Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special (2022)

Dir. Norm Macdonald and Jeff Tomsic

What a joy it was to see some more content from Norm, the funniest person to have ever walked this planet, after his unfortunate passing. I remember the day I heard Norm died; I was in my room when I got a notification from the New York Post and screamed “NOOOO” out loud. I texted back and forth with my friend about it, and I remembered all the time we spent together watching Norm’s material in gym class. I then went on a typical hours-long watch of old Norm clips from late night shows, his video podcast (some of the greatest comedy ever captured on video) and otherwise. This was all material that I knew inside and out. Three-minute-long jokes I could recite from front to back (not as well as the man himself, but, y’know). And yet, they still felt fresh every single time. I will never not laugh at the punchline of the Andy Richter, the Swedish German joke. I will never not be impressed by the perfect delivery of every line in the Professor of Logic joke. And I will never not feel so warmed by any other comedian’s words like I constantly am with Norm’s.

“Dr. James Watts, a neurosurgeon who performed the first frontal lobotomy, died this week in Washington. If you recall, a lobotomy involves drilling holes in the skull and then inserting and rotating a knife to destroy brain cells… What a genius – he’ll be missed!”

5/30/22