Norm!

Norm MacDonald is still most known for his controversial stint as anchor on "Saturday Night Live"'s "Weekend Update" segment, a post from which he was booted 11 years ago. Since then, the Canadian comic has built a cult reputation, remaining visible in small but memorable cameos in hit comedies, shows such as "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire," "The Tonight Show" and numerous pro poker telecasts, in which he plays. His recent Comedy Central roasting of Bob Saget, using intentionally cheesy and anachronistic jokes, was especially memorable.

Despite two failed sitcoms and one that never made it past the pilot stage, MacDonald is still one of the most sought-after standup comedians, with a wit and style all his own. Dry, deadpan and polarizing, MacDonald is the kind of comedian who divides the world into people who "get" him and people who don't.

I find something very old-fashioned or anachronistic in your humor, and I say that as a compliment.
It's probably because I grew up on a small farm in Canada, and everyone around me, including my dad, was very old. When he had me, he was 55 or something. Me and my brother were the only young people in the town. So that might be where that came from. Everybody I knew was a 70-year-old man. I came to learn how to talk like them.

And where I was going with that "anachronistic" comment is that you actually tell jokes, like "guy walks into a bar" jokes, and I heard you tell a 10-minute joke to Conan this year about a moth.
Yeah, I love old jokes. When I grew up, the old fellas would all sit around the general store telling these jokes. Then, when I grew up, people would really dislike them. But I liked them, and my way of aggravating people would just be to stretch the joke out for as long as I could.

And sometimes, those jokes reveal how politically incorrect a lot of that humor was.
Yes, absolutely. They'd tell you jokes about Chinamen and stuff. If you tried to translate it and change it to Asian-American, the joke just wouldn't work.

I thought about your roast of Bob Saget along the same lines. It seemed like it was from another time. And it seemed to shock everybody because it subverted the whole form of the roast so beautifully.
Yeah, well, I'd never done a roast, and they wanted me to do it. I said I don't know how to do this vulgar stuff. They said the whole point is to be shocking. I thought about what they were saying, and I thought, 'How could I be shocking? Well, the only way to be shocking is to shock them by not being shocking!' Then, I got this book my grandfather had given me years ago of jokes to tell at retirement parties and things like that, and I picked the most anachronistic ones I could find that had terms from 75 years ago. It made me laugh so much.

What kind of a reaction did you get from the other roasters?
It was odd, because Gilbert Gottfried immediately got it. For some of the other guys, it took a little longer. Since then, I've had people think I was mentally ill.

Now, those roast clips have become enormously popular on the Internet—even the outtakes that didn't make it on the broadcast.
Well, I think all my life my comedy has been aimed for the sort of people behind the audience. To tell you the truth, I got the idea from when I used to watch Ronald Reagan, and he would kind of go right past the audience right to the guy at home. I always try to do my comedy to my buddy. I had this buddy of mine when I was young. Him and me would always sit in the back of the class and talk about whatever was going on. As a matter of fact, there was this class clown, and we knew this guy was just terrible, but nobody else did. He'd get all the laughs, and we'd be in the back together saying how hacky he was. That influenced me, because I'm always trying to make the audience part of the joke.

I've started to hear you talk about politics a little more than you used to. I sort of imagine your politics are a little more to the right than most of Hollywood, and I wonder if that's affecting your presentation of politics to an audience.
Well, in actuality, I'm kind of apolitical in the sense that, because I don't really have an understanding of it, I don't really have deep opinions. That is, I don't have specific policy opinions. I have other opinions that would be right-wing, but it's pretty touchy stuff to talk about. But I think mostly my politics are a result of taking the other side. Since I live in Los Angeles, I just take the other side for fun. It's just not fun to talk to people if they're all saying the same thing.

I sort of feel like that when I listen to Dennis Miller. He used to be as liberal as anybody.
Oh, he was, absolutely. He gave me my first job. And I remember we were writing for him, and there was a writer named Mark Brazill, and he was saying, "We gotta get Rush Limbaugh, we gotta take down Rush!" And Dennis said, "I don't know, I was listening to him the other day and I kind of like him." And Mark Brazill was totally crestfallen. That was the first inkling that Dennis maybe wasn't what we thought he was.

Well, I love when you appear on O'Reilly, because I get the impression that you are kind of poking fun at the seriousness with which he takes himself and his program without him even knowing it.
[Laughs.] I find him hugely entertaining. Now, I find Glenn Beck even more entertaining, because it's pure showmanship. I don't believe for a second these guys believe anything they're saying. They're just entertainers, and in a way that's what makes right-wing radio so much more entertaining, you know?

Yeah, I agree. To be honest, I'd rather listen to Michael Savage than Thom Hartmann, even though I would learn a lot more by listening to Thom Hartmann.
Exactly, right. Especially, with the left-wing comedians who turn political, they forget to be funny. On Air America, they had Janeane Garafalo and Al Franken. And they were so strident and so serious. I remember a couple of times I was on "Politically Incorrect." The serious guys were always trying to be funny, and the comedians were always trying to be taken seriously.

Right, because they want to prove I'm not just this, I can also be this.
Exactly. It's what I respect about Jay Leno. You don't know what he thinks. He's an entertainer first, and that's it. There's a certain disease that some comedians have that they want to be taken seriously.

Last topic, since we're on the subject of talk-show hosts. Since you probably know Letterman well and have played him before, what do you make of this scandal?
I find it astonishing how good he is. I've always thought he was probably the smartest comedian that ever lived, maybe. But just [look at] how good he is at getting laughs out of this sordid affair. The show is even better now. Obviously, I feel sorry for him and everything for going through it, but I was stunned how that day that the guy was arrested, he could do a 10-minute apologia to the American people and make it howlingly funny.

Norm MacDonald will perform 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and 7 and 9:15 p.m. Saturday at the Palm Beach Improv at CityPlace, 550 S. Rosemary Ave., West Palm Beach. Tickets cost $24.50.

Call 561-833-1812 or visit Palmbeachimprov.com. Contact John Thomason at jpthomason@tribune.com.