Name: Steve Martin & Martin Short Remembers Norm Macdonald
Uploaded: 2023-02-21T16:56:25.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Steve Martin & Martin Short Remembers Norm Macdonald' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-02-21. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Steve Martin & Martin Short Remembers Norm Macdonald' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-02-21. Transcript available.

-I wanted to see if you --
I wanted to say something about our friend Norm Macdonald,
who passed away. -Oh, how funny.
-And, you know. -There was no one funnier.
Brilliant Canadian, you know.
And tonight, the Lifetime Achievement Award
will be presented to Mr. Martin Short.
It's the Academy's way of saying,
"Thank you so much. We've had enough."
Well, Don Ringel, as a friend, it's over.
-You know, we do -- In our show, we do a tribute to comedians.
I'm serious about this, and we name different comedians,
like Bob Newhart and people.
And we do a tribute to Norm Macdonald,
and we use one of his lines.
We say -- And this is one of his lines.
He said, "There's only two categories of cliff diving.
Grand Champion and Stuff on a Rock."
That is cliff diving.
You ever see that guy hopping off a cliff,
trying to pass that off as a sport, you know?
Man, look at that guy, like attempted suicide as a sport there.
Next week, they got washing down quaaludes with wood alcohol.
That's next week, though.
Can you believe that?
No, I was just making that part up.
But, uh, cliff diving, what a crazy --
And you can't tell who's better, either.
You see a guy hopping off a cliff, and you go,
"Man, look at that."
And then the next guy hops off a cliff, and you go,
"Oh, look at that again there."
Another guy hopping off a cliff.
But you can't tell who's better, you know?
But if you survive at all, you're a great --
You're a great cliff --
You're the --
There's only a couple --
There's only a couple of different levels of cliff diving.
Grand Champion, and then Stuff on a Rock over there.
One of the two.
It's a tough --
It's a kind of a thing.
But I really think that in comedy particularly,
the originals stand out the most,
and they stay with us long after they're gone.
And there was no one more original than Norm Macdonald.
There was no one who did his style.
There was no one who had his rhythms.
He was -- he was remarkable, and so kind and funny.
Well, the great thing about Loren is he'd do --
You could do anything you wanted.
He would tell you wise things, you know, like wisdom or whatever.
He's like a little Buddha guy, right?
Yeah, yeah.
Did it ever make sense?
Not to me.
You'd always walk away going, "What the fuck?"
To other people it did.
Like, I remember one time he wanted me --
Like, this was actually with Weekend Update.
They wanted me to do Weekend Update with a lady.
Yeah.
Like, two of us.
And I was like, "That sounds like shit.
I don't want to fucking -- that sounds like shit."
Like, I'm like, "If there's a lady and a dude,
like, what, are we making fun of local news?
What the fuck is that?"
He's like, "No, no."
He's like, "Well, you'll be --"
He had some crazy -- he goes, "I think he liked me
because I didn't understand what he was talking about all the time."
And he goes, "You'll be Fred Astaire, and she'll be Ginger.
You'll give her the sex, the comedy, and she'll give you the sex."
And I was like, "The dancers?
What?"
And I didn't know what he was fucking talking about.
Yeah.
So anyways, I go, "I don't want to fucking do it with a lady.
Let Frank do it."
Yeah.
So --
Frank was going to do it?
Yeah, it was Frank and me or somebody else.
So I didn't care that much about it because I could just do stand-up.
But anyways, what happened was, it was funny, like, Steve Martin walked in
because he was
hosting.
Yeah.
And Lauren, to embarrass me, went, "Let's see what Steve thinks about it."
And Steve Martin doesn't give a fuck about anything.
So, but he goes, "Norm wants to do what the lady thinks," and he does this big,
long spiel
and Steve Martin's completely uninterested.
Been dragged into something he wanted no part of.
But luckily, he fucking just said out of the blue, he goes, "Oh, fuck."
He goes, "I did this award show with some broad and they paired me up with her
and she fucked
everything up."
Like, I guess they stuck them with something.
Yeah.
So then Lauren goes, "Oh, there's some support from an unexpected place."
And that's how you got the solo update?
Yeah, Steve Martin, because he was such a hero to Lauren.
You had a bad experience with an award show and you get to run the solo on the
update?
Yeah, it was awesome.
That was a fucking good moment.
But I would have been in big trouble with a lady.
But then later, they did it with a lady and a dude.
Because he kept saying, "Oh, remember," because I know "Saturday Night Live,"
you know,
like all of us, right?
Yeah.
And he was like, "Remember Jane and Jane and Dan."
And I was like, "That was shit."
Like, I remember Jane, you ignorant slut.
Right.
I remember all the rest of that fucking shit.
