Macdonald’s further jokes would cover the Middle East, Anna Nicole Smith, the first deaf Miss America and a lawsuit regarding fast food giant McDonald’s coffee being too hot. “You big fans of the Haitian strongman, are ya?,” the comedian quipped. This elicited the first audience groans of Macdonald’s Weekend Update run, but all he did was smile. From there, Macdonald would comment that Haitian general Raoul Cédras “held a hasty garage sale of some knick knacks he’d acquired in office,” while an image displaying a wall of human skulls was shown on screen.
Simpson trial, a topic he’d regularly skewer over the next few years. Decades later, his opening line proved downright prescient: “I’m Norm Macdonald. Macdonald’s anchor debut would showcase many characteristics that would come to define his Weekend Update tenure. “I just like doing the jokes I like, and if the audience doesn’t like them, then they’re wrong, not me.” “I didn’t care about the audience reaction at all,” Macdonald admitted. Macdonald’s style, described by SNL writer James Downey as “deadpan, just very straight, no frills,” was not for everyone - which was exactly the way the comedian liked it.
Just basically Chevy and Dennis Miller were the only good ones, ever. So I didn’t think if I was bad I’d be singled out. “Most people were not good at it, you know. “I always thought Chevy was the best guy at doing Update,” Macdonald explained, referring to Chase, the original Weekend Update anchor. With a sly smile, he’d happily dish sarcastic remarks and unexpected non sequiturs without caring whether the audience liked the jokes or not. What made Macdonald so unique was his general indifference. “And the one place I could do that was SNL, because Lorne was always good with letting writers perform if they were funny.” “I wasn’t a very good writer and I wasn’t a very good performer, but I could be a writer-performer,” Macdonald explained of his role on the late night show in the book Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Still, Macdonald brought with him a style and delivery that Weekend Update had never seen before.
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