Yesterday, Norm Macdonald suggested that Roseanne Barr and Louis CK having to watch their careers collapse in an instant was worse than what the victims of sexual harassment or racist comments have had to deal with. It was an enormously stupid comment that got Macdonald booted from last night’s episode of The Tonight Show, and he later issued a semi-apology that didn’t directly take any blame for the bad thing he said.
The smart move then would’ve been to leave it at that and shut up for a while, but instead, Macdonald went on Howard Stern’s show this morning and said, “you’d have to have Down syndrome to not feel sorry” for the victims of harassment. That comes from Deadline, which says Macdonald then repeated “Down syndrome” and said it’s his “new word,” as if he—a professional comedian and adult—just decided that it’s a totally normal and funny thing to say.
This came after Macdonald told Stern that he now wishes he never had to do any interviews because he’s “a fucking dumb guy” who gets “confused a lot,” which seems like the most direct acknowledgement of his mistakes that he’s going to make. To further prove that point, Macdonald also recently said in a USA Today interview that any women who were offended by Louis CK’s recent surprise set at the Comedy Cellar should get their money back plus $200 so they “could buy some nice shoes.”
He’s clearly doing a joke, as it doesn’t seem like he’s really that much of a callous misogynist, but it’s just more proof that he’s doing an absolutely terrible job of handling this. It would almost be impressive that someone can fuck up this thoroughly if it weren’t also extremely frustrating.