Review: 'Sports Show with Norm Macdonald' gets off to an uneven start
'SNL' alum amused himself the whole time, this critic a bit less than that
Norm Macdonald in his new "Sports Show."
I wasn't able to review Comedy Central's new "Sports Show with Norm Macdonald" in advance because the show is produced so close to airing in the interest of being timely (well, mostly timely, but we'll get to that). So I DVR'ed it last night, watched it this morning, and have a few thoughts on the debut coming up just as soon as I say "Charl Schwartzel" 17 times in a row...
I liked Norm as the "SNL" Weekend Update anchor. Didn't love him, but I often got a kick out of how amused he was when a joke bombed, as if he took more pleasure out of that than when the studio audience laughed. (He said in interviews at the time that his approach was always to write jokes that he and his closest friends would enjoy, and not worry about anyone else, and I think that's about the right attitude to have in that gig. You've gotta be you, and if you're not funny, you're not gonna be funny trying to appeal to some phantom other.) And the "Sports Show" debut felt far more like an all-sports version of Weekend Update than it did an all-sports version of "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report."
By that, I mean that the show was largely, like Update, a lot of rapid-fire jokes - set-up, punchline, set-up, punchline, move on to the next topic ASAP - and while I can enjoy that in small doses when the writing and/or delivery are good, I lose interest after a few minutes. "The Daily Show" more or less ruined Update for me, because hearing Seth Meyers drop a one-liner about some lunatic politician is never as much fun as hearing Stewart unload on this person for 3 or 4 minutes straight. (It's the reason why Seth and Amy Poehler's "Really?!?!?" was usually my favorite Update segment, because they took their time with the joke.)
So while some of Norm's punchlines landed, a lot of the opening segment felt really slight. It wasn't until he went into a long bit about Tiger Woods (embedded below) towards the end of the show that I felt like "Sports Show" was living up to its potential, and going forward I think the show would work better with fewer topics and more material about each topic.
Yet at the same time, the Tiger segment was one of several that felt awfully dated - like this is stuff Norm and/or his writers have been joking about for a long time, just waiting for a venue in which they could do it in public. The Tiger scandal is ancient at this point. The Hanes ad with Michael Jordan's Hitler 'stache is a year old (Colbert did a segment on it last June). Tosh had the guy who got hit by an ice cream truck while doing the Dougie on his show for a web redemption back in January.
Hopefully, a lot of that was just the result of this being the first show, and Norm wanting to address this stuff before moving on to more current topics. Because goodness knows there's enough ridiculousness in the world of sports every week - sometimes every day - to keep a show like this current. I'd also hope that, like "The Daily Show," Norm and company find room to deal with the absurdity of sports media as much as the athletes, because - as Deadspin, The Big Lead, Awful Announcing, etc. have shown over the years - ESPN alone is a limitless source of mock-worthy material.
It's a first show. Kinks need to be worked out. It'll take time to evolve. Not a great start, but I definitely laughed at times. (The Blake Griffin undercover bit was completely silly and pointless, but it was funny; seeing the NBA's most spectacular athlete act like a complete spaz was a riot.)
What did everybody else think? You setting the season pass now?
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Next 43 CommentsCrumdawg97
April 13, 2011 at 10:06AM EST Reply to CommentI understand Alan's points about some of the topics being dated, but really I'm just happy to have Vintage Norm back in my life. I laughed a ton and can't wait for next week.
Matt Couldn't have said it better myself, Crumdawg. Norm!
April 13, 2011 at 11:42AM ESTThe NV
April 13, 2011 at 10:09AM EST Reply to Commenteven when the jokes aren't great, Norm's delivery is hilarious, and I laughed hard through every part except the part you enjoyed, the rant section about Tiger. I don't need developed material, just give me the funny. It's a simple show. He's a simple guy. It works.
Chris
April 13, 2011 at 10:12AM EST Reply to CommentI'm a huge Norm fan, but I thought this episode was just so-so. The Tiger bit was recycled from last year's standup tour. Also, the ice cream truck- while funny- is way too stale. In the age of the internet (and especially Tosh), you better be focusing on THIS week's news.
