If you miss Norm Macdonald, Judd Apatow’s “Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald” is a pretty great way to spend a couple of hours. Built almost entirely from archival footage, home videos, photos, and clips pulled from the internet, the documentary lets Norm tell his own story (and mostly in his own words). There are no endless talking heads explaining why he was such a brilliant comedian. Instead, it feels like falling down a YouTube rabbit hole with someone who has impeccable taste in comedy.
And what a comedian he was. Apatow rounds up plenty of Norm’s greatest hits, from his “Saturday Night Live” days anchoring Weekend Update to his legendary late night appearances and wonderfully ridiculous stand up bits. Watching him stretch a joke well past the point where anyone else would have abandoned it is still a joy. Whether he was dragging out the infamous Dirty Johnny story or gleefully making an audience uncomfortable with a dark, wildly inappropriate punchline, Norm played by his own rules. He had absolutely no interest in giving people what they expected, and that was a big part of what made him so funny.
The documentary also gets at what made him such a comedian’s comedian. Beneath that dry delivery and mischievous grin was a guy who understood comedy on a deeper level than most. He could be prickly, absurd, and deliberately impossible to pin down, often inventing stories about himself or treating interviews as just another opportunity to mess with people. The film never quite separates the real Norm from the character he created, but that may be the point. For him, almost anything could become a bit: and so it did.
There’s a more emotional side here, too. Norm was a deeply caring son and father, a loyal friend, and a man who privately battled leukemia for nine years without seeking sympathy or making his illness public. Even those closest to him had no idea he was sick. Knowing what he was dealing with now gives a lot of his later appearances a totally different weight, and it can be hard to process now. His constant joking about death feels less like a comedian being provocative and more like someone figuring out how to face the inevitable on his own terms.
The documentary has its limits. At more than two hours, it leans heavily on clips that longtime fans have watched dozens of times already. The internet search format is a clever way to organize the material, but it can also feel like Apatow has simply assembled a greatest hits package rather than dug deeper into Norm’s life. Anyone hoping for real insight into his gambling addiction, relationships, or private struggles are going to come away disappointed. The film is so committed to preserving his mystery that it doesn’t always offer much beyond the familiar public persona.
But even when “Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald” feels a little lazy, it’s hard not to have a good time watching it. The clips are hilarious, the affection for Norm is obvious, and the sadness that creeps in as the film goes along is moving. It may not tell us everything we want to know about the man behind the jokes, but it serves as a hell of a reminder of what made him special. There was nobody quite like Norm, and there still isn’t.
By: Louisa Moore
