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'TIRED OF ME'

Was Norm Macdonald fired from SNL?

NORM Macdonald was a stand-up actor and comedian who joined the Saturday Night Live cast in 1993.

on September 14, 2021.

Norm Macdonald
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Norm MacdonaldCredit: AP

Was Norm Macdonald fired from SNL?

was Weekend Update anchor for three seasons. He starred on the sketch comedy show from 1993 till 1998.

Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC's West Coast division, had the comedian removed as Weekend Update anchor in 1998. At the time, Ohlmeyer cited the reasons for Macdonald's removal as "decline in ratings and a drop-off in quality."

However, Macdonald believed he was dismissed after he made a series of jokes about O.J. Simpson and the Nicole Brown Simpson trial.

Norm Macdonald was first cast on SNL in 1993
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Norm Macdonald was first cast on SNL in 1993Credit: Avalon.red

Macdonald often referred to O.J. as a "murderer" in his remarks, which he believed did not bode well with Ohlmeyer, who was O.J.'s friend.

The jokes were written primarily by Macdonald and longtime SNL writer Jim Downey, who was fired from SNL at the same time. 

After being fired in 1998, Macdonald returned to guest host the show in October 1999. He delivered a monologue in which he addressed his firing.

"I don't know if you remember this but I used to actually be on this show," Macdonald begins on the episode.

"But now, this is the weird part, right? It's only a year and a half later and they asked me to host the show! So I wondered, I go, 'Hey, wait a second here. How did I go, in a year and a half, from being not funny enough to be even allowed in the building, to being so funny that I'm now hosting the show? How did I suddenly get so goddamn funny?'" he pondered.

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"It occurred to me, I haven't gotten funnier. The show has gotten really bad!"

In later years, Macdonald moved past his O.J. Simpson joke theory and came to the conclusion that Ohlmeyer removed him because he was seen as insubordinate.

 "I think the whole show was tired of me not taking marching orders. Lorne would hint at things.... I'd do Michael Jackson jokes. And Lorne would say, 'do you really want a lawsuit from Michael Jackson?' And I'd say, 'Cool! That'd be f****** cool, Michael Jackson suing me!'"

After his stint on Saturday Night Live, he had his own show, The Norm Show, which ran from 1999 until 2001.

He would continue to make various appearances on late-night television, including his notable interviews with .

Besides television work, Macdonald also starred in a number of films including The People vs. Larry Flynt and Dr. Dolittle.

What type of cancer did Norm Macdonald have?

The comedian's management firm confirmed his death to , and revealed the SNL star was fighting cancer for almost a decade.

They did not specify what type of cancer the comedian had.

Macdonald’s producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra was with him when he died. She said: “He was most proud of his comedy."

“He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. 

“He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.”

Macdonald had been married and wed in 1988.

The pair had one child, Dylan, who was born in 1993. Connie and Macdonald divorced in 1999.

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What was Norm Macdonald's net worth?

, according to 

He participated in the trivia contest Who Wants to Be a Millionaire back in 2000 and won $500,000, donating the funds to charity.

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