Norm Macdonald unspooled quite the Twitter tale last week about why Eddie Murphy was missing from the SNL 25th anniversary special (he was hurt by a David Spade joke; Murphy was kicked while his career was down, on air by his former employer). And how that informed why Murphy turned down doing the Bill Cosby joke during the 40th anniversary—because Murphy didn't want to kick another comedian while Cosby is very, very down.
Howard Stern asked Seth Meyers about Macdonald's insider tale, and Meyers didn't cast blame on Norm, but said he certainly wouldn't have done it.
“I wouldn’t have told it,” Meyers said. “When you’re at SNL, you’re seeing so many different things behind the scenes, and I get that the world wants to hear what’s going on back there, but you don’t want to draw back the curtain.”
Saying that the story was more Murphy's to tell (if he wanted to) than Macdonald's, Meyers sees it as too much information, possibly killing the privacy of the behind the scenes arena amongst comedians, which is necessary to spitball jokes.
Then again, back in the 90s (pre-Twitter!) Macdonald did take heat for a joke that he work-shopped with an audience about Woody Allen during a "Weekend Update" segment: Macdonald showed the famous photo of nude Vietnamese children running from a napalm blast and quipped, "Woody Allen is dating again." Macdonald was fired in 1997 due to the head of NBC declaring that he was "not funny."
“Norm played it in a way that is very Norm MacDonald, and I couldn’t be a bigger Norm MacDonald fan. Those who love Norm were probably happy. I just think that it wasn’t [Norm’s story to tell]," Meyers said. (The new very Norm Macdonald way is to spin long, personal, digital fables. Last year, he tweeted an epic story about Robin Williams.)
Meyers and Stern also talked about Murphy's rehearsals, and discuss why he didn't partake in a comedy bit. Murphy thanked Saturday Night Live for giving him an opportunity, but many wondered why he didn't tell a joke. But true to Meyers belief in the sacred ground of behind the scenes info, he doesn't speak for Murphy.
[via The Howard Stern Show]
