One of the reasons why Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart works so well is that politicians just can’t stop doing and saying stupid things. On a 24-hour basis, there’s an endless amount of material for Stewart and his writers to pull from, and with less restrictions than the satirists of network television (David Letterman, and, to a lesser degree, Jay Leno) due to the freer nature of cable.
But you know which denomination of celebrity does even dumber shit? Professional athletes, of course. Yet, there hasn’t been a proper outlet for sports heads to see the most foolish players get roasted; Sportscenter and Pardon The Interruption may try, but their main objective is to report the news. Norm Macdonald, on the other hand, has no such obligation. After all, no one is looking to him for the latest scores, contract negotiations, and lockout updates.
Long regarded as one of the most irreverent comedians in the game, the former Saturday Night Live cast member, and stand-up veteran, is back on idiot-boxes in Comedy Central’s Sports Show With Norm Macdonald, the channel’s athletic answer to The Daily Show.
Airing Tuesday nights (10:30 p.m.), Sports Show With Norm Macdonald takes the most widely reported sports news of the week, as well as more Internet-specific material, and clowns each newsmaker with the funnyman’s signature droll wit. Since we love pop culture and sports equally, we caught up with Macdonald for a conversation that ranged from the show’s inner workings to why sacrificing children in pits of fire never makes for effective comedy. Game on!
Norm Macdonald: It kind of fell on my lap. But I’ve always wanted to do a show where I could just do jokes in front of a camera, and have it not be in the sitcom format. I don’t want to fall in love with a girl and all of that stuff—I don’t know how to do that. [Laughs.]
That’s why I’ve always liked stand-up, and I liked doing Weekend Update, where I got to talk into the camera and just be myself and tell jokes. And the subject of sports is funny to me. I’ve always loved sports, and I understand it. I don’t understand politics too well.
So Sports Show is more up your alley than anything you ever did on Weekend Update?
Norm Macdonald: Yeah, I didn’t know anything about politics before doing Weekend Update, so I would just have to read the paper a lot. But, really, I didn’t have any opinions.
With Sports Show, are you more hands-on with the writing, then, since sports is something you’re more passionate about?
Norm Macdonald: No, I wrote Weekend Update, too, but I’d say this one is more fun in a way, and I’m able to play around with the jokes more. Before, I didn’t have too many opinions on the things we joked about, so Weekend Update was just a bunch of jokes. In this sports one, though, I can take sides on the issues, which is pretty interesting to me.
When you were conceptualizing Sports Show, how did you want to make it different from other shows of its type, like Sports Soup on the Versus channel, for example?
Norm Macdonald: Yeah, there was definitely an approach. I wanted to do mostly jokes for the whole first act, and get all of the most topical stuff out with the strongest jokes. Come out from the beginning with the best material, you know? And then for the second act, I like doing something that’s more like an essay, or an editorial piece, and then a conceptual piece for the third act. For the fourth act, we decided to go with “Garbage Time,” where I just tell jokes for 90 seconds straight through.
Comedy Central has had great success with Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, which your show is similar to in format, except for the whole sports angle, of course. Did you look at The Daily Show as a model of what works?
Norm Macdonald: You know, I should have. [Laughs.] I should look at shows like that, to make sure I’m doing this the right way. I mean, I’ve seen them, but I’ve never really looked close. I’ve seen them just as a viewer, to enjoy them, but I haven’t really studied them at all. It’s a good idea, though. [Laughs.] If this show doesn’t work, I’ll look back and think, “Maybe I should have paid more attention to those shows.” We’ll see.
What’s interesting about sports coverage is that the most popular program, ESPN’s Sportscenter, relies heavily upon humor, even though it’s not billed as a comedy show. The anchors are constantly riffing and cracking jokes. Did that play into your mind at all while plotting out Sports Show?
Norm Macdonald: Well, I love Sportscenter; that’s what I watch all the time. I see what you mean, though—they are pretty funny. But we want to be funnier than Sportscenter—at least I hope we can be. [Laughs.] If not, that’s pretty bad. I’m an actual funny person! That’s what I do.
But I do love Sportscenter. I think they’re cool, and funny, and hip. I’m not trying to make fun of them, because that’s all I watch. The thing about Sports Show is that we’re all fans. I personally love sports, I always have. That’s why this show is cool to me.
