Norm Macdonald talks Trump, Trudeau and the secrets to political comedy

[Music] president Trump boasted at a fundraising dinner last night that he made up information in a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Trump is so bad at lying he lets the public immediately know he lies trump ever had to take a lie detector test he'd probably just draw the crazy lines himself I did not collude with Russia since he announced his candidacy Donald Trump has been fodder for late night hosts throughout his presidency they found new material in his policy and speeches and all those tweets riffing off Trump has become a ratings bonanza and some are hitting the president pretty hard infusing their satire with objection and analysis but is there comedy in today's politics joining me now from Santa Monica California Norm Macdonald and now full disclosure we've shared many off-camera laughs he's my brother-in-law so hello norm welcome to question period oh it's great to be here Joyce and it's kind of unreal that you're hosting question period but because I remember it as a child with Bruce Phillips so you know the show sure yeah yeah I know I know question period w5o when Bruce Phillips hosted Trudeau's Trudeau's father was Prime Minister and today it's his son who's running the political show here do you think Justin Trudeau is funny I don't follow it that closely but you know I don't think no I don't think he's funny not like his father was funny you know I don't think from just my cursory knowledge and watching of Justin on my prime minister and consistent of the prime minister on YouTube that he seems not to inherited his father's flinty intellect you met Donald Trump when he was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon chil not now tell us about that encounter you had with Donald Trump well I met Donald Trump many many times in New York City just because when I was any Saturday alive he was a fixture in New York City and he'd come to a lot of the shows and it was just a local eccentric you know that people mostly loved in New York because he fixed the rink in Central Park when the city couldn't but I know when I was on Jimmy Fallon he was that's when he was that's when Jimmy Fallon tousled his hair and I got in trouble for it and I was the other guest so I was just out in the hallway and I said Donald could I have a picture you could call him Donald then I guess you can still call Donald we don't have to call the president apparently but I said could I get a picture with you and he said yeah absolutely sure norm and then he walked down the hall and got in the elevator with a Secret Service so but he was just doing it as a joke a lot of times the problem with Kennedy said our political candidates that do comedy is obviously comedy doesn't translate well to the page sometimes you know sarcasm is lost obviously and things like that so so if someone says something that's meant self disparagingly or satirically and you want to take it out of context you can and had happened a lot a lot of times with Trump on the campaign trail but you know he's being caricatured on Saturday night life like quite mercilessly by by Alec Baldwin like is it funny to you is that funny no the only reason I don't find it funny when I was there Darrell Hammond did Donald Trump and then shows how far back Trump goes because as years ago but Darrell didn't man it was a softer Trump you know I think it was a trump there's a lot closer to his real South but if you do the problem with if you do an impression of someone you have to like that person you know because you're playing the person and people like themselves so you can't play someone and have contempt for them at the same time you know it doesn't work as an impression so I don't like I don't like his impression and I have no political affiliation I just mean from a comedy yeah from a comedy level where is the funny in Donald Trump because he does think he's funny right yes but other people think he's funny too I I attended one of his just to see you know because because I wanted to see it for myself his performances in front of these grand halls and he's enormous ly funny and entertaining and I don't know that there's normally with politicians you know it takes you need to be hugely humble you know to be really funny and I think that's why Ronald Reagan was the funniest president that IRA sock is he always had this humility to him I was kind of lost with President Obama because people told me he was funny but to me he was too self-aware and of course Hillary couldn't have been more strident you know and I think people don't vote on on issues as much as they just vote on who they like this that all saw about who you'd rather have a beer with you know and nobody want to have a beer with Hillary Clinton you know you say that he has to be that one person has to be humble to be funny but I don't think Donald Trump is very humble is he no there's no humility to Donald Trump Donald Trump is more funny in the way that a WWE wrestler is you know so he is a different kind of funny which is a sort of a self-deluded I don't know if it's self delusion though I don't know if it's I think it's just all an act I don't think really that that Trump ever wanted to be president I think that he was always just playing to be President or whatever that Hall he was playing and was you know and I've seen this happen with comedians too that you start thinking you're good because the people that come to see you all like you you know but the reason they came to see is because they like you so politicians and communis take of thinking they're much better than they are because they're never there never criticized by the people that don't like them that's why social media is so good because that you can see the people that don't like you at all I listen to an interview you you gave Larry King and you said the ruin of Donald Trump will be his addiction to playing the halls right so he's he's a great performer he just wanted to be you like he wanted to be a stand-up comedian and he just accidentally became a president my guess would be that his plan was to to make a big splash lose oh that's not good what should we do now judge just know an answer okay if you if it's right start answering that question again sure it yeah I think him becoming president surprised him I think you know it's it's funny that people don't remember but back in the debates there was a big big issue with Donald Trump saying if he lost they met the Aloka are you kidding me I know I thought I did oh one second hello I gotta call you back I'm on TV man yeah I'm on the TV right now okay right back okay I'm not I'm not gonna ask you the question again I feel that Trump personally I feel that he didn't think he was gonna become and interestingly the thing that people don't remember was that I remember was that during the debates there was all this talk of Donald Trump saying if he loses it means the election is rigged and all the media were saying no no that's impossible you know take that back you cannot say that about the American Republic and no election here could ever be rigged that's impossible and of course now they're saying the exact opposite but I think it was Trump's idea at that point that he would say it was going to be rigged thinking he thought Hillary was gonna win I think and then he would start a you know a network or something like that where he could speak and and be the loyal opposition of his own you know something something different than Fox let me ask you this so you're you're you're Bob Dole imitation was pretty famous back in the day so would you do Donald Trump today would you do a Donald Trump imitation I try to not do comedy about Donald Trump because I think I had one joke about Donald Trump that I ever did when I said that that the people that Americans hated Hillary Clinton so much that they voted for someone they hated more than Hillary Clinton to rub it in and that's the only time I ever made a joke about Trump but I try to stay away from it because it's just you know it's low-hanging fruit and and and also you know Trump oftentimes is doing self self parody and nothing looks dumber than if you parody self parody you know you really get caught not understanding so comedy in the time of Trump is it more difficult than it was when you were on Saturday Night Live it's more difficult in a time of Trump for a good comedian and it's way easier for bad comedians you know you don't have a worldview by just saying you don't like Trump you know I mean that doesn't count like you can't you can't just say I hate Trump and and that makes you a good person and the Democrats just can't say I hate Trump and that means they have a position you know that's no position so so for for idiots it's an easier time because you go well that guy's that guy's the idiot not me but if you try to do smart comment it's better to stay away from stay away from shrunk you know Norm Macdonald thanks so much for being with us today for spending this time with us it was great great to see you good to see you I love you Joyce love you too bye bye

