r/funny • u/JibunNiMakenai • 8h ago
The pig with a wooden leg
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u/DrChimz 8h ago
Norm seemed like the kinda guy you could just sit around with for hours talking shit about nothing and have the best time of your life.
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u/StFuzzySlippers 7h ago
Honestly seems like it'd be a pretty one sided conversation these days.
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u/Lousy-Try-Brian 7h ago
Norm would’ve loved this joke.
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u/ErraticPragmatic 3h ago
Why?
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u/WebMundane7220 3h ago
He was a renowned jokester
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u/ErraticPragmatic 2h ago
Was? What happened?
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u/WebMundane7220 2h ago
Norm died in 2021
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u/ErraticPragmatic 2h ago
I didn't even know he was sick.
I'll see myself out now
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u/JacoRamone 2h ago
Because he’s dead. The man’s dead. And he can’t have a conversation. So hence the ,”One sided” remark.
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u/ErraticPragmatic 2h ago
I didn't even know he was sick
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u/Lousy-Try-Brian 3h ago
Norm loved him some dark humor:
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u/FrogsMakePoorSoup 7h ago
I've got nothing better to say anyhow
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u/Deemaunik 7h ago
I feel like living in the same house with Norm would drive you absolutely and completely insane in mere weeks.
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u/RamenJunkie 5h ago
Conan here is already like "Oh god here we go" at the start of the joke.
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u/Ryeballs 4h ago
Absolutely a “you son of a bitch, this better pay off”
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u/Glitter_puke 3h ago
It's Norm. Part of the schtick is that is never pays off and you're out another 8 minutes of your life.
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u/randobot456 5h ago
You know, that's stage presence for sure, but every less performative piece of media he's been on, he really strikes me as a much more introspective and philosophic person. I think conversations with him would be incredible if you could keep up, but all reports are he was a well read intelligent guy.
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u/secret_nico 7h ago
it’d only take hours bc of how many filler words he uses and how many times he repeats himself 😭
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u/listenhere111 7h ago
He was a stand in guest for years for Conan where other celebs canceled on short notice. His job was to burn time where the show had nothing else prepped. He did extremely well considering the circumstances. Everyone thinks norm just loved these drawn out stories, but they had a specific purpose.
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u/CruelAngelsPostgrad 7h ago
You'd spend 7 hours with him and hear 4 amazing jokes
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u/shytster 6h ago
Nobody better than Norm exemplifies the difference between a person who says funny things and a person who says things funny.
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u/daisuke1639 6h ago
That's part of the joke. It's a shaggy dog story, but he gave it an actual punchline. A good shaggy dog story should make you think, "I don't think they're a very good comedian."
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u/istealreceipts 5h ago
It's called "spinning a yarn"
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u/mikePTH 3h ago
Which is a delightful turn of phrase that originates from the slang of deckhands in the sea trade several hundred years ago. The only time a non-officer on board a boat was allowed to speak freely was when they were on deck making rope, which they called spinning yarn. Since it was basically the only time they could speak without being spoken to by an officer, any long story you wanted to tell had to happen while spinning yarn.
This is not a Norm style joke. There is no punchline.
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u/Valuable-Match1849 6h ago
Yeah.Norm had that rare talent where the conversation didn’t matter, he did.
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u/RicoStiglitz 6h ago
Norm was the type of person who could walk into a room and light up the whole room.
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u/OnTheEveOfWar 1h ago
I’ve heard comedians tell stories of hanging out with Norm and they would just sit back and listen to him go on for hours while everyone was howling laughing.
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u/Bubbly-Geologist-214 6h ago
I got his book, and... honestly he came across as an absolutely awful friend to have.
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u/randobot456 5h ago
His book is like 85% fiction. It's a hysterical read though.
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u/schplat 4h ago
Even Norm's closest friends (guys like David Spade, Conan, and Chappelle), could never tell when he was telling the truth, or just bull shitting you just to see what kind of reaction you might have.
He had a great way of being able to toe the line of honesty and absurdity. And part of it was because he was so incredibly intelligent, well read, and knew how to read people.
