Name: Conan Tells the Story Behind Norm Macdonald's Moth Joke
Uploaded: 2021-09-17T03:42:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Conan Tells the Story Behind Norm Macdonald's Moth Joke' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-09-17. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Conan Tells the Story Behind Norm Macdonald's Moth Joke' from I'm not Norm on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-09-17. Transcript available.

So happy that the moth joke
has been getting circulated so much from our Tonight Show
because it is completely outrageous what he's doing.
It is, you know, it's the Tonight Show
and he is telling this very long story
and he's taking all the time in the world.
And I love it just because even though I was there,
I'm delighted every time I see it.
Every time I see it, I'm delighted with it
because what he's doing is breaks every rule.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
That is the rule.
Keep it, you know, and man, he completely,
like Picasso blew up the form.
He goes and he tells this joke forever
and then finally gets to this punchline
and you can see that he's, everyone's delighted
but he has broken every rule in the book
and I was asking, I was talking to Lori Jo
and I asked her if it's okay if I related this
and she said it was okay
but she said that not too long ago
someone asked Norm about the moth story
that he told on our Tonight Show
and that she said, the guy wanted to know
what made you have the nerve to do that
and that he said that, you know,
is that goddamn Frank Smiley?
He said, I was only supposed to do one segment
and then suddenly in the commercial break
Frank came over and said like,
you're doing another one
because whenever I had Norm, I was greedy.
I wanted more Norm.
I always wanted more Norm
and so he didn't know that he was,
that we were gonna ask him to do a second segment.
He had nothing planned.
Absolutely nothing planned.
That's true.
And so as recently as like, not that long ago,
I think this was a couple of months ago,
he was telling somebody,
damn it, that was Frank Smiley.
Hey, get back out there.
Conan wants more.
So he heard that joke from Colin Quinn
and he did the segment
and he had seven minutes prepared.
Yeah.
And so he basically,
you said, you know,
and then he's done.
He's done.
You say, we'll be right back with more Norm
and he goes, I've got nothing to say.
Yeah, yeah.
So then he remembered the Colin joke
and it was a 20 second joke.
So he asked you, how long is the segment?
Uh-huh.
And he was hoping you'd say 20 seconds.
Right.
But you said seven minutes.
Yep, yep.
So it became a seven minute joke.
Yeah.
Yeah, and he's doing that.
This has to be understood.
He's doing this on the fly.
Yep.
So his way to slow it down
that he came up with on the fly
is he invents-
It's a Chekhov play.
It's a Chekhov play.
With Russian names.
With Russian names
and there's a sadness,
an ineffable sadness in life
weighing on the character's soul.
And I'm thinking, you know,
who, I've never met anybody
who would take that chance
and make that choice
and I'll never meet anybody
like him again.
He was the ballsiest comedian
in the history of comedians.
He was taking that
and he was saying, like,
the joke doesn't matter.
Like that, you know,
watching that,
seeing that clip again,
you're getting to see his brain.
He's just showing you his brain.
And the notion that this is,
that the joke is the thing,
the joke isn't the thing.
No, it's the journey.
It's taking a stroll
through this guy's brain
and hearing the choices
that he makes
and what he has to say.
And, you know,
and I think that that was like,
kind of what,
like there was so much
of like what he,
you know, would say like,
well, that doesn't matter.
This matters, you know?
And what mattered to him
was his own self-expression,
was his own,
was spreading his own kind of genius
and his own point of view.
So we're seeing it
a little bit in process here,
but, you know,
obviously we watch you
on late night shows.
We hear you.
I just heard you on Howard Stern.
We watch you on your podcast.
And what we find is
suddenly we're sucked
into the vortex
of a nearly nine-minute joke
that we have no idea
how it emerged
or where it will lead
and what will happen with it,
except that it will be very funny
and we'll be trying
to get everybody
to listen to it the next day.
How do you,
does that,
do you come saying,
oh, I have a,
I have a joke?
Well, you mean like
a street joke,
like a real joke.
Street joke?
You mean like
an actual joke?
Well, I mean like
the moth joke
or the Dirty Johnny joke.
Yeah, I didn't make,
I don't make up those jokes.
They're just out there?
No.
Have you ever tried
to make up a joke?
Like, no comic in the world
can make up
an actual joke.
Like a guy walks
into a bar
and this happens.
This takes,
This is startling information.
Oh, you didn't know that?
No, I thought you write,
you come with these things
written down on paper, right?
No, no,
you know,
they call like
a comedian's act
jokes,
but they haven't been
jokes for years.
You know,
it changed with Alan King
to observational comedy.
Hmm.
You know,
like talking about
crabgrass
in your neighbor's
fucking yard
or something.
I don't care
for Alan King.
Well,
a lot of America
is upset right now
because there's
a huge Alan King
audience here.
Oh, yes.
Yeah, yeah.
Or maybe it's
Larry King.
So you're dodging
this a little bit.
So these are old jokes
that you're stealing
from Rich Little?
No, Rich Little
didn't tell jokes.
No, but like
the moth joke,
for instance.
Colin Quinn
told me that joke
and he said,
you know,
have you ever heard
of the moth joke?
Meaning it was
a famous joke.
And I said,
no.
And he said,
a moth
goes into
a podiatrist's office
and he says,
I have terrible
problems, doctor.
And I think
I'm going mad.
And the podiatrist
goes,
oh, well,
that's too bad,
moth.
But why come to me?
I'm a podiatrist.
You should be going
to see a psychiatrist.
Why did you come
to my office?
And the moth says,
because the light
was on.
So that's a good joke.
But that's not
your joke.
That's not my joke.
So I was on
the Conan O'Brien show
and I was going
to do one segment.
And at the end
of the segment,
he said,
we'll be right back
with more Norm.
I'm like,
what the fuck?
And I'm like,
I thought a guy
was going to show
new Christmas toys.
So I said,
I said,
I don't got
nothing to say.
And then I remember
that Colin Quinn,
he said,
just talk.
I remember
that Colin Quinn joke
which was about
a 20-second joke.
So I said,
how long is this segment?
Hoping he'd say
20 seconds.
And he said,
about seven minutes.
So I made the joke
seven minutes.