I’ve always thought Norm MacDonald was funny. His mumbling, bemused delivery is perfectly suited to the sophmoric but acerbically clever nature of his material. When he was on Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update was often the highlight of the show. It had been a long time since I’d heard or seen anything with him in it, so when Ridiculous was added to the eMusic catalog I decided to drop a few my precious downloads on it. I knew I wouldn’t listen more than once or twice but I was curious and hoping for some good laughs.
Well, laughs might be stretching it. A few crooked grins is the more likely response. The sketches on Ridiculous are hit or miss, which is to be expected. But even the best bits are only decent. The rest ranges from mediocre to offensive. There’s just nothing funny about “Burning Bed,” the so-called joke being that even with 99% of his body burned, an abusive husband chokes out threats from his intensive care bed to the wife that set him on fire as a means of escape.
Some of the politically incorrect gay sex jokes are kind of funny though. “Tex Hooper,” the best track on the album, is about the recording session a couple of producers arrange for a long lost country legend. They gradually discover through the lyrics of his new songs, each one increasingly less subtle, that Ol’ Tex has “gone gay!” The similarly themed “World’s First Gay Guys” is about two men who come to the startling conclusion that they can just have sex with each other since neither of them are attracted to women. Somehow Will Ferrell screaming, “My ass is on fire!,” when they figure out how exactly they should go about things is not so much offensive as it is downright silly.
The two super hero themed skits are mildly amusing too. In “Fantastic Four” the super team members argue with Reed Richards about why he gets the best name, Mr. Fantastic. And on “Stan & Lois” another reporter tries to convince Lois Lane that he is really Superman, not Clark Kent, so that he can score with her.
Those four sketches are really the strongest on Ridiculous. If you’re a Norm MacDonald fan, I’d skip the rest and do a little cherry picking from eMusic.
I have to admit, Norm is an acquired taste. I disagree that the album evokes crooked smiles — there are some hearty laughs in the album — including the skit with Molly Shannon. The hidden track is a hoot. My advice, the chuckles are highly compensated for the price for the whole album.
I agree Norm is an acquired taste. I do like him, I’m just not crazy about the album. I saw his standup act back in the day and I remember he did that Star Search bit! So it was kind of fun to hear it again on the “hidden track.” Thanks for weighing in.
Ah, my beloved Norm. He cracked me up on when he was on The Daily Show to promote this album about a month ago:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4yjDgmeXQPo
Keep in mind that this was right after the Crocodile Hunter guy got killed. That Norm — sick and wrong, just the way I like him!
Ha! Thanks for the link. Totally inappropriate but very funny.
I saw that when it aired, I laughed so hard I woke my wife up that night.
Like everyone else here has alluded to, Norm MacDonald is an acquired taste. But if you like his style of humour, like me, you’ll like (or even love) this album.
Just as this journalist said, the ‘Tex Hooper’ skit is the best. But it did more than turn my smile crooked, I was laughing out loud several days after hearing it. I still crack up when I think of some of the songs that good ‘ole Tex came up with. “Manhole Inspector” is an instant classic.
If you’re a fan of Norm, you’ll want to pick this up.