Like Alan said, I think the formula needs to be less rehearsed snappy lines, and more Norm MacDonald breaking off into tangents with his thoughts. That seemed to work best.
Thunderlips
April 13, 2011 at 10:21AM EST Reply to CommentRE Norm being amused by bombing: I heard an interview with him where he addressed this. His take was that it's a comedian's job to make people laugh, so if people are laughing at a comedian, that is ordinary.
Thus, the idea of people NOT laughing at a comedian (a comedian failing to do the one thing he's supposed to do) is absurd and hilarious to Norm. Like if you went to a restaurant and the chef was making horrible inedible food.
Jeff
April 13, 2011 at 10:43AM EST Reply to CommentGreat show, don't even watch ANY sports at all, but this was good enough for anyone too watch.
alynch
April 13, 2011 at 10:46AM EST Reply to CommentApparently some of the stuff in this episode was from the pilot they shot months ago, so that might explain the datedness.
John Yeah, according to Norm's twitter, the ice-cream truck dougie guy bit was shot during the pilot a few months ago, BEFORE Tosh got to it. https://twitter.com/normmacdonald/status/58001020231491584
April 13, 2011 at 11:02AM ESTGREAT Show. Laughed harder more consistently than I have for The Daily Show in a while. I can't get over Norm's voice coming from Blake Griffin.
Sam
April 13, 2011 at 10:49AM EST Reply to CommentNorm still does O.J. jokes. His Weekend Update wasn't always very topical, so I don't know if we should expect this show to be. I thought it was hilarious, though, and I'm super excited to watch next week!
Jon88
April 13, 2011 at 10:54AM EST Reply to CommentHalfway through watching, I thought the show might be better served on my DVR, with one segment watched each day over a week. All at once? Not so great.
Zach L
April 13, 2011 at 10:56AM EST Reply to CommentI enjoyed this quite a bit. My favorite parts of update were when he just randomly used "Germans love David Hasslehoff" or jokes about OJ or even ones about Frank Stallone, so his riff on Jordan's Hitler mustache could very well just be his new versions of those bits.
By the way, in preparation for the show, I watched him on Conan talking about Carrot Top. Might be top five favorite talk show moments of all time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL0WayC7jW0
Gonzo
April 13, 2011 at 11:10AM EST Reply to CommentI thought the show was delightfully funny, especially considering that it was his first show. Norm was in great form with his delivery and the material was solid. You seem to be desperately looking for a Daily Show with sports, but thats not what this is intended to be. Norm is no Jon Stewart, nor does he want to be. Both shows reflect their hosts, and both made me laugh separately. If you want proof that a funny sports show is hard to do, watch an episode of the Onion Sportsdome.
Diane_F
April 13, 2011 at 11:10AM EST Reply to CommentI love Norm. His recent stand-up special on Comedy Central was the funniest thing I've seen on TV in a long time. I understand what you're saying about the show, but I did laugh several times because Norm's delivery is so quirky and fun that he can turn even a mundane punchline into something hilarious.
ZacharyTF
April 13, 2011 at 11:24AM EST Reply to CommentYou can't talk about Norm and sports without referencing his ESPY's appearance. I saw that for the first time a while ago and couldn't stop laughing.
April 13, 2011 at 11:49AM EST Reply to CommentAlan, I don't quite agree with your assertion that ESPN is so easy to mock. In the 30+ years of them being on the air, most of it 24/7, of course you're bound to find a couple of odd moments. But the tone of that network is very self-aware, at least when it comes to the on-air personalities. Look at how flat The Onion Sportsdome is falling right now. The Daily Show gets a treasure trove of clueless pundits to mock. Trying to make fun of a savvy network is like trying to make fun of Obama - Fred Armisen's a funny guy, but how do you mock something that is in on the joke before it's told?
