Norm Macdonald told countless jokes throughout his years as a comedian, but one of his most memorable was about a moth.
During a 2009 appearance onThe Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Macdonald — whodied Tuesday at age 61— said that his “strongest material comes from real life” before he proceeded to tell the nearly four-minute-long joke, which he originally heard from a driver.
“A moth goes into a podiatrist’s office and the podiatrist’s office says, ‘What’s the problem?'” Macdonald began the joke, whichConan O’Brien’s Team Coco YouTube channel resurfaced on Wednesday.
“And the moth says, ‘What’s the problem? Where do I begin man? I go to work for Gregory Illinivich and all day long I work. Honestly doc, I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. I don’t even know if Gregory Illinivich knows. He only knows that he has power over me, and that seems to bring him happiness. But I don’t know, I wake up in a malaise and I walk here and there,'” he continued.
The moth proceeded to illustrate his familial problems, noting that he would wake up in the middle of the night and “turn to some old lady” that he “once loved” laying in bed beside him. The bug then recalled how his youngest child “fell in the cold” the previous year and how he “no longer” loved his other kid.
As Macdonald explained how the moth wished he were strong enough to “end this hellish façade,” host O’Brien interrupted to question the length of the joke.
But Macdonald continued to share the moth’s troubles.
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty
“He says, ‘Doc, sometimes I feel like a spider, even though I’m a moth, just barely hanging on to my web with an everlasting fire underneath me. I’m not feeling good,'” Macdonald said. “And so the doctor says, ‘Moth, man, you’re troubled. But you should be seeing a psychiatrist. Why on earth did you come here?’ And the moth says, ‘Cause the light was on.'”
After Macdonald delivered the punchline, O’Brien and the studio audience erupted in laughter before the late night host, 58, offered his “congratulations to anyone who stuck it through to the end.”
PEOPLE confirmed that Macdonald died Tuesday after quietly battling cancer for nine years.
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Macdonaldwas a cast memberonSaturday Night Livefrom 1993 to 1998. He also anchored the show’sWeekend Updatesegment during part of his five-season run.
O’Brientweetedabout the loss as well. “I am absolutely devastated about Norm Macdonald,” he wrote. “Norm had the most unique comedic voice I have ever encountered and he was so relentlessly and uncompromisingly funny. I will never laugh that hard again. I’m so sad for all of us today.”
source: people.com
