Jim Downey On The “Anarchy” Of Norm Macdonald’s “Weekend Update” | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

I have to mention that I can't go anywhere in this world without people stopping me and saying, "I'm sorry for McDonald's" and I always think about those moments because he had so many amazing appearances on my show and I think well The Person The one who really

needs

to hear this is Jim Downey because you were the one who stood up to Norm, you identified Norm as a brilliant guy very quickly, you wanted him to do an

update

and then you and Norm actually put together that

update

which has become I Think that iconic performance, recognized today as the iconic performance in the update of all time.

Norm. You were working with Norm and there's a quote here. I just want to read you again. What I liked about the way we approached the update was that it was similar to the punk movement what the punk movement was for music was just stripped down we did what we wanted there was nothing there that was considered a form of cheating we weren't cuddly no We were adorable We weren't warm We weren't going to make easy political jokes that would make noise and let the audience know that we were all on the same side, that we were going to be bad and to some extent anarchist and I think that's a perfect distillation of what what I do.

I don't know where he said that, but basically um um yeah we we um what was going on with Norm was so many uh first of all, he was really really smart, he was really smart and he had a cool look. I always said about our update yes. You watched it with the sound off, you couldn't be sure you were watching a comedy broadcast, it could have just been some sort of low-tech news show like O Network or something, it could have been, you know, and it wasn't So. you have like you know a lot of dumb things and um and Norm could talk, he could, you could write pretty complicated jokes for him, as long as you had a good writer, a good editor, you know, making sure it wasn't um you.

I know you didn't give them too many words because anyone will trip if you create a little minefield, but Norm could talk, he could talk beautifully, he could land things. He was trim and precise. You know, his older brother, Neil, is a CBC news anchor, yeah, and um, and such and such, Norm had what we call the perfect straight line in terms of his appearance and he just had great sensitivity and also I hated easy laughs and what my colleague Seth Meyers did. he coined the term clapter I think he did. I always give him credit, whether it's him or Tina Feay.

I don't remember. I've heard different people or Oppenheimer, one of them mentioned Clapter is something perfect for those kind of lazy, you know. I'm just blowing the wind, you know, uh, sucking up to the audience, Trump sucks, you know, yeah, yeah, we just did it, we might even agree with it politically, but you know, come on, they deserve more than that kind of thing, so just challenge them. with things even if maybe it will make them uncomfortable like, oh, I don't like to laugh at that, but that's funny, so I'm going to have to laugh, you know?

So I'm trying to think of examples of what I'm talking about, but we would do um and of course the OJ jokes well here's the big part of that so OJ's trial happens and OJ, the murders and then the judgment and it's and this is where I really thought that you and uh and even McDonald um sees that moment because you can have the right tool but if you don't have the right moment you don't have it and I always think of any big movement, whether it's the Beatles in in '64 or the Sex Pistols in '76. to have the moment too you just can't let the two of them have to come together the OJ trial happens and you and Norm are writing these jokes that are so fantastic they're just razor blades and Norm is the perfect person to tell them um there's one that you wrote that I could try to do but you might remember it exactly but a photo came up of Johnny Cochran testifying I think I know uh and OJ sitting next to him and Cochran is standing there and holding the knit hat the knit hat the knit hat that was found at the scene and Norm in his masue Norm says well, you know, uh, the vents, uh, I had a bit of a, you know, a bad day. today in the defense when Johnny Cochran uh testified and held up the wool hat that was found at the scene of the murder.

He was talking about the beanie when he was suddenly interrupted by OJ, who said, "Hey, chill, that's my lucky stabbing hat, yeah, and I remembered it was an ice bullet that went through my heart so that's my that's my lucky hat that's my lucky hat and and and and the thing is and and and you know this too he would say something like that and I don't know where my The camera is there I guess my lucky stabbing hat and he held it this way, oh yes, yes, that no one holds and holds and holds and he would do it for a joke that killed like that, but he would also do it for a joke that he liked or that you liked or that you liked. you guys liked it yeah and if it didn't get anything it was like it wasn't some people said you're punishing the audience for not liking the joke no, we're, we're, we're.

I'm giving them enough time to appreciate it, but you know it's funny that. You mentioned it. I decided it years later because you know you have to have distance in these things to realize that a lot of it had a direct line to our orange juice jokes. which was him, it was all his own material, yeah, so the standard OJ joke would be like this, so you'd like to know like that one you just made. I think the way we went into this was like um um, although OJ may not have done it. helped his case when he blurted out yeah, yeah, hey, chill, that's my lucky stabbing hat, but, um, there was one that said, um, OJ Simpson was high on the night of the murders, he doesn't say at all a challenging OJ and a simple test. of any sample of his blood found at the crime scene will prove that you know and then there was one like there was a Nation there was one um there was one uh when like OJ Simpson had been criticized because the first Mother's Day after the murders I played Golf in Scotland, yes, and it's like this

weekend

.

OJ Simpson, playing golf in Scotland was heavily criticized for missing the first Mother's Day, uh, and not spending the first Mother's Day since the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson with her children and Simpson angry, idiots responded. I didn't spend Mother's Day with my kids because I killed their mother and God, it's basically, but there was one, there was a joke, and by the way, it was Frank Sebastiano who and Frank wrote a lot of great jokes, uh. for that segment and he's the guy who contributed to this joke structure um it would be like um like um you know uh several Navy warships or ships have joined the search for a you know, dump something on some of the most shark-infested waters on Earth also joined the search for the sharks and the one that was became one that I remembered, which is uh uh, you know, the rock group Better Than Ezra or the group Ezra came in second. place, you know?

Whatever this week, Rolling Stone released their list of the 10 best college acts on summer tour at number one, Better Than Ezra, number two, Ezra, he also had one that was, I mean, we could do this . do this forever, but he talked about kickboxing and said, ah, you know, he's updating and he said, of course, popular kickboxing, an amazing martial art that combines any art, like punching, the martial arts of punching karate with kicks and he just stares and since kicking alone sounds like such a silly thing to do, there were two more I wanted to mention because it was so Norman.

I would spend an insane amount of time obsessing over precise wording, yes. and I remember there was one that I thought actually benefited from our kind of neurotic attention to the tail, but it started out as a joke that Penthouse magazine had this cover story that even if you didn't read Penthouse you'd see the cover of New St and it was, you know, this week shocking photos of an alien autopsy, this is Penthouse magazine, so they claim to be real photos of an alien autopsy, so the joke that we started with, I think that would have been good.

Enough is enough, um, this week Penthouse magazine published their long-awaited alien autopsy photos, according to those who saw the issue, the photos were crisp, clear and jerk-off

friend

ly, and anyway, so I thought you know what there is. that might be better, there's a better rhythm to that, so I suggest I first suggested that it should be easy to masturbate too because I liked it for the rhythm and then I came up with one of my biggest contributions of the season. Which was that I added the word surprisingly to make the joke a slightly different joke, so according to those who saw the advanced copies, the photos are crisp, clear, and the quotes are surprisingly jerk-off

friend

ly.

You also got this image. from a guy who says, you know, at first, I didn't think this would work, but damn, damn, this is hot.