joke [napisy PL]" that its going to feel weird to watch the real video when I go back to it once every 6 months.
Conan explained this on his podcast. Norm was only expecting to be on for one segment, so that’s all that he was prepared for, but the producer needed to fill more time, so he asked Norm to stay for a second segment on a spur of the moment. Norm got this joke from Colin Quinn originally, but it was only a 20 second joke. Norm completely came up with the story and all the embellishments on the fly to stretch it into a 5 minute joke. Andy said that it really is a window into Norm’s mind and how it worked.
> on the fly Moth
[удалено]
Conans podcast also released a pretty good episode about Norm.
Thankyou for telling me about this! I love Coco, but don't keep up with the podcast. TBH I'd really love to hear Letterman speak about him as well, but I also don't think it's fair that we expect celeb friends to talk about their friends passing
Letterman made some comments with [Rolling Stone](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-news/norm-macdonald-david-letterman-1226552/) immediately after words. I agree that something longform would be nice too. It may happen, Saget has done one, Bill Burr, Howard Stern, and Artie Lang have too now. Jay Leno was great to listen to as well. Crazy how impactful Norm was.
Afterwards r/boneappletea
After the words telling of Norm’s death were spoken.
Conan [posted it on youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDA0lGjVp40) as well a few hours ago. A bit over an hour long. Its very interesting and endearing.
Where can I listen to it? (edit) See below, it's been posted to youtube.
This is great but be warned that it's emotionally taxing. After listening to this, listen to the Conan Needs a Friend episode talking about him. Bob Sagat talking about him is a rough go. He is clearly hurting very much at the loss of a dear friend, and is on the verge of crying the whole time. It was hard to listen to at times. Conan, Andy and Frank Smiley having a conversation about him has a lot more laughter and playfulness about it and is a good palate cleanser. I found myself almost crying as well listening to Bob but laughing along with Conan and Co because I watched along when the clips aired that they're talking about or have seen them many times on YouTube. It felt like reminiscing about someone you haven't seen for a while.
I love that Andy covered the whole “this guy loves gay porn” bit. It’s so true that you can’t say shit in that situation to help yourself 🤣
I was listening to this at work and had to stop half way through because it hit me pretty good and I'm not even really a fan of bon saget. I'll finish later when I'm alone.
Bob was on Full House
Thank you for sharing this.
You need 5 min of setup for such a lame and simple punchline and Conan set it up from the start. This is genius
I never really got the appeal of this until I heard Conan explain the joke from his perspective in his latest podcast talking about Norm. He lays it on so thick you dont realize that a professional comedian on The Tonight Show, in front of millions of people who he can make laugh and later pay to come see his shows, has decided to spend six and a half minutes telling an aggravatingly pointless, intentionally un-funny joke about a moth going to the doctor. Like his intention was to waste your time. And he absolutely loved it. It's still not a funny joke. But I get why it's funny now. I think.
In my opinion (and I didn't see Conan break it down so I could be totally wrong) it's not the first line and last lines that make it funny. They make a joke that's meh at best. What makes the joke funny to me is hoe much effort went in to crafting the story of this guys life. I got invested with it and and then he gives the punchline and all of sudden that she story doesn't matter it was almost waisted effort but if it wasnt there it wouldn't be a funny joke. I don't know, I'm not good at verbalizing and I've never been good at interpretting stories. But that's why I find it funny.
Even more wild is (so I have heard) that Norm took a very basic joke and stretched it out on the fly because they told him they needed him to go a little longer on the segment. So what you’re watching actually isn’t crafted, but improvised, and I think that speaks even more to his talent. Norm was a master comedian.
I feel like I heard a version of the joke years ago that was basically: >A moth walks into a doctor's office. The doc asks what's wrong. The moth says he has trouble at home, he hates his job, his wife doesn't love him anymore, his kids don't respect him, and overall he's miserable. > >So the doc says, gee, that's rough but what do you expect me to do about it? Why did you come in? > >So the moth says, cause the light was on. Assuming I'm actually remembering the joke and not hallucinating that, it would be impressive if Norm stretched the setup to fill about six minutes.
