Norm MacDonald: Ridiculous

Norm MacDonald first hit national spotlight when he was a cast member of Saturday Night Live in the 1990's. He anchored the Weekend Update for a few years, becoming one of the fans' favorite anchors in the shows amazing tenure. Along with his writing and acting, Norm also performs stand up comedy (go figure) and has the honor of making Comedy Central's top 100 comedians of all time (as have five of the other comedians I've reviewed), and is a popular name in numerous comedy cliques.

His style is very unique, in that, not only is he not afraid to bomb, he will do it intentionally. For example, on the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, Norm told overly cheesy, stupid jokes that barely made fun of Saget. This contrasted the usual roast so well that most of the audience and viewers at home were cringing at how poorly he was doing. But if you watch the comedians on the side listening, you'll notice that they're laughing harder at Norm's material than anybody else's, because they know exactly what he's doing, and they get a kick out of it. He'll even perform cheesy old jokes on talk shows for the same purpose. Conan O'Brien has noted that Norm is one of his favorite guests.

I'm sure you're thinking, "Why the hell isn't Joe talking about the CD at all? We want to hear about his stand-up in this CD!" Hold your horses, folks. Despite Norm's famed and noteworthy career, he has but one album to offer his fans, Ridiculous, and it's not even a stand-up album. Instead, Norm comprises his CD of sketches similar to what he would write or perform on SNL. He even uses some of his former cast-members for the parts (Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, and Tim Meadows to name a few). So this review won't be talking about his stand-up, but more his writing.

Norm starts off with a parody of the Fantastic Four, making fun of their super identities' names. He plays a Mr. Fantastic who cannot comprehend why the other members of the group have any problem with his egotistical name. The punchlines are set up incredibly well, and Norm's timing and acting are superb as he delivers them. Starting with the first funny line through the end of the track, he gives line after line of funny material.

Following this track is a long one about a country music legend who is coming out of years of hiding to produce a new album. Slowly, the producers realize that their beloved legend is now gay...very gay. Panic ensues as they try to think of ways to cover it up. The jokes in this track are good, but not quick enough. It's a 19 minute long track that could have been shorted to 12, and there's just too much time between funny lines. Like I said, the jokes are good, but audiences have to go through a lot of waiting to get to them.

Next is the first of two three-track jokes. I'll go through the three tracks in this paragraph to simplify things. It revolves around a sportscaster (Norm) who has clearly bet a lot of money on the outcome of the football game he is announcing. From kickoff, to half-time, to the two minute warning (the three tracks), he's concerned about his quarterback's potentially debilitating disease and how it will affect his wager. Good jokes, good set ups, good tracks.


The other three-track joke is probably his best set of the CD. The subject: The first two men to discover gay sex. Right away you know the set can be either brilliant or horrendous. For it, Norm calls on the comedy talent of Will Ferrell, who will do anything for a laugh, in a good way (see his SNL sketch wearing patriotic short shorts for proof). Him and Norm play two dudes who realize that they love sex, but don't currently have any women present, and have to find some sort of solution to their dilemma at hand. Ferrell goes ALL out to make these tracks an absolute gut-buster. While Norm is also excellent as the straight man (for lack of a better term), credit for these tracks goes mostly to Will. These three tracks are evenly dispersed on the CD, which creates a great flow of laughs, as they create very few long pauses of comedy. Well done, Norm.

There are a few more sketches thrown in on the CD, but nothing too notable, unless you have a fetish for Molly Shannon talking dirty. Norm does, at the end, play one of his older stand-up bits about Star Search. Sorry, I guess my earlier comment that this was not a stand up CD was slightly off. It's not particularly a great bit, but it does give the audience a good glimpse of Norm's style and stage presence.

Overall, this CD is very funny, with mostly clean humor, though the parts of it that aren't clean, can be quite raunchy. Like I've said repeatedly, don't go into this expecting stand-up. Some of the tracks can be a bit slow, but they are mostly for the purpose of setting up punchlines, as each new track brings about a completely different joke, no transitions like most good stand-up has. If you like Norm MacDonald, you will probably like this CD, but if you've listened to him and you just don't get him, this may not be the best album for you, though I think it's still worth a listen.

Worst Tracks: Tex Hooper, Burning Bed
Best Tracks: [World's First Two Gay Guys, A Wonderful Afternoon Gone Awry, Do You Want A Sandwich Or Anything?], Fantastic Four

Overall rating: 7/10