Norm Macdonald ‘Tonight Show’ Appearance Canceled After Scandalous Me Too Comments
Comedian Norm Macdonald’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was abruptly canceled Tuesday after the former Saturday Night Live star stirred up controversy with remarks about the Me Too movement and the treatment of Louis C.K., Chris Hardwick, and Roseanne in light of their recent scandals.
“Out of sensitivity to our audience and in light of Norm Macdonald’s comments in the press today, The Tonight Show has decided to cancel his appearance on Tuesday’s telecast,” NBC said in a statement, as reported by Variety.
The Tonight Show‘s decision to drop Macdonald came on the heels of an apology by the comedian on Twitter which he made in response to a controversial Hollywood Reporter interview.
The controversy surrounding the comedian came after MacDonald gave an interview with the news outlet.
Macdonald claimed he was “happy the #MeToo movement has slowed down a little bit.”
He then remarked, “It used to be, ‘One hundred women can’t be lying.’ And then it became, ‘One woman can’t lie.’ And that became, ‘I believe all women.’ And then you’re like, ‘What?’ Like, that Chris Hardwick guy I really thought got the blunt end of the stick there.”
Macdonald then stated he felt fellow funny person Roseanne Barr was treated unfairly after she likened Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape in a now infamous tweet.
Due to her actions, Barr was fired from the reboot of her series Roseanne and the show was canceled within 24 hours of her comment.
According to Variety, it was noted that Macdonald got his start as a writer working on Barr’s original ABC series.
He also spoke out in defense for comedian Louis C.K.
Roseanne and Louis have both been very good friends of mine for many years. They both made terrible mistakes and I would never defend their actions. If my words sounded like I was minimizing the pain that their victims feel to this day, I am deeply sorry.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) September 11, 2018
After sexual allegations surfaced against C.K., he lost a lucrative deal with the cable channel FX.
Macdonald stated, according to Variety, “There are very few people that have gone through what they have, losing everything in a day,” Macdonald said. “Of course, people will go, ‘What about the victims?’ But you know what? The victims didn’t have to go through that.”
The funnyman later backpedaled on his comments, stating he was sorry for “minimizing the pain of victims of sexual abuse and harassment.”
Norm Macdonald has a new series on Netflix titled Norm Macdonald Has a Show which will debut Sept. 14 on Netflix.