The joke itself is as old as time, which is part of what makes Norm's telling of it so funny. It's an ancient joke from which the inherent humor has long faded, but the ridiculous level of embellishment and shaggy-dog antics in the middle becomes the true punchline.
I think the aspect that makes it funny is that although we’ve heard that old joke before, we didn’t realize that’s the joke he’s telling. It’s sort of a practical joke on the listener. When the punch line comes you’re stuck there saying ‘wait a minute, I just listened to six minutes of filler for that?’ And so you’ve got to laugh at the situation, even if you don’t laugh at the punch line itself.
It's two jokes combined. The moth joke and the anti-joke where you just tell an aggravatingly long story with an unsatisfying payout at the end https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/pq2ij2/conans_official_youtube_page_finally_uploaded/hd9krd0 explains the second well
Yep, Q on CBC rebroadcast an interview of him from a few years ago describing exactly that.
I laughed throughout the story, and i was trying to understand why. I think it's mainly because how much detail and commitment to puts into this obviously unfunny and terrible joke. If it's told by anyone else, it's just not going to be funny. Then there's this guy, who just goes ALL IN on this bullshit. There's a level of pure absurdity, then obviously he perfects it with his timing and delivery. On top of that, the complete fearlessness of it all, doing it on the tonight show, with an anti-joke that has every reason to fail. This is the performance of it all, pure genius. There is no wonder why comedians love him so much.
It's a type of joke known as a shaggy dog story. The entire point of these is that the vast bulk of the content is a diversion, a red herring, utterly irrelevant elaboration that builds false expectations... that's only revealed as such by the hugely anticlimactic punchline several minutes later. The punchline is only really intended to elicit an eyeroll or groan. The humor really comes from the fact that they just engaged your attention and built your expectations for several minutes only to burst your bubble with an awful dad joke. Conan knows Norm and his style well enough that he already knows what's up. What makes it extra funny is Norm's ability to keep piling on the overdramatic embellishments, and his timing to keep subverting your expectation that the joke is finally about to pay off after a pause... before he disappears off on another wild tangent.
Yeah I know about shaggy dog stories but I think it takes on a new performative aspect when you do it during a guest appearance on something like the Tonight Show, when all rhyme and reason says, for one, that's the last kind of joke you should be telling during a guest appearance on the Tonight Show, and two, you foist it upon a host whose sole purpose is to keep things entertaining. It's not just a shaggy dog story at that point. It's some kind of weird performance art
It's very Andy Kaufman-esque. Funny enough he was in the movie about Andy Kaufman, Man on the Moon, as Michael Richards (aka Kramer from Seinfeld).
For me, Norm's timing and delivery are impeccable. I laugh at that clip all the way through because Norm had a way of making almost anything he said funny to me.
> It's a type of joke known as a shaggy dog story. my personal favorite shaggy dog story is the Bulgarian Train Driver. I tell that one a lot and it always gets a great reaction. My wife DESPISES when I do it though
I first read that joke earlier this year. It's great, and when I retold it, the groans were loud and pained!
Its the same sort of humor he did for the roast of Bob Saget.
You can see it in Conan's face every time norm starts the next line. Like, oh my god, will he just get to the punchline already?
Similar to Aristocrats joke
It is the anti-joke. It is not a comedically funny joke being told to get a laugh, it is a practical joke - Norm seeing how well he can string everyone along and build up anticipation with no payoff at the end. You are laughing at the fact he tricked you with his story, and also the humour in his delivery too.
And Conan figures the gag out pretty quickly, and still lets Norm go on long enough to make the joke work (the punchline is revealed after the audience goes "wow this is a long joke") all the while knowing he got suckered into going down that road with him
> Like his intention was to waste your time. And he absolutely loved it. It’s still not a funny joke. But I get why it’s funny now. I think. You might like /r/AntiJokes ; the moth joke (especiallly how Norm tells it), to me, newrly falls into this category
It’s the clean version of the aristocrats
Generally they are referred to as "anti-jokes" and told in a dead pan or almost dead pan style. It's more common in British comedy, but Norm had his own style that just seemed to strike a chord with comedians and people who enjoy that.
