Comedic legend Norm Macdonald passed away at 61 on Tuesday following a private battle with cancer. He’ll always be remembered by sports fans for his memorable speech at the 1998 ESPYs.
Macdonald was never afraid to offend his audience. It’s part of what made his monologues so funny. Well let’s just say he didn’t hold back at the 1998 ESPYs.
Macdonald took shots at the Dallas Cowboys, the late Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and even more during the awards show. The audience loved most of it, but some athletes clearly felt uncomfortable.
Take a look.
Macdonald will probably go down as the greatest ESPYs host of all-time.
RIP Norm Macdonald, history’s greatest ESPYs host
— Pablo S. Torre (@PabloTorre) September 14, 2021
The late Norm Macdonald spoke with Stephen Douglas of The Big Lead about his ESPYs monologue back in 2011.
It was only after the production that he learned about how athletes felt about his performance, which wasn’t very well received.
Norm Macdonald: I’d love to host the ESPYs. When I did the ESPYs, what was interesting was, you know the athletes were here and they comprised a small amount of the audience. And behind them was the crowd, the New Yorkers you know. When I was doing it, the crowd loved me and I had no idea the athletes f-cking hated my guts. Then I see it on TV and I do a joke and the cut a scowling guy. I was like “Oh God, I like that guy and now he hates me. But all my heroes… But Tiger laughed! It was a pro-Tiger joke, but Tiger laughed. He’s my hero. I love Tiger.
Macdonald is truly one of comedy’s all-time greats.
We wish his entire family and friends the best during this difficult time.
The post Watch: Norm Macdonald’s Memorable NSFW ESPYs Speech appeared first on The Spun.
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