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Saturday Night Live‘s Season 47 premiere paid tribute to former “Weekend Update” anchor Norm Macdonald following the 61-year-old comedian’s death from cancer last month.
During the new season’s first “Weekend Update” segment, cast member Pete Davidson sported a t-shirt emblazoned with Macdonald’s face on it when he stopped by to discuss his 2021 Met Gala experience with “Update” anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che.
Shortly after, the long-running comedy series used the last few minutes of the segment to honor Macdonald in a bigger way.
“It is a bittersweet night for us tonight,” Jost said. “Norm is the reason I ever wanted to do ‘Weekend Update,’ and so tonight, we thought we’d turn the last few jokes of ‘Update’ over to Norm.”
SNL then played a highlight reel of some of Macdonald’s greatest hits, delivering what he called “the fake news” long before the term was popularized. During the package, Macdonald joked about the O.J. Simpson trial, former President Bill Clinton’s views on same-sex marriage (“not too crazy about opposite-sex marriages”), and more before signing off with “that’s the way it is folks…goodnight and good luck.”
Macdonald starred on SNL from 1993 to 1998, and served as “Weekend Update” anchor for three seasons. The comedian has attributed his 1998 firing to continued assertions that Simpson was a murderer, which displeased Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC’s West Coast division (who was friends with Simpson). However, Macdonald later returned to host the show in 1999.
SNL issued a statement in response to Macdonald’s death, which read: “Today is a sad day. All of us here at SNL mourn the loss of Norm Macdonald, one of the most impactful comedic voices of his or any other generation. There are so many things that we’ll miss about Norm — from his unflinching integrity to his generosity to his consistent ability to surprise. But most of all he was just plain funny. No one was funny like Norm.”
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Scroll up to watch the show’s tribute to Macdonald.