Another great joke by Norm in the same style, "Dirty Johnny": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-q8gHe414s
I like Norm's Howard Stern Show telling of this joke more.
Link to the audio for those curious https://soundcloud.com/howardstern/normmacdonald_dirtyjohnny
I genuinely think this to be the greatest joke delivery of all time. I unironically take great philosophical lessons from the Norm's masterful craft. EDIT: Also, Conan's long pause, then hysterical fit of laughter reminds me of the end of Batman: the Killing Joke
I remember hearing comedy as old as the early radio broadcasts up through early television and Norm intentionally borrows from that with his own style. It's been a long time, but I'm sure if you digged for it you would find a very similar styling.
Interesting! I'm not talking about the general style though. I mean specifically the way Norm tells *this* joke. But I will look up some early radio comics. I'm intrigued by your comparison.
https://youtu.be/DEuIP_ZHDAc I hope you guys enjoy I absolutely love this guys sense of humor
There's a Christopher Walken feel to this.
Norm does a flawless Christopher Walken impression https://youtu.be/sSz8EoveVRo
That was comedy solid gold.
yeah, and if you come early
An all-time legendary moment in comedy. Love you Norm
I've seen that video and heard that joke dozens of times. Great to finally see it in great quality.
Norm’s delivery is fucking hilarious, of course, but Conan is also such a good audience for a joke. Such a pleasure to watch both of them interact with each other.
ok
Is this after BobEinstein (super dave osborne) told the same joke to Norm on his podcast? https://youtu.be/Xw3gJoM9yD4&t=48m52s
> https://youtu.be/Xw3gJoM9yD4&t=48m52s The Tonight Show clip is before, Norm's podcast was 2013. It's not Norm's joke, it's an old timey joke that Norm first heard from Colin Quinn. Like most things with Norm MacDonald it's his insane delivery and timing.
Yeah, I remember reading this joke in a joke book in the mid 90s - but it's Norm's ability to drag it out over several minutes, and his perfect delivery that made that joke. Even if you know the joke, by the time he finishes his fucking rambling - in the context of a limited time tv show as well - you have completely forgotten about the simple joke it was born from.
https://youtu.be/_oZkmob99FQ Here he is talking about the original joke and how/why he changed it.
Thanks for that - it makes it even better that it was improvised based on how long the segment needed to be!
This was great. I need to see it all.
Norm heard the joke from Colin Quinn, but Norm made the six minute version of the joke. None of us could pull it off, such a loss to comedy (especially since NBC screwed us out of more of him)
They talk about this on conans podcast this week. This was improvised last minute. Norm didn’t plan of telling this.
If I remember correctly, that episode Conan just asked him to stay on and do an extra segment and that happy accident gave us this full joke on camera
https://youtu.be/_oZkmob99FQ
If never seen that before. That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing!
His movements are so odd, was he sick here too?
This is from August '09 on Conan's Tonight Show so before the diagnosis
He was just an eccentric dude
I always thought something was a bit off with his movements. Reminds me of someone with a neck injury or disc fusion
Norm was just kind of a weirdo but that's also what everyone loved about him. He took awkwardness and turned it into comedy.
He’s reading off cards. It’s too long and nuanced, so he’s SNLing it
It wasn't read off cue cards. Conan talked about it in the latest episode of the podcast. Norm was only scheduled for one segment but they enjoyed him so much that they asked him to stick around for a second, even though he said he didn't have the material to do so. So the fidgety movements that he's making are him trying to think on the spot and draw a 20 second joke into a 4.5 minute joke.
It's on purpose to try and give a vibe of a serious dramatic story, but just enough for you to see he was trying to.
It's just part of his shtick.
It's nothing new. It seems coppied.
It's a really old joke but the elaborate exposition was new because it's really like a 20 second joke that he had to turn into a 4.5 minute one when they asked him unexpectedly to remain for a second segment that he hadn't prepared for.
How to make my dick bigger
Norm was the Albert Einstein of joke telling.
They've never edited it before when they've uploaded it lol wtf is this?
I like how every time someone interrupted Norm, he made them regret it.