Norm fans, if Norm pooped in a can you'd call it 'genius'

He can make fun of his act and like it at the same time. If you think the two are mutually exclusive, you must not even understand what a roast is.

I guess you meant Norton was slamming him for sucking. He probably was slamming him, but only because he's a nervous little boy who never got attention from all the jocks and cheerleaders (who happened to look just like the audience). And he took advantage of their confusion for his own personal gain. Nothing wrong with that, it makes him funny and so does his honesty about it.

The only thing Norm did "wrong" was to do something obvious i.e. mocking the roast. Of COURSE we're all thinking 'these are the same jokes every roast just with (mostly) different people'. And that the emphasis on being mean is getting a little cliched. It's human nature to make fun of that. You'd be seriously considering taking that angle yourself if you were asked to be on the dais. Unless you're a halfwit.

God Damn it in the ass

Wow, does your mind seriously work on this base of a level? Norm told bad jokes = Norm isn't funny. Norton made fun of Norm = he didn't like his act. Does your brain lack the cognitive capabalities to see past the surface of any given situation, or is this some sort of meta tribute to Norm's performance where you're pretending to not get it in honor of him pretending to tell bad jokes? If not, why do you even watch roasts if you don't have a basic understanding of how they work? I mean, after viewing it were you convinced that Bob Saget actually did molest the Olsen twins?

For the record, I definitely think Norm bombs sometimes, but this wasn't an instance of it. As stated before, that's why the comedians were laughing their asses off and the people in the crowd mostly looked confused.

Maybe it's because I've seen tons of bad comics, but when I heard bad comedy, my first instinct is to assume the comedian is unfunny, not that they're a genius who are being deliberately unfunny. When some hack comic is standing on stage doing dumb, hackneyed jokes, is he just a genius who's pretending to be unfunny ? I mean, where do you draw the line ? It's a slippery slope. Next time if someone else's material sucks, we can just excuse the bad comedy by saying he/she is a genius who is just pretending to be unfunny. I can say the same about Lovitz, and other people whose routines just weren't that funny. Maybe Lovitz is a genius and that horrible routine he did was just him pushing our buttons. How can you argue against that ? You have no proof that Lovitz wasn't deliberately being unfunny. Look, if this happened to a great comedian like Carlin or Hicks, then maybe it'd be true to say that they were deliberately being unfunny, but Norm McDonald has NEVER been that good a comic. Nobody ever brings up his name when discussing great comics, just the weirdos on this message board. I've listened religiously to tons and tons of comedy since the early 90s and I think I know good comedians, and Norm just NEVER stood out as a great comic. I recently went on youtube and watched all his routines and HE'S JUST NOT FUNNY. All his jokes are just as bad as the ones he did in the roast. So maybe his WHOLE CAREER has been one extended Kaufmann-esque trick, right ? He's been deliberately unfunny all his career and he's just never got tired of the joke ? I mean, come on, people !!

You WILL respect my AUTHORITAAAAH !!!!