"The Norm: The Norm McDonald Story": Five highlights, from the SNL firing to hiding her cancer diagnosis

McDonald's norm was not for everyone. Armed with a deadpan delivery, mischievous attitude and cracker-barrel charm, the Canadian comic got his start writing for "Roseanne" before landing a spot as the host of SNL's Weekend Update, where he was mocked relentlessly by J.J. Simpson for being a murderer - Macdonald was adamant that it wasn't so much an "allegation" […]

McDonald's norm was not for everyone. Armed with a deadpan delivery, mischievous attitude and cracker-barrel charm, the Canadian comic got his start writing for "Roseanne" and then earned acclaim as the host of SNL's Weekend Update, where he was relentlessly mocked. Simpson for being a murderer—McDonald was adamant that it wasn't all that "alleged"—he was eventually written off the show. The 1998 Bob Saget-directed comedy Dirty Work bombed dramatically, and he subsequently hosted the buzzy video podcast Norm Macdonald Live before dying of complications from leukemia in 2021 at the age of 2061. Perhaps his old friend Larry King said it best, calling MacDonald "one of the most respected comedians alive today, even though show business never found a place to put him."

Still, in the years since his death, MacDonald has become an Internet darling, as new generations of comedy fans have encountered his hilarious late-night appearances — most notably on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" — Weekend Update segments and podcast clips. No one did it like Macdonald, whose wit is so sorely lacking in today's comedy landscape. This new cultural appreciation of McDonald's is celebrated in "The Norm: The Story of McDonald's Norm," a new documentary from Judd Apatow that premieres Friday on Netflix. Apatow's loving tribute to his late friend contains no words or any of the other conventions of this type of document; Rather, it examines the life of the comedy mogul in MacDonald's own words, drawn largely from the narrative of his absurdist autobiography "Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir," as well as home videos, photographs and archival interviews.

Here are five takeaways from "The Norm: The Story of McDonald's Norm."

Along with Chevy Chase, McDonald is considered the greatest Weekend Update host in "Saturday Night Live" history. And in the documentary, he gives a lot of credit to Lori Jo Hoekstra, his longtime colleague who produced his stand-up specials and oversaw Weekend Update during his tenure. It was Hoekstra, he says, who wanted to set Weekend Update apart from the rest of SNL by hiring a team of outside writers, including Ross Abrasch and Frank Sebastiano (who joined MacDonald's creative partner, legendary SNL writer Jim Downey), with its own separate comedy identity. "Laurie Jo [Hoekstra] then suggested that we hire outside writers so that Weekend Update would have a completely different flavor than the rest of SNL," MacDonald recalled in the document. "We all agreed that jokes should be stripped of all cleverness, wordplay, or irony... A joke should surprise people. It should never make people sad. Applause is voluntary, but laughter is involuntary."

If I'm remembered, it will always be for the events of the four years I spent on 'Saturday Night Live' - and maybe even more than that. MacDonald admits in the film that it's about my departure from that show. And yes, the circumstances of his departure from SNL have become an important part of the MacDonald legend. As the story goes, back in the '90s, McDonald, Downey and the Weekend Update team were hard at work on the O.J. Simpson during his attempted murder. Simpson's attorneys say they don't want the families of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman in court. They fear the presence of family members will only help O.J. When Simpson was acquitted of the murders, McDonald announced on the show, "Well, it's finally official: Murder is legal in the state of California," McDonald quipped in the update.

But Simpson was best friends with then-NBC West Coast president Don Uhlmeier, who apparently took umbrage at MacDonald's mockery of his controversial friend, firing both MacDonald and Downey (Downey was later rehired in 2000) for jokes he was told that MacDonald had fired him personally. He wasn't funny Ulmeier's vendetta against MacDonald didn't end there. He later tried to stop NBC from airing a commercial for MacDonald's "Dirty Work" (he lost that battle) and tried to force Conan O'Brien not to book MacDonald as a guest on "Late Night" (O'Brien pushed back and Ulmeier lost that battle).

One of McDonald's oldest friends, comedian Harland Williams, is featured in the film through interview clips that show the comic quietly battling stomach cancer in the 1980s. In 2013, she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and only told her family, agent and ex-wife, choosing to keep it a secret from the public and even her closest friends. He was prescribed dexamethasone, which caused significant weight gain. "I was always taught that the nature of art is to conceal, not to reveal. What they're doing now is 'confessional comedy,' but when people admit things and tell them how brave they are because they have cancer or talk about it, well, everybody has cancer. It's not rare at all. Being brave If you have cancer, Der Mack says, 'Don't talk about it.'

Inspired by Richard Farnsworth, the actor who killed himself with a gun after secretly battling cancer. "I remember Richard Farnsworth was an old character actor and he did a David Lynch movie called Straight Story. The film was based on a man who was in the real life of his brother. This was Richard Farnsworth's last film. "He was very weak, he had cancer. Anyway, the thing is, Richard Farnsworth was nominated for an Academy Award for this movie, and if he'd said he was full of cancer, he would have definitely won. But instead, he didn't say it. Actually, no one knew it; he hid it from everyone. I want to upset people, so I thought, 'Wow, how incredible to go through this alone.'

Like many comedians of his era, MacDonald didn't have a stellar record, and the uproar over his comments about the #MeToo movement is briefly explored in this documentary. On September 18, 2021, MacDonald gave an interview with The Hollywood Reporter where he defended his friend Louis CK. and Roseanne, admitting she's grateful the #MeToo movement has "slowed down a little bit," adding, "There are very few people who go through what they have and lose everything in one day. Of course, people will say, 'What about the victims?' But you know what? The victims didn't have to go through that." (He later apologized on Twitter.) MacDonald, who was promoting the David Letterman-produced Netflix talk show Norm Macdonald Has a Show, was subsequently canceled on The Tonight Show, drawing backlash online and in the media. Two weeks after his much-maligned remarks, the Daily Beast published a report detailing Macdonald's alleged history of sexual harassment and what steps comedy clubs should have taken to protect women from him, which is not in the document.

One quote from MacDonald that really stood out to me from "The Norm: The Story of MacDonald Software" deals with death — something that stared the comedian squarely in the face during his final years as he battled cancer. "Death is a funny thing - not funny like a Woody Allen movie, but funny-weird like Woody Allen's marriage. When it's unexpected, death comes as fast as a ravenous wolf. When expected, it comes as slow and patient as a snake." "The doctor tells you how far it is, and exactly when it's going to be at your door, when it's going to be at the foot of your bed, and when it's going to be on your flesh," he says. "It's all on their clipboards... I have a theory that people are deeply in denial about death and I'm not."