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== Saturday Night Live ==
MacDonald joined the cast of National Broadcasting
Company|NBC's popular Saturday Night Live (SNL)
program in 1993, where he occasionally did
impressions of Larry King, Burt Reynolds, David
Letterman, Bob Dole and others. While on the show,
he frequently used the catchphrase "note to self,"
which has since seen wider usage.

However, his most notable position on SNL was his
three-year stint as anchor of Weekend Update
(sketch)|Weekend Update (WU), which is regarded by
many fans as perhaps the best in the segment's
history. Chevy Chase, the first anchor of WU, has
noted that MacDonald is the only anchor since
Chevy's tenure to have "done it right." His
deadpan style was suited to the segment, although
he did rely heavily on running joke|gags,
stereotypes, and general outrageousness, including
his repeated references to the Germany|Germans and
their love of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff,
regular jokes about the poor job status of 'crack
whores' and some audacious comedic attacks on
public figures such as O.J. Simpson and Michael
Jackson. Throughout the infamous Simpson trial,
MacDonald constantly pilloried the former American
football|football star and repeatedly suggested
that Simpson was guilty of the brutal slaying of
his wife Nicole Brown Simpson|Nicole. In the
broadcast following Simpson's acquittal|not guilty
verdict, MacDonald opened Weekend Update saying:
"Well, it's official: Murder is legal in the state
of California."

In another particularly notorious item circa 1995,
MacDonald attacked Michael Jackson (a favorite SNL
target) during a report about the singer's recent
collapse and hospitalization. Referring to a
report of how Jackson had decorated his hospital
room with giant photographs of Shirley Temple,
Norm stated, "In case viewers are confused, we'd
like to remind you that Michael Jackson is in fact
a homosexuality|homosexual pedophilia|pedophile."
The outrageous joke elicited audible gasps of
disbelief from some audience members.

MacDonald's time with SNL ended controversially in
1997 when he was sacked from the show upon the
insistence of NBC West Coast Executive Don
Ohlmeyer, who pressured the producers to remove
him, stating that MacDonald was "not funny".
Although it was an opinion shared by some, much of
the SNL live audience still greeted him with heavy
applause. Although it is only speculation, some
believe that Don Ohlmeyer's friendship with O.J.
Simpson — a celebrity whom Norm often
antagonized on the show — may have fueled
Ohlmeyer's decision. However, Ohlmeyer defends to
this day that other late night comedians (e.g. Jay
Leno, Conan O'Brien, and other SNL players) also
constantly lampooned O.J. with little to no
sanction, and that his decision was based solely
on audience reaction through tapes he had
personally reviewed. Despite the incident,
MacDonald left the show the following year under
decent terms with Ohlmeyer, who, to his credit,
originally pushed for producer Lorne Michaels to
give MacDonald a shot at the Weekend Update desk
in 1994.

After MacDonald left the show, his successor Colin
Quinn gave a short monologue before his first
starring role in a Weekend Update segment implying
that Norm had shown him "the ropes" to being a
Weekend Update anchor.

== After SNL ==
Soon after, MacDonald starred in his first movie
entitled Dirty Work (movie)|Dirty Work, which was
released to theaters in 1998. The film featured
performances from veteran actors and comedians
like Jack Warden, Don Rickles, Chevy Chase, Chris
Farley, and Adam Sandler. Later that year,
MacDonald would also lend his voice to one of the
animals in the Eddie Murphy remake of Doctor
Dolittle (movie)|Doctor Dolittle. 

In 1999, MacDonald starred in a Situation
comedy|sitcom called The Norm Show, which lasted
three seasons on the American Broadcasting
Company|ABC television network. Also that year,
MacDonald portrayed Michael Richards in the movie,
Man On The Moon, which was the story of comedian
Andy Kaufman's short and unusual life. 1999 also
saw MacDonald in advertising as the voice of the
Hardee's restaurant's (Carl's Jr. on the west
coast) costumed mascot, the Hardee's Star.
MacDonald also appeared on Miller Lite commercials
that year.

MacDonald returned to Saturday Night Live to host
the October 23, 1999 show. In his somewhat
notorious opening monologue, he expressed
resentment at having been fired. He joked that
they must've asked him back because he had either
"gotten funnier" or the show had "gotten really
bad." This comment received a mixed reaction from
the audience.

MacDonald starred in his second motion picture in
2000, entitled Screwed. MacDonald also starred as
Stan Hooper in "A Minute with Stan Hooper" during
its brief run on Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX in
2003.

In 2003, MacDonald became a naturalized citizen of
the United States.

In 2005, Norm MacDonald signed a deal with Comedy
Central to create a new sketch comedy pilot called
Back To Norm which debuted Sunday, May 29, 2005.
It was not picked up for more episodes.

MacDonald's brothers Neil MacDonald|Neil and
Leslie are both newscasters for the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation.

==External links==
* imdb name|id=0005172|name=Norm MacDonald
* tvtome person|id=1475|name=Norm MacDonald
* nndb name|id=707/000022641|name=Norm MacDonald
*
http://www.fakenews.net/archive/transcripts/1998_0
1_07_TLS.html Norm discussing his firing with
David Letterman, a transcript from a fan's website

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succession box | title=Saturday Night Live|Weekend
Update | before=Kevin Nealon | after=Colin Quinn |
years=1994–1997
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