Late Night Hosts Pay Tribute to Norm MacDonald: “The Single Greatest Guest in the History of Late-Night Television”

Late night hosts are paying tribute to former Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” anchor Norm MacDonald, following the 61-year-old’s Sept. 15 death from cancer.

Fellow SNL alum Seth Meyers opened up about his memories of Macdonald on Late Night, and spotlighted some of his favorite jokes from the comedian.

“He was the gold standard, and he will continue to be the gold standard,” Meyers said. “I would suggest that everybody go watch him tell the moth story on Conan, go watch any number of Norm Macdonald things today, because they are really, truly timeless.”

The Late Night host continued: “I think for so many of us [on SNL], we came up watching Norm, and we thought that you were on the inside with him… You just felt this connection to him and that ability to just stare into an audience, unblinkingly telling the jokes that he believed in.”

The Late Late Show‘s James Corden also remembered Macdonald, calling him “an absolute comedy legend,” gone “far too soon.”

“All Norm ever wanted to do was make us laugh, and he was absolutely brilliant at it,” Corden said. “There was nobody like him. I felt privileged any time I got to be in his orbit. He leaves us one of the all-time great comics, perhaps the single greatest guest in the history of late-night television, I think.

Over on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert paid tribute to MacDonald by remembering their short time together when Colbert worked as an SNL guest writer for a few weeks.

“I wish I were a good enough comedian to come up with a joke right now about Norm MacDonald having died. But the only comedian I know who could get away with a ‘Norm MacDonald is dead joke,’ is Norm MacDonald,” Colbert said. “And I’m going to miss the fact that there’s nobody left on the planet who can do that, and the comedy world is poorer for it today.”

You can watch Seth Meyers’ tribute to MacDonald, above.

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