Have you always wanted to do a sports-themed show?
Norm Macdonald: Well, what I always wanted to do was be a sportscaster. I did it like two weeks ago, actually; I live-streamed the Masters, which went on for five-and-a-half hours. And then just the other day, we did one of the Lakers playoff games. You go on your computer and you can hear me talking about what I see, as the game is going on. So it’s not really me being a sportscaster, if you want to be technical about it. [Laughs.] But it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to being one, so I’m counting it.
That’s what I wanted to be when I was a kid. I never pursued it, but I wish I had. But let’s not get into all of my regrets here—it’ll turn into a completely different interview, and I don’t know if you want that. [Laughs.]
Good call. Getting back to happier, or at least non-depressing, topics, is it tough to stay current when so much happens in sports on a daily basis and you guys only air once a week? You only have 30 minutes once a week to make fun of athletes’ hooker run-ins, dumbass comments, and other boners.Norm Macdonald: We tape on Monday and then the show airs on Tuesday. So most of our jokes are from the weekend, whatever happened. There are usually two or three big stories, like recently we had the comment made by Kobe [Bryant] that pissed all of the gay rights activists off. So, of course, we had to make fun of that somehow. [Laughs.]
There are always 30 or more stories going on at once—you just have to take your pick. There’s never not any stories happening. Pardon The Interruption does it every day.
Will anything ever be off limits?
Norm Macdonald: No, there will be a lot of things that are off limits. A whole bunch of different things. So many things, and I don’t want to say them because they make me uncomfortable. You know, like…listen, there’s nothing funny in sports when it comes to sacrificing children. Or ritual fire. I don’t want to start talking about that! Because just think of the parents of the children who have been sacrificed on fire—they’re victims, too.
That’s a good point—there doesn’t seem to be a good joke to be made about human sacrifice. Maybe someday a comedian will find a way to make that work, though.
Norm Macdonald: It won’t be easy, I’ll tell you that.
It’s all good, though, when you’re able to do bits like “Which dougie dancer gets hit by an ice cream truck?”
Norm Macdonald: Oh, yeah. That one was funny, right? We got all of this crazy sports stuff from just regular people on the Internet, where they jump and do crazy stuff. Trick shots with footballs and basketballs. So there’s all of this awesome footage out there; you’re not trapped by traditional media’s footage.
An important thing, though, is that every joke has to make sense to a person who doesn’t like sports, and that’s a hard, fast rule to adhere to on a sports show. [Laughs.] That’s something that I told them, that I wasn’t interested in doing a show that only sports fans would enjoy. It has to be for everybody.
We made a couple mistakes in the beginning. Like, you have to watch references all of the time. We made reference to George Brett once, and I realized that only real sports fans know who he is. But sometimes you need an old reference, because you don’t want to alienate the old sports fans, either. Though, Babe Ruth wouldn’t be considered an old reference—even a child would know that one.
You've been using Twitter a lot lately, too, which seems like a good way to figure out what the audience likes and dislikes. Are you a big fan of Twitter now?
Norm Macdonald: Yeah, yeah. I just started using it a month ago, or two months ago. Somebody gave me a phone that had Twitter on it already. I tried different things. I’ve tried to “trend,” and I’ve had the phone for two or three months and I’ve trended 15 times.
That’s not bad.
Norm Macdonald: Not bad? I’m just a rookie on Twitter, man! So to trend 15 times? That’s impressive. Try to trend four times—I challenge you. [Laughs.] It’s not easy.
I haven’t even trended once, so I’m highly impressed by your Twitter skills.
Norm Macdonald: Thanks. I’m quite proud of them, too. [Laughs.]
Norm Macdonald: Well, I love hockey, but we’re not going to cover it much.
Why not?
Norm Macdonald: I don’t know, because I like it way more than everyone else. Are you a big fan of hockey?
Actually, no, I’m not at all. But I do love baseball and basketball.
Norm Macdonald: See, there you go. [Laughs.] I love all of the traditional sports equally, anyway, so it’s not a big deal. Like, I’m watching the NBA Playoffs every night.
If you were a betting man, who would you pick to go all the way?
Norm Macdonald: I think the Dallas Mavericks are going to make the finals. They’ll win everything. Write it down! You heard it here first, folks. If they win, I expect everyone to show me some respect.
