Just to show how well read Norm was, he slipped in "a man needs land", referencing Mordechai Richler's classic The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, where the main character's grandfather drilled into him from boyhood that a man without land is a nobody. He was always the smartest guy in the room, pretending to be the dumbest, because nobody likes someone who acts smarter than them.
Imagine thinking that reading Mordechai Richler's Duddy Kravitz is being well read. It's a book forced on Canadian grade school students. Have you read anything in your adult life?
@@JmO-ee1bi I think yer missin' the joke there, pal. It's kinda like encyclopedias, which are so large that they have to be broken down into volumes by alphabet. So the dictionary - in the joke - went from "How" to "Hug". Get it?
Coincidentally, a day after I watched this video I saw volume 5 of the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s Dvandva to Follis. Presumably less helpful with Norm’s affection problem.
"It was Volume 5 of the Oxford English dictionary...How-to-Hug."One of the most over-the-top yet understaded and underrated jokes ever crafted. Thank you, Norm, for the perfect delivery.
@@callmeshaggy5166 It reminds me of the problem with the abbreviation I.D. "I" stands for "I" and "D" stands for "dentification!" They could have split that one up a little better.
@@JNMKlover The punchline to those types of jokes is never the point. The punchline is pretty much always a letdown. The point of the joke is its length and wordiness. I believe the term is "shaggy dog joke". Here...This is the 1st sentence on the wikipedia page for a shaggy dog story: "In its original sense, a shaggy dog story or yarn is an extremely long-winded anecdote characterized by extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents and terminated by an anticlimax."
Conan really loved having Norm on as a guest. And I always find Conan to be the funniest to watch when hosting Norm because of how much you can see he's enjoying letting himself get played. And Norm loved playing with Conan. Nothing but smiles watching these two. Rest in Peace Norm. You made it famous enough to be a legend so, I hope you're not getting harrassed too much in heaven.
@@coal2710 "Keeping up with the Jones's" is a saying meaning a person is trying to keep up with their peers. More specifically keeping up with neighbors
When he said hellish, that was totally improvised. He cracked his self up with it and looked at conan like can you believe I just said that lmao....cause he knew conan loved word choices. Comedy will never be the same without that man.
I don't think that was that improvised. It's one of these words he likes to through around. It's in the moth joke too. '' And end this hellish facade..."
@@georgesotiriou7051 was the moth joke before this one? I dont know im legitimately asking. What I do know is the moth joke was completely improvised based off a like 5 second moth joke I think Colin Quinn told him. You can fact check me on Colin Quinn. But conan talked about that segment on his podcast, he came with prepared material but for whatever reason (I can't remember off the top of my head) they asked him to do another few minutes during a commercial break which he wasn't prepared for. All that to say lol...is it not improvisation just because you use the same word from a previous segment? If an improv comic says the f word in multiple improvs that means it's not improv anymore? I think you can tell he just threw it in their by the way he stops and looks at conan. Not saying the whole thing was improv, just using the word in that moment.
@@ja9145 The moth joke is from 2009. Norm has said that he stretched out the joke to fit the segment after Conan kept him on without warning. Although I am just not buying that Norm improvised everything on the spot. The moth joke has elements that are the work of a lifetime and is an almost savant level of comedy.
@@georgesotiriou7051 isn't that exactly what I said about it though? That they asked him do a few more minutes and he wasn't prepared for it? And I agree, savant level of comedy. My argument is that - is it not improv when he decided to throw in the word hellish, just because he used the word hellish in a previous joke? And maybe it wasn't improv, but using the same word from a previous bit doesn't indicate that it wasnt improv. And i dont think using the word in a previous bit indicates that it wasnt improv. It's my opinion that he knew conan liked weird words, and he just threw that in on the spot cause he knew it would get a good laugh out of conan.
@@ja9145 Sorry I only read part of your comment before replying. What you are saying about Collin Queer is true as Norm has said it. Conan also said what you mentioned. On the other hand Norm is known to lie for his own amusement. A prime example is how he would casually lie about his age saying for instance during his famous Coronavirus set that he is 68 years young. I think Norm's approach was to try to keep things fresh for himself. As he said during the episode with Stephen Merchant he has the punchline in mind but the way he arrives at it varies every time. With the moth joke he knew that he is going to ''cause the light was on'' and then he draws phrases he may have thought before mixing them with improvisational elements and references from his wide range reading. In any case what I'm saying is that Norm was human (maybe the funniest ever) and that there was a lot more to his art than mere improvisation.
I’ve seen the other clips from this interview so many times, but this is the first time I’ve seen this bit- and it’s genuinely made my day- the elevator joke made me cackle
It's hard to describe the priceless reaction of Conan after Norm's "How to Hug" punchline. My dear old Dad would say that Norm "stopped his clock" for a few seconds there. A combination of bewilderment, disgust and amusement seems to show along with the dawning of the realization of the meaning of the joke. Wow, how did Norm do it? Will anyone ever again be as good? I hope so but doubt it at the same time.
One of the rare perfect segments aired on American television. Conan always allowed the right amount of leash to let Norm run. "Got tired of trying to keep up with ....... ....... the Joneses." Even his elongated pauses got more laughs than most comedians' jokes. The audience knows the hammer will come down sooner or later (probably later, knowing Norm's routine).
@@nathanaelsoler3089 a set of dictionaries would cover a part of the alphabet with each book, so he's saying the book covered the words from 'How' through 'Hug' 😂
@@rite2bcreative Encyclopedias were that way. Dictionaries were always one volume. Either Norm messed up or he was making a silly joke inside of his joke because How to Hug in a dictionary would be just a few pages. EDIT: And I was wrong the Oxford English Dictionary was sold in volumes. I never saw a dictionary even at school that was more than one volume.
2:57 Notice how, after Norm springs the punchline, he says the word "Now..." and shifts position, _as if he's still telling the story_ but has to pause for the laughter. This is a technique I've seen many comedians use -- I think idea is that it comes across as funnier if you keep talking past the punchline (even if you don't have anything else to say).
I don't want to be too sexist, but I see a lot of female comedians do this ineffectively. Male comedians do it, as well, but it seems to be more prevalent with women for some reason; and it's often done proceeding a dirty/vulgar punchline. Amy Schumer does it all the time in her standup and I can't stand it. It's like she'll say the punchline and then throw in a "but, uhh..." or just an "uhh" or "umm", but then there isn't more to the joke.
@@sschario60 Considering most of what's out there today comedian-wise, I feel 100% confident that being a comedian in the current climate would be easy.
I've seen a lot of Norm clips and was satisfied for years that the moth joke and chairman of the bored was his greatest talk show appearances. Then I saw how to hug and the reception of the audience and knew that I had witnessed Norm's lifetime peak moment
chairman of the bored was such an obvious pun. Why do people carry on about that? Every kid thinks of bored when they hear Chairman of the Board, or a Board meeting, etc.