Like, he had a hat on and pretended to be from the, like, they played
characters.
Yeah.
And I was not interested in that because Dennis kind of changed it to Dennis
Miller, where-
Where you do jokes.
Where you do jokes.
And you're not doing a parody of a fucking-
And finally, comedy legend Jerry Lewis.
May I tell you what a joy and a thrill and all this stuff it is to be here.
It's super duper.
Good luck.
And we're gonna need it.
We're gonna need it.
All three of you.
What do you-
The answer is, John Travolta learned how to dance for this 1977 hit movie.
Okay.
Mr. Lewis.
If I remember correctly, Alex, that would be dancing for ladies.
Easy.
I had to go for it.
No.
No.
That is incorrect also.
What is Saturday Night Fever?
The answer is, Popeye is this sort of man.
Mr. Lewis.
I got the answer, Alex.
You want the answer?
It's simple.
They're terrified of a perfectionist.
They being the people who are running the studios this week.
Jerry Lewis has wandered off somewhere.
Let's see if he had anything.
Apparently, his answer was an outlier.
And he's a little bit more.
And he's a little bit more.
And he's a little bit more.
And he's a little bit more.
And he's a little bit more.
Apparently, his answer was an outline of half of his hand.
And he wagered the other half of his hand.
That's beautiful.
Well, I'd like to thank all of our celebrities for joining us to see--
I'm sorry.
I was in a little voice room.
Oh, boy.
I didn't mean to do that.
The sketch that you got on the air, and you say in your book, hey, you know, I
didn't originate
this sketch.
I kind of stole this sketch, with permission.
But the famous Jeopardy bit.
Yes, Jeopardy sketch, yes.
Where you played Burt Reynolds, and you say Will Ferrell was key to that sketch,
because
he played such a great Jeopardy host.
Yes.
But that thing was one of the most popular sketches.
And you pitched that.
But you say-- you admit in your memoir that, hey, that's something I got from
SCTV.
Yeah, yeah.
And I waited till Martin Short was a guest on the show, and I pitched it and
said, can we
do the Jeopardy thing?
Yeah, yeah.
They did a sketch on SCTV when I was a child called Halfwits.
It was-- Alex Trebek was in the sketch, because he was a Canadian, and it was
just these kids.
It was when two schools would fight each other, and so they were all real
stupid.
So I always loved that show, and I said, you know, Celebrity Jeopardy, they
always ask such
easy questions, and the celebrities are all so stupid, it would be great to do
it.
And unfortunately, they've already done it, and I feel like I shouldn't just
steal a sketch.
Right.
So when Mr. Short came to do the show, who later became my friend, I said, who
wrote that sketch?
And he said, Eugene Levy, and I said, maybe we could phone him, you know?
And--
Get permission.
Get permission.
And so he said, yeah, we'll do a conference call, and I said, no, I'll phone,
you know?
I'm a man, you know?
Yeah.
So I phoned Eugene Levy, and I asked him, I told him the whole sketch, I said
how much
I loved the first one, and I asked permission, and he was kind enough to give
it to me.
There was no better show than NSTV.
That was unbelievable, right?
Oh my God, it was amazing.
It was amazing.
Unbelievable.
I've had a good friend for a while, we were in negotiations.
How'd that break down?
I don't know, I met him, and he was fucking funny, and he made me laugh, and he
was laughing
at me and shit, so I said, hey, we should be friends and stuff, and he said,
yeah, let's
be friends, you go to a cottage, and I was like, ah, fuck, I'd have to go to a
cottage,
you know?
And then, so I never caught on, because the cottage was in my head and shit.
What do you mean, the cottage?
But still, I would have liked, you know, that guy would be cool to fucking hang
out with.
I know, but what do you mean, because that would be a good friend for you?
But then, I'm going to a cottage, you understand.
I don't want to go to a cottage.
That's the problem with you.
All of a sudden, you're going to a cottage on a plane.
But that's the problem with Norm.
Maybe I should have done this.
What?
No, that's the problem with you.
So, if someone suggests something, right away, it's not...
Too guarded, I know what you're saying.
It's not too...
It's not cool enough for you.
Where would you go with Martin Short?
I'm not cool enough.
Martin Short says, let's go to a cottage and hang out.
I'm not saying that.
I'm saying, like, I think you were right when I said I'm too guarded.
Like, I'm not willing to do things.
You don't want to be trapped in a cottage with Martin Short.
No, I'd love that part.
The idea of being friends with Martin Short is fun.
The idea of being in a cottage with Martin Short and then having the pressure
to talk and interact with one another.
I understand I'm the same way.
It wouldn't work out for you.
It wouldn't work out for me either.
But you go on that vacation.
But maybe in another lifetime.
Yeah.