Chris V. He referenced three sources that mock espn quite successfully.
April 13, 2011 at 8:58PM ESTHave you been hiding under a rock and missed firejoemorgan.com which mostly mocked espn's on air personalities.
April 13, 2011 at 11:52AM EST Reply to CommentThat UFC and WEC merging to form MURDER joke KILLED. I'm still laughing today.
Dan
April 13, 2011 at 11:54AM EST Reply to CommentI thought it was good considering it was the 1st show. The bit with the Clippers was terrible but other than that I laughed a lot. I liked the Jordan bit best mainly because nobody in sports would ever mess with MJ. I always thought he did that commercial in the Hitler stache because he could. He probably said, "I'm Michael Jordan and I'm going to this commercial shoot in a Hitler stache and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. What are they going to fire me?"
April 13, 2011 at 12:11PM EST Reply to CommentAbsolutely loved the show. Was really concerned that it was not going to reach my lofty expectations but it did. Hugh success.
Joseph
April 13, 2011 at 12:17PM EST Reply to CommentI am not going to watch, first of all because I am not a Norm fan but more importantly because I loved SportsDome and don't want to see that one cancelled in favor of this.
Alan, I don't remember you ever reviewing SportsDome - did you and I missed it?
Neptune Pringle III Really? I thought the SportsDome was unwatchable.
April 13, 2011 at 12:44PM ESTthefncrow Unfortunately, Sportsdome is basically dead already. I'll give Norm another chance or two, but this was definitely worse than the first episode of Sportsdome, which was pretty much the weakest of all the Sportsdome episodes.
April 13, 2011 at 1:51PM ESTMy dream is basically now for IFC to pick up Sportsdome as well. Maybe just run an hour of Onion programming, with some sort of faux-channel changing device in the middle, making it look as though you've just changed the channel from ONN to OSN, maintaining the fiction that these are shows on their own networks.
I know Alan mentioned on twitter that he was digging Sportsdome but was iffy on ONN but that was pretty early on for both shows.
Joseph @THEFNCROW - Did you see/hear that SportsDome was done forever, or are you just assuming? I thought it was doing relatively well in the ratings.
April 13, 2011 at 2:11PM ESTthefncrow I'm assuming, but the timeslot move they did for Sportsdome sounds like something they do to just burn off the remaining episodes of the show.
April 13, 2011 at 3:06PM ESTCC only airs new shows in the 10/9c hour. So, to have Sportsdome move from 10:30/9:30c, between new Tosh.0 and The Daily Show, and to move instead to 8/7c, kicking off the night coming out of a Colbert re-run and in a spot where CC typically runs re-runs of shows, that sounds like CC had already decided against more Sportsdome and was just going to burn off the rest of their order. The 10:30/9:30c spot was filled with a Tosh.0 re-run.
Couple that with the fact that the first news of Norm's show came out just as Sportsdome got its timeslot moved, and the writing is pretty much on the wall.
Goon Diapers I haven't met anyone who like SportsDome before.
April 14, 2011 at 12:00PM ESTFdawg
April 13, 2011 at 1:16PM EST Reply to CommentI thought the Blake Griffin gag ran its course after 20 seconds. It was too tame.
holmie
April 13, 2011 at 1:56PM EST Reply to CommentI loved it, and totally disagree about trying to make it like the Daily Show. Comedy Central has had so many bombs over the years where they over produce and try to make comedians into things they are not, that letting Norm be Norm was refreshing and funny. I haven't liked anything on the network this much since the premier of Colbert.
nath
April 13, 2011 at 2:12PM EST Reply to CommentI was sold. I laughed harder than I've laughed at anything this year-- including any episode of Parks and Rec, Archer, Bob's Burgers, or Community. I can't say it's "better" than those shows because they have such craft and care put into developing their characters so they can do rich character-based humor, but I laughed longer and harder at Norm's jokes than at anything else I've seen.
