Netflix releases Judd Apatow’s Norm Macdonald documentary

Netflix released Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald on October 16, a documentary directed by Judd Apatow that uses archival footage, photographs and home videos to revisit the comedian’s life and work. The film tells much of the story through Macdonald’s recorded words and performances, tracing his career from stand-up to Saturday Night Live and beyond. A central thread is Macdonald’s departure from SNL, where he hosted the Weekend Update segment. He was removed from the segment in December 1997 and fired from the show in 1998, after repeatedly joking about O.J. Simpson during and after Simpson’s murder trial. Simpson was acquitted. The documentary connects the jokes to the firing, while Macdonald’s own account of what NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer told him offers another explanation: Macdonald said Ohlmeyer told him he was not funny. The film also revisits Macdonald’s approach to comedy: a deadpan delivery, drawn-out stories and punchlines that often relied on silence or surprise. In documentary footage, Macdonald says he would rather be remembered as a stand-up comedian than for his four years on SNL. The film sets that preference alongside the prominence of his Weekend Update...