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By Michael Epstein Entertainment Staff |
Guide to Star Ratings |
I don't know how many of you watch Saturday Night Live these days, but if you do, then you have most likely realized than Norm MacDonald no longer is the anchor of Weekend Update. He has been replaced by the down-to-earth Colin Quinn, and while Quinn is not necessarily the best possible choice, it is in the end a change for the better.
First off, the situation surrounding MacDonald's departure has been cloudy at best, but the story basically boils down to this: 72 hours before the first show of 1998, SNL received a memo from NBC West Coast President, Don Ohlmeyer, saying that MacDonald was out. Why did he do this? No one is quite sure. Some rumors point to MacDonald making too many jokes about O.J. Simpson, a close friend of Ohlmeyer.
What do I think? Ohlmeyer realized something important: Norm MacDonald is just not funny. For too long Norm MacDonald ruled Weekend Update with humorless jokes, acerbic tone, and punchlines ending in "crackwhore" or "ass". I'm no comedic genius, but when someone has to repeat the punchline to a joke multiple times in order just to get a few weak laughs, that's not funny.
Of course, MacDonald is not only bland in Weekend Update, but also in the few skits he's in. His scope of character appears to be limited to a Larry King that just babbles on, and a Burt Reynolds whose vocabulary consists of "hey" and "yeah". MacDonald seems to think that he is exclusive to Weekend Update, and wouldn't do skits if he wasn't made to.
Apparently, Norm MacDonald has one of the biggest ego problems ever seen. This is quite evidenced by an article in Rolling Stone about SNL. Unfortunately, it turned out to be nothing more than Norm MacDonald negatively critiquing all of the other cast members. His biggest problem seemed to be his continual hounding of fellow cast member Chris Kattan. In the article, MacDonald insisted that Kattan is homosexual (he's not), apparently hoping to prove something that really doesn't matter. Another more recent view of MacDonald's ego has shown up since his removal from Weekend Update. His appearance during the monologue on the episode on January 17th brought him a standing ovation and he fueled it by merely saying "I'm doing skits now". Tough luck Norm, that's what you're paid for. He then went on to mess up several skits.
Probably the main reason I am writing this is that MacDonald has received much support since his departure. Everybody says, "he's the funniest guy on the show", or even, "he's the funniest guy ever". Entertainment Weekly subscribes to this school of thought in its latest issue. Their suggestion; Why not fire Lorne Michaels, the creator of SNL instead of MacDonald? Gee, what a brilliant idea, but I guess you could expect that from Entertainment Weekly.
My advice? Get over MacDonald's departure. Accept Colin Quinn at least for the rest of this season. And if you still think Norm MacDonald is hilarious, then I've got a copy of Weekend at Bernie's 2 you can borrow. If you think MacDonald is funny, I'm sure you'll feel the same way about it.
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