I think it might even be hilarious for people who aren't sports fans, a thesis I intend to test soon. And for the record, Alan, most of the issues you seem to have stem with the datedness of some of the segments (which were filmed months ago), so hopefully a newer, fresher episode will correct those problems.
Crumdawg97 I know exactly what you mean. I wouldn't "trade in" Parks and Rec & my investment in its characters/stories for Norm's show, but on a pure laughter scale... Norm won out.
April 13, 2011 at 3:26PM ESTBrad
April 13, 2011 at 3:06PM EST Reply to CommentThe best line was in the closer: When will the guy on Dirty Jobs be a prostitute? Isn't that the dirtiest job there is?
Brad Then again, Norm might have mentioned the dirtiest job on Weekend Update many years ago: Assistant Crack Whore.
April 13, 2011 at 3:12PM ESTJohn
April 13, 2011 at 4:49PM EST Reply to CommentTypical writer not performer. Judging judging judging. I am a die hard sports fan and was skeptical about the idea, but it totally worked the jokes didnt bomb they were funny. Also if the audience didnt laugh enough the audience just be might be the wrong audience. Remember a John stewart or Colbert crowd is different then a crowd who loves sportscenter with a comedy central twist. The audience has to be geared to a slapstick sports loving crowd. Nowm was jokes were well thought out and he was very comfortable. But critcs are people who judge for a living and have gotten so use to critizing they know nothing else.
nath Norm had a pretty good interview in the A.V. Club this week. He kind of explicitly says that he doesn't care if an audience laughs and sometimes enjoys it more if a joke bombs, because it's so unexpected coming from someone whose sole job is to make people laugh.
April 13, 2011 at 9:15PM ESTJim
April 13, 2011 at 9:18PM EST Reply to CommentNorm is a better comedian than Jon Stewart. And his show is funnier. And Jon Stewart's best shows were when Norm was a guest, which is pretty much true of all talk shows. Do your homework.
Mike Love Norm and laughed out loud many times. Loved the silly bit with Blake Griffith. Hope it lasts longer than "Back to Norm!"
April 14, 2011 at 8:05AM ESTRosey
April 14, 2011 at 9:12AM EST Reply to CommentThank god Norm is back. I'll take him on TV however possible, great first show.
Goon Diapers
April 14, 2011 at 11:59AM EST Reply to CommentI found the show hilarious. I cried my contact out during the Blake Griffin part, even though at the end I said, "that was so stupid." I just love Norm's style of clever and stupid. Season pass from me. Lifetime pass for Norm.
Andrew
April 14, 2011 at 12:10PM EST Reply to CommentI've been itching for a sports-media version of The Daily Show for a while now, and was disappointed by The Onion's Sports show's lack of topicality. Hopefully Macdonald can find a groove with this show, because there is so much to mock in sports and the ridiculousness of sports media coverage. The Onion managed to parody the ridiculousness, but sports media needs the bastard lovechild of The Daily Show and Fire Joe Morgan.
April 14, 2011 at 12:34PM EST Reply to CommentIt was uneven, but I the Blake Griffin thing was worth the whole episode to me.
Incidentally, this great interview with Norm McDonald includes his discussion of why he actually enjoys bombing more than succeeding:
http://tinyurl.com/3r2cwsa
Coktoe
April 15, 2011 at 9:08PM EST Reply to CommentGreat 1st show. And regarding the ridiculously long, nonsensical code needed to guest-comment, this site can go f*** itself.
Norm MacDonald
April 22, 2011 at 1:14PM EST Reply to CommentI guess some people don't appreciate the irony that Norm MacDonald sees in everyday life. I find it hilarious that he constantly points out how hypocritical people and our society actually are.
He was easily the best anchor Weekend Update ever had. When he called Michael Jackson a, "gay pedophile" on live TV and the audience was literally shocked into silence, I was laughing my ass off.
turd ferguson
May 18, 2011 at 9:27AM EST Reply to CommentIf you don't find it funny then you don't get Norm. Therefore, you shouldn't be writing a review on something you don't understand, you idiot.
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