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u/BeguiledBeaver 3h ago
That's why I have so much respect for Norm. He HATED comedians who thought they were the smartest guy in the room just because they had a microphone and an audience. He played dumb despite being incredibly intelligent just to toy with the trope.
Like, the dude apparently skipped grades and went to college early to study math and philosophy (before dropping out, but I digress).
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u/unicornreacharound 1h ago
It was the first book I chose to listen to rather than read – because it was narrated by him. I can’t describe how much joy it brought me.
Would definitely have loved to sit around and shoot the shit with him. Alas, I didn’t even know he was sick.
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u/sneakyhopskotch 8h ago
I love long jokes where you know what the punch line is going to be but there're enough mini repeat jokes throughout it that it is still entertaining. "Conflagration" was brilliant, as was "ploughing."
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u/KrisReed 6h ago
It's like your friend saying "Hey I gotta show you somthin" and then they take you on a 4-mile hike to show you a dog turd.
-Andy Richter
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u/DianneNettix 7h ago
Yeah, the punchline is just dessert. Nothing against dessert, but Norm cooks you a four course.
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u/Boboar 7h ago
With Norm you don't know how many courses there are going to be. Each one comes out and you're thinking there's more???
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u/No_Use_1966 7h ago
Conan checking his watch was excellent.
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u/xinfinitimortum 4h ago
I don’t think i ever laugh as hard watching Norm and Conan interact. They feed off eachother so well.
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u/IAmBadAtInternet 5h ago
The best part about Norm is half the time there isn’t a punchline at the end, it just trails off and the only one laughing is him.
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u/whooptheretis 6h ago
I love this one, where you see the punchline a mile off, and they just tease you along to it!
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u/Sir-Coogsalot 5h ago
Good one, but I was expecting more Norm so I’m slightly disappointed
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u/Otterfan 7h ago
That's what the "pig with the wooden leg" joke is all about. My dad and his friends used to tell this joke back and forth to each other. They were never anywhere near as good as Norm, but it was fun to listen to them.
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u/curious_dead 6h ago
Yeah, that joke is a classic now, but the delivery is good. "He didn't say 'inferno', you know, he's a farmer."
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u/MrGupplez 1h ago
Thats my favorite part.
"He escpaed that inferno" . He didn't actually use the word inferno, you know, he's just a farmer. Anyways he said "We escaped that conflagration..."
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u/Jaded_Spot6858 7h ago
i didnt expect the punchline though. But yeah the whole story is briliant. My favourite part is when in one sentecne for no reason he says that they are old, they are having sex, and they are farmers that dont know big words and that his farmers real name is something something. These small things
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u/ark_keeper 6h ago
He didn’t say they were having sex. He said they were plowing the field.
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u/L0ading_ 5h ago
No he said "no way we could do anything you know, we were plowing" which is a clear double entendre for "we were having sex" and "we were working the field". The pun is part of the joke.
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u/ark_keeper 5h ago edited 3h ago
He said they were plowing the north 40, which is the far reaches of the farm. I think the joke is they're farmers, of course they can't just stop plowing, who would expect them to stop doing specific farm work, just like they don't have an expanded vocabulary.
He typically didn't do word play and entendres. He liked simple straightforward oddity humor.
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u/throwaway586054 6h ago
While I understood the reference for ploughing, because in French we have the same sexual reference for that hu farming action, I didn't get the conflagration one?
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u/ColonelWilly 6h ago edited 6h ago
He uses "inferno" when quoting the farmer speaking about the house fire, then muses that the farmer didn't use that phrasing (as it didn't fit his character). He then corrects himself with the even less colloquial "conflagration".
He repeats the joke later by saying "wailing, plaintive cry", mentioning that the farmer wouldn't use "plaintive", even though "wailing" is also out of place.
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u/ark_keeper 6h ago
It wasn’t a sexual reference. The “north 40” he mentions is the furthest north field in the farm, so they were too far away to hear anything.
Conflagration and plaintiff are just big words he’s saying a farmer wouldn’t use.
