Not A Fan

Norm MacDonald is back on TV with
a satire sports show on Comedy Central

As if there isn’t enough sports coverage available to avid fans across the globe already, Comedy Central keeps throwing its hat into the ring of sports journalism…only to get KO’d.   

After the debut of the ESPN-parody called the Onion SportsDome this past January (a show whose luster has already faded), the relentless cable comedy channel is taking another shot with Sports Show with Norm MacDonald, which debuted on April 12.  And once again, it’s off the mark.  

The main reason for my disapproval is that with Sports Show, Comedy Central is trying to stretch the definition of “sports journalism” into something it really isn’t: a comedian making lame and even inappropriate jokes out of actual sporting news.

 

The disgusting-ness of this image sums up
MacDonald's new sports show.

Another cause of my disdain for the show is Norm MacDonald himself.  Norm is most known for his time behind SNL's Weekend Update anchor desk…from which he was fired in 1997.  His Wikipedia page notes that Comedy Central (his current employer) graciously crowned him #83 in their list of "100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time."  Number 83, what an honor!  Couldn’t they have chosen anyone below, say… #50 to host Sports Show?

This isn’t just a rip-on of MacDonald, but here are the plain facts: He’s awkward.  His delivery is poor and very scripted.  And frankly, his jokes aren’t funny.  Cork Gaines agrees in his critique of the show’s debut:

Norm hits us with a couple of more mediocre jokes. You know the kind. The jokes that you think are funny, but not funny enough to bother laughing. We are only four minutes in, and I am already hoping Adam Sandler will make a guest appearance…The final segment is something called "Garbage Time" with a 90-second running clock. In that period, he tells eight jokes, of which two had nothing to do with sports. But that's cool.

In the premier episode, MacDonald pretends to get a makeover to look like NBA star Blake Griffin, and then MacDonald’s voice is dubbed over Griffin’s words as he practices with a teammate.  To be honest, I did muster an audible chuckle or two when watching this clip.  However, I hate to say it, but the real cause of my laughter was more Griffin’s great acting skills (!) than MacDonald’s comedic powers.  See for yourself:

 

The other part may just be that I really have no desire to watch a sports comedy show.  It’s worthless if it doesn’t provide me with any valuable sports news…and it’s doubly worthless if it’s not even funny.  If I need a good laugh, I always know that the infinite supply of cute baby videos on Youtube is usually good for a giggle.   

Perhaps Craig Sanger put it best in his online review of Sports Show:

During his polarizing three-year reign as Weekend Update anchor on “Saturday Night Live,” mellow funnyman Norm Macdonald splintered viewers into two distinctive factions: love him or hate him.

Unfortunately, I fear more people will choose the latter after watching MacDonald's latest masterpiece.