By Michael Walsh
Norm Macdonald isn’t a comedian for everyone. At times it seems like the man bombs performances on purpose to gain laughter from his audience, a method so strange that it can only work for a man with a stand-up routine as bizarre and awkward as Macdonald’s.
Macdonald’s career has recently seen a revival. Finding relevance on Twitter, the former Saturday Night Live star had seemed to hit a wallowing point, destined to be an occasional guest on whichever late night show Conan O’Brien was hosting, telling audiences brilliant jokes about moths and their mental problems.
Comedy Central, a network so down in the dumps compared to the explosion of success it saw last decade, optioned a new show for Macdonald centered around the comedian riffing on the sporting world’s most recent headlines.
After two episodes it was quickly clear that the show had a hit on its hands. Of course, the concept of Macdonald’s new show being a hit will only become clear to those who get the comedian’s humor and appreciate his unique way of delivering it.
Sports Show with Norm Macdonald is brilliant for its quick and nasty one-liners supplied by the host. Topical humor never felt so awkward. The comedy is fast, dry and scorching all at the same time, as Macdonald moves on from headline to headline, delivering jokes that range from lame but still funny to brilliant.
The most amazing and surprising find for me was the inclusion of Kyle from Good Neighbor on the show’s second episode. Kyle is simple. He’s a character so awkward it makes the introvert in all of us shudder. Good Neighbor found YouTube success with Kyle’s on-scene reports, in particular his trips to the Los Angeles Lakers’ back-t0-back NBA championship parade.
Kyle’s method is simple: he finds the most awkward questions to ask and the most awkward way to ask them, all the while stumbling and mumbling his words. Sometimes he’ll receive a brushoff from the person he’s interview. In other moments, when Kyle receives a rare developed answered, he’ll cut them off at the most random and awkward moment, resulting in laughter that only exists because of the supreme timing he has. The concept and delivery is perfect and this character’s arrival to the television is well overdue. I imagine some late night host will be upset they missed the boat.
While Kyle’s report from an Ultimate Fighting Championship event likely had nothing to do with Macdonald himself, the fact that he included the YouTube sensation on his show in his own format is impressive itself. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the awkward Macdonald found solace in the awkward character of Kyle, his ‘nephew,’ to pull of these unbelievably funny reports. The comedian himself has found a spot on YouTube where fans rave over his brilliant late night appearances and when Macdonald decided to tweet about the Academy Awards, his follower count no doubt rose by the thousands as he poked relentless fun at Hollywood’s many fake celebrities.
Going back to Macdonald, the comedian seems as comfortable as he can be in the role. His show-ending ‘garbage time’ segment lets the comedian riff on whatever he wants, whether it lands in the sports universe or not, which lets Macdonald lash out at whatever or whoever he wants.
I hope that more than just the fans of Macdonald acknowledge just how funny Sports Show is. It’s certainly not going to please everyone the same way it pleases the fans, but there’s a certain subdued brilliance of comedy to be found within. Hopefully this show doesn’t go the way of most Comedy Central shows these days and stays around long enough for Macdonald to keep sports fans laughing.
