Norm Macdonald Asked David Letterman Before Impersonating Him On SNL

Many would argue it was Norm's best impression. #shorts #normmacdonald #davidletterman #snl #impression #comedy #funny #youtubeshorts

Transcript

00:00Which Norm Macdonald impression was his best?

00:03Well, Norm Macdonald wasn't primarily known for his celebrity impressions, but during

00:06his time on SNL, he imitated Bob Dole and Burt Reynolds.

00:10He also managed to gift-slash-curse us all with his scarily accurate take on Quentin

00:14Tarantino.

00:19But the best Macdonald impression?

00:21Many would argue it's his David Letterman.

00:23Macdonald was somehow able to tap into the core of Letterman's comic persona, only

00:27slightly amplifying his mannerisms and ultimately turning the late show star into a frenzied

00:31sketch comedy character without all that much exaggeration.

00:39But of course, Macdonald absolutely loved Letterman, as evidenced by his countless appearances

00:44on the late show, especially that time that he literally told him that he loved him.

00:48Macdonald was so reverential of Letterman, his comedy hero, that he made sure to secure

00:52his permission before performing the impression.

00:54In an interview, Norm revealed that he contacted Letterman beforehand and said,

00:58I won't do it if you don't want me to do it, because I have, like, great respect for him.

01:02He also noted that the goal wasn't to make fun of Letterman, so much as to imitate him

01:06as closely as possible.

01:07He said,

01:08I didn't want to do it in any way insulting, so I just tried to do an exact impression

01:11with no comment on it.

01:13And then Letterman phoned me and he said he was okay with it.

01:15While Letterman was obviously a huge fan of Macdonald's, he may not have been a huge

01:19fan of Norm Macdonald's David Letterman character.

01:21During the famous interview between Macdonald and Letterman, which came just a day after

01:25Norm was fired from Weekend Update, the subject of the impression briefly came up.

01:29Letterman asked,

01:30Why didn't they fire that?