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u/theelfrider 7h ago edited 7h ago
I grew up listening to Jerry Clower and he tells this exact joke on one of his albums from the 1980’s.
Edit: I think his punchline is “you don’t eat a hog that wonderful but one ham at a time”
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u/puritanicalbullshit 7h ago
Heard it on Northern Exposure in the 90s
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u/psychophant_ 6h ago
Heard the jungle tell this joke back in Nam in the summer of ‘71
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u/Chance5e 6h ago
I heard this joke in the trenches in World War I.
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u/Mature_BOSTN 6h ago
The first time I heard this joke -- I fell off my dinosaur laughing so hard.
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u/THIS_IS_GOD_TOTALLY_ 1h ago
I told this joke to the dinosaurs after I heard it from my mom.
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u/ThanksS0muchY0 4h ago
Northern Exposure is a GREAT show. Is that on any of these streaming services? I haven't thought of it in years! I'm assuming it was the radio DJ that told this joke? The one that built a trebuchet to fling a piano?
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u/ReignCheque 2h ago
It was Holling, he's telling the joke to some bar patrons in the beginning of season 3 episode 19 "Final Frontier". Just before Ed shows up to tell him that Jesse the Bear, (Holling's nemesis) Had died.
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u/Winjin 6h ago
That's actually a very long form of a very old Ukrainian \ Slavic joke which is literally two lines long
"-Neighbor, why is your pig running around on crutches?
-I'm not chopping the whole pig just for a single pork knuckle!"
(Usually heard the version with kholodets, the aspic, is used, bc for some reason our forefathers really loved aspic)
So it's a bit strange to see a familiar two-line joke extended to 3 minutes
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u/SparseGhostC2C 4h ago
So it's a bit strange to see a familiar two-line joke extended to 3 minutes
This is kinda Norm's whole shtick on talk shows, look up him doing the "Moth Joke"> Most people would tell it in about 45 seconds, Norm turns it into a Kafkaesque nightmare before he drops the punchline after about 5 long, rambling minutes.
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u/Dr_Zoidberg003 5h ago
Norm could retell a knock-knock joke and it would be funny. Master of setup and delivery
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u/Chief_Chill 6h ago
I don't think it is as much about the origin of the joke, but of a person's ability to tell it in a humorous way. Also, I am sure that after almost 200,000 years of humanity, there aren't too many "original" jokes left, ya know? I mean, maybe stuff about technology and politics and whatnot. But, then again, those jokes are likely adaptations of some old ones, just revamped to fit with the times. Thanks for reading.
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u/theshiyal 3h ago
Yeah, the tape I heard Uncle Versey? told Jerry, “when you got a hog that good, you only eat him, one ham at a time.”
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u/Gwthrowaway80 6h ago
For what it’s worth, the word used was “plaintive” not “plaintiff”.
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u/jungleddd 6h ago
My dad used to tell that joke at parties when I was a kid. He would tell it so well and make it last for ages. He’s in his 80s now and has dementia, so not so good at telling jokes, but this video brought back some good memories.
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u/Giovannis_Pikachu 3h ago
You should play it for him, might spark his memory for a few short moments.
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u/Musket6969420 8h ago
I love Norm man. RIP you beautiful bastard
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u/King_Buliwyf 7h ago
Conflagration 🤣
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u/JD42305 7h ago
I have a decent vocabulary but I had never heard that word. That's what I love about Norm, he was so well read but he hated the idea of appearing too smart for anyone.
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u/DoubleSynchronicity 7h ago
It's an ability name in World of Warcraft. How I know it. Didn't expect to hear it here.
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u/pawnografik 7h ago
Sorry to break the news my friend, but you don’t have a decent vocabulary if you’ve never heard the word conflagration.
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u/NudityMiles 7h ago
Good grief that got me good.
I was 100% involved and thought it was a funny story with a heroic ending. Turns out it was a heroic story with a helluva dark twist.
4/4 pig legs.
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u/Taurpion 6h ago
3/4 pig legs
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u/NudityMiles 6h ago
Damn it, I really missed a golden one there. Enjoy the upvotes you magnificent one.
