Norm McDonald on Bad Liberal Comics Who Use Trump as a Crutch

chump 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 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 the time of Trump for good comedians 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 comedy it's better to stay away from stay away from Trump you know you met Donald Trump when he was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon chilled up no tell us about that encounter you had with Donald Trump well I've met Donald Trump many many times in New York City just because when I was in Saturday Night Live 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 you 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 guy 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 of a lot of times with Trump on the campaign trail but you know he's being caricature it on Saturday night life like quite mercilessly bye-bye 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 that's 20 years ago but Darrell did him then it was a softer Trump you know I think it was a Trump there's a lot closer to his real self but if you do the problem 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 humble you know to be really funny and I think that's why I 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'd 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 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 comedians both that make that mistake 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 that 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 guest would be that his plan was to to make a big splash lose oh that's not good what should we do now George just don't answer okay if you if it's try start answering that question again sure 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 that met the okay are you kidding me I know I thought I did oh one second hello yes I gotta call you back I'm on TV man yeah I'm on 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 he didn't think he was gonna become president 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 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 a 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 we do 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 Zor McDonald 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 fantastic please clap because you'd be in jail in the end it seemed they are to be played why not better believe it both sides subscribe to very affected [Music]

Channel: Very Fake News

Views: 1,138,396

Rating: 4.7468486 out of 5

Keywords: MyCollection

Id: ZdW0NZl0Ozg

Length: 10min 52sec (652 seconds)

Published: Mon May 07 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/jurassicthings]

Brilliant

[u/Supreme_Dear_Leader]

Norm !!!!

[u/ZoAngelic]

only time period i ever paid attention to snl was when norm mcdonald was on it.

[u/Scepfernja]

I'm probably just an idiot, but I couldn't really follow/understand what he was saying. Seemed a bit random to me plus his whole shifty eye thing.

[u/[deleted]]

What is he looking at this whole interview??