Pretentious Dog is skeptical.
As someone who likes both sports and comedy, I’ve always wondered, “Why isn’t there a funny sports show? How come there’s no ‘Daily Show’ for sports, or a humorous alternative to ‘SportsCenter’?” Then “Sports Soup” came along, and I wondered, “Why isn’t there a funny sports show?”
Well, the long wait for such a show may — may – be coming to an end, as Norm MacDonald is developing one with Comedy Central.
The show would be a satirical look at the sports world. On board with MacDonald is Daniel Kellison, a veteran TV producer whose credits include ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The Man Show,” according to person familiar with the project…
The project is still in early stages and has a long way to go before getting a green light from Comedy Central. It may face competition from another sports news spoof show that the Viacom-owned cable network is developing with The Onion, the satirical newspaper. [Show Tracker]
As much as I love Norm MacDonald’s comedy, I’m not sure how well he works as a TV host. As anyone who saw him behind the desk of “Weekend Update” can attest, the man LOVES bathing in failed jokes. And while I happen to enjoy his celebration of anti-humor (see: his intentional bombing at the Bob Saget roast), I’m not sure how well it will play to a more Neandethal-y base of sports fans. So I guess I’ll just keep my fingers crossed. You know, wish in one hand, sh*t in the other, and see which fills up first.
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Because sports comedy sucks. The sports section is easily the worst part of the Onion.
he better get a good sidekick
@dachshund
agreed
but still, his appearance on conan when he tore into courtney thorne-smith is still one of the greatest tv appearances in history
This can’t just be a jokey look at sports headlines. In order for this to work, Norm will have to alienate sports fans. Then he’ll lose sports fans and he won’t have his normal fanbase, and then the show will be left with people who lost their remote.
I’m just curious on how “intentional bombing” is not the same as lazy writing?
“he better get a good sidekick”
And that sidekick? You guessed it, Frank Stallone.
Not sure how well it will go over but the last time I remember MacDonald being involved with sports was the ’98 espy’s monologue where he made the Charles Woodson / Heisman / OJ joke…
But if you watch the reaction shots in the crowd after that joke you’ll see that by and large athletes and those affiliated with pro sports don’t have the best sense of humor about themselves. Might be tough to get clips, guests, etc. for the show.
Wasn’t Sports Soup on Versus? Nobody watches Versus.
I know because I worked on a show for them, and do you know how many people I know who saw it? Zero.
@bigparty: think of it like the difference between a really terrible movie and a movie that is uproariously funny precisely because it is really terrible. It’s actually very difficult to intentionally create the latter, since a big part of the appeal is knowing that the filmmaker was taking it seriously.
It’s sort of like a viral video, the best ones happen organically, while someone who sits down and decides “I’m going to create a viral video” is probably going to fail miserably.
Around The Horn is a hilarious sports show. Have you not seen Woody Paige’s chalkboard messages? Comedy at it’s finest!
DJ Gallo and Drew Magary as writers or get the fuck out!
Can’t they just animate old FireJoeMorgan posts, like the Ricky Gervais show?
One of his best appearances ever IMO: [www.youtube.com]
It’s too bad they can’t name the show “The Best Damn Sports Show Period” because Norm would take roughly 2 minutes just to say that title.
(or so the Germans would have us believe)
i worked on Sports Soup so a) i can tell you that we DID do some funny things although a lot of it was aimed at the dumbass crowd Versus already had (thanks fishing and hunting) so the jokes had to be so tame they were lame and 2) i can give you any insight on SS or how difficult/easy it is to make a sports comedy show.
Dear pinhead blogger, if they watch TDS and CR, they’ll love Norm
He gambles like a sonofabitch though, he lost. Was with him after a Kincks game in Vegas where he lost 30k on and he gets wildly depressed. Don’t bet on meaningless regular season games Norm.
I bet he loses money betting on the predetermined outcome of the sports highlights on his show.
This post prompted me to watch some old Norm interviews and on this appearance of The Daily Show in 2003 Norm makes a joke about Daniel Kellison leaving the Jimmy Kimmel Live show:
[www.thedailyshow.com]
“And I have not been on that scroll, but for YEARS I have been saying that I don’t like the word bootylicious”
I could watch Norm read the newspaper.