Channel: CTV News

Views: 790,565

Rating: 4.6302285 out of 5

Keywords: CTV, News, CTV News, Norm Macdonald, Comedy, Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau, Norm Macdonald died, Norm Macdonald dead, Norm Macdonald interview, Norm Macdonald comedy, Norm Macdonald SNL, Norm Macdonald stand up, Norm Macdonald jokes, Norm Macdonald Trump

Id: olkgPzlh5A8

Length: 11min 40sec (700 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/nexico]

Always entertaining, and also had some insightful analysis.

[u/ix0WXOeip4V6]

aww, that's sweet

[u/tabiotjui]

I loved this interview. It was one of those rare ones that absent of the loonies on the fringe left and fringe right Norm said a lot of things that were true of comedy and one thing that was certainly true of politics.

You can't play someone and have contempt for them at the same time

First rule of making impressions of living people, you have to find some kind of love of the character. That said that can be difficult as sometimes impressions are made of objectively terrible people.

Nothing looks dumber than if you parody self parody

Not a single late night host is understanding this.

You don't have a world view by just saying you don't like trump

Similarly you don't have a world view if you do like trump. I am probably more positive or atleast neutral on him than most but it doesn't mean I like for example how everything he says stresses the hell out of Muslim and migrant American communities.

I like him because he understands illegal immigration is a massive issue and it hurts legal immigrants when illegals/undocumented migrants get a free pass. My parents are legal migrants to the UK, it was difficult for them but they did it. When I was young I've worked with Eastern European people that probably were working under the table giving as much as they can back home while living on the bare minimum here.

You can sympathise at the individual humanity level but still be against it at the illegal immigration level.

And the amount of money people end up giving human traffickers to get them into the country holy shit, they basically regret it immediately when they turn up and life in UK is not how they thought it would be but they're too ashamed to go home because of how much money they had spent getting to there in the first place.

Also there's so much conflation over legal immigrant, illegal immigrant, refugee (what we would call in the uk an asylum seeker) and overstaying on a student visa to work.

Most of his criticism runs in two camps: what bad thing could happen? and why the hell did he have to say that?

On the other hand There's also stuff he does that seems batshit and then kind of works out. Prior to Trump people thought it was impossible to negotiate with Kim Jong un. Then Trump started targeting their support convoys of private ships and suddenly they're begging to talk to him.

There's a lot of unprecedented stuff like that.

I like what Scott Adams had to say on Trump is that he has a gift for making something out of nothing.

A point which both his supporters and critics will both agree.

For instance the tariffs he's putting in or atleast threatening to put him have created a negotiating position out of nothing to give him better deals for the United States (by agreeing to not enforce tariffs on countries that agree to more favourable deals) . I don't know if it will work but it is way more clever than how here in Britain our gov has been negotiating the brexit agreement. It's very clear we're going to be punished for what just half the country voted for so that the EU can stop other countries from leaving.

On the critic side there's so many cases of Trump making something out of nothing disputes with people and that in turn makes giant headlines. Or you could even say the Trump brand itself was basically an image not backed up by the finances to reflect its flourish.

Why I like Norm a lot and I imagine others on the right do too is that he's a libertarian andn got a little old school edge to him, but he can be critical of silly politicians on the left too.

In any case this was a great video and showcased how clever and sharp he is. I really hope his show does well, and that Netflix doesn't censor it, because Adam eget fucks up a lot, and it's funny to keep that stuff in

[u/I_eatz_yorkies]

Norm's more rightwing than I am, but damned if he doesn't have great points. Dude knows his comedy.

[u/ogsfaelog]

Classic Normie. Can't wait for his Netflix special.

[u/Airlineguy1]

I couldn't agree more that Alec Baldwin's Trump isn't funny because Baldwin has too much contempt for Trump.

[u/juneid1]

Thank god for the hatchery

[u/[deleted]]

It's nice to know there are still intelligent, reasoned and objective people in the world. You are burned if effigy today unless you condemn Trump as the anti-Christ, even level headed critique is discouraged as not enough.

Also didn't realize Joyce had left the CBC. For those who don't know both she and her husband Neil MacDonald are legendary figures in the news media here in Canada.