Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Norm Macdonald’s gift to Jewish humor

Norm Macdonald, the former Saturday Night Live news anchor and stand-up comic, wasn’t Jewish. But the Canadian-born comedian, who died Tuesday from cancer at the age of 61, left behind two of the greatest Jewish humor moments in recent memory.

Macdonald’s stand up made him famous, but his talk show appearances with Howard Stern, Conan O’Brien, David Letterman and other hosts made him legendary.

“There may be people as funny as Norm Macdonald,” Letterman once said, “but no one is funnier.”

In all those appearances, two now-famous nuggets of Jewish humor sparkle.

“You know with Hitler…”

During an appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” Macdonald related his experience traveling to Holland, which his late father, who fought in World War II as a Canadian soldier, helped liberate.

Macdonald brought the house down with this one simple, deadpan line:

“You know with Hitler, the more I learn about that guy, the more I don’t care for him.”

Macdonald got a bit more play out of the Fuhrer in his Netflix special, “Hitler’s Dog,” named for the one living creature who likely loved him unconditionally.

“Ah, gentile.”

This one you need to invest a few rewarding minutes in watching from start to finish. Suffice it to say that when Norm Macdonald delivers an offhand, two word comeback to Jerry Seinfeld at the end of Seinfeld’s long Jewish joke, Seinfeld himself loses it.

The setting is Macdonald’s small scale eponymous talk show. Seinfeld has just finished a long explanation of how gentiles often miss Jewish humor. He illustrates it by telling a classic Jewish joke (funny) that he promises Macdonald won’t understand. Macdonald, indeed, doesn’t get it (funnier). Then, later, as the show wraps, Seinfeld asks Macdonald if he makes any money doing the show. Macdonald says he doesn’t think so. Seinfeld can’t believe a comedian would show up anywhere for free. Macdonald shrugs, “Ah, gentile.” (Funniest).

“Norm,” said Sarah Silverman, “was in a comedy genre of his own. No one like him on this planet. Please do yourself a favor and watch his stuff.”

Amen, and rest in peace.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.