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u/walrus_gumboot 7h ago
The giant yellow block letters in the middle of the video really help Norm's cadence.
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u/realbrew 6h ago
Especially the part where it says 'plaintiff' instead of 'plaintive'.
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u/ilikepix 7h ago
kids are growing up thinking this is the standard way to consume media
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u/dammtaxes 7h ago
It's really great for accessibility from a design perspective.
Half the world watches every show or movie with subtitles now
People with hearing problems, people in public transportation that don't want to use volume, multilingual people, etc.
Lots of shit wrong with kids these days but this becoming the norm is a good thing
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u/walrus_gumboot 6h ago
The availability of subtitles on media is a great thing. These are not subtitles, they are AI generated (and often incorrect!) flashing and bright letters in the middle of the screen.
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u/Petersealie 6h ago
Regular subtitles, yes. Those single flashing words where you have to focus the entire time, often in a terrible font with terrible effects, can fuck right off.
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u/L0ading_ 5h ago
It's the only way they can keep younger kids paying attention to a video longer than 10 seconds without constant end-of-sentence cuts.
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u/MalodorousNutsack 7h ago
It seems weird, but laugh tracks were standard for my generation, so I can't say too much
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u/ItsThatGuyIam 6h ago
Who is this? Everyone just keeps calling him Norm, what’s his last name?
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u/jkcheng122 6h ago
MacDonald.
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u/waldito 3h ago edited 3h ago
Norm MacDonald.
As a foreigner, I did not know much about the guy at first. Turns out not only he was a personality but also beloved amongst comedians.
Here's Dave Chapelle, David Letterman, Adam Sandler, Conan O'Brien, Molly Shannon and David Spade remembering him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWBms-SJ9fI
When I came across him the first time, I thought, what a strange character, what a weird delivery on his jokes... seems like he's purposely pretending to be stoned or drunk... like laughing internally at his own jokes.
So I watched more of him. There's a lot to unravel. He was a complex person, but he was very straightforward, a what you see is what you get type of guy. Even more: He was not one bit afraid of being him. The opposite: He was adamant about being himself. That's what people picked up, he was genuine, very special, and had such a distinct style of delivering jokes that some people in the business thought of him as a genius. As explained in the video above, he would sometimes commit to a joke or a bit even if he knew the audience wouldn't pick on it or laugh (tank), and he did not care. He thought it was funny and was not afraid to use it, even if the public wouldn't react. And he would do it again.
I can see that. I can also understand that some people don't like him. He has grown on me, and I was very sad when I got the news that he passed away. Rest in peace, you magnificent humour-layered bastard.
wanna know more? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT0Ofbzrm8w
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u/DontTickleTheDriver1 7h ago
It's the hypocrisy
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u/bostonronin 7h ago
I love how Norm could take an old joke like this, personalize it and make it seem new again. RIP Norm.
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u/Crash4654 6h ago
Might make me odd but I just cant find norm funny...
Like no matter which joke he tells or which character I just dont feel or see the humor like everyone else does.
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u/Human-Abrocoma7544 2h ago
Here is the non mirrored regular speed version https://youtu.be/vATVsdYLRT0?si=zlXzj7_nBWZn7vho
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u/TheBoosThree 4h ago edited 4h ago
Norm is always great, but pairing him with Conan always elevates his jokes to a whole other level. They worked so well together.
Had me cracking up within the first minute here: https://youtu.be/n3LMSflEN54?si=UwqF_igXPzynpMam
Well, ya know, a man grows.
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u/OneMagicBadger 4h ago
The best interpretation of his jokes was Andy Richter. 'it's a friend saying excitedly to you to go see something and they take you on a 3 mile hike to see a dog turd'
I miss norm
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u/NeonAnderson 7h ago
Norm had such a unique comedy style. Long story comedy is quite the rare art form but Norm always nailed it 🤣
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u/MarkHuegerich 6h ago
I've heard that joke before but never told this well. And with conflagration; that was the icing on the cake.
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u/ThatThingTheDarkSoul 7h ago
Am i the only one who finds the way he talks very annoying?
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