Norm Macdonald Pointed Out the Biggest Problem With The Fantastic Four

Marvel’s iconic superhero team, the Fantastic Four, have been starring in comic books since 1961 and appearing in godawful movies since 1994. Now they’re back on the big screen in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a big-budget MCU adventure/novelty popcorn bucket Ponzi scheme. 

But there’s a big problem with the Fantastic Four, one that was perfectly elucidated by the late Norm Macdonald nearly 20 years ago: their individual superhero names.

In 2006, Macdonald released the sketch comedy album Ridiculous, which even dedicated fans of the comedian don’t love. It seems as though Macdonald’s promotional efforts for the album were more memorable than the album itself, specifically the time he appeared on The Daily Show and joked about the death of Steve Irwin, mere weeks after the “Crocodile Hunter” was killed. 

“Please don’t make me laugh at this,” Jon Stewart begged his guest.

But the opening track, “The Fantastic Four,” is hilarious. In the sketch, Macdonald plays Reed Richards, leader of the newly-formed team, who assigns individual superhero names for each member. “Ben Grimm you are a rock-like thing of a man, you will be called The Thing,” Macdonald-as-Reed declares. “Sue Storm, you are a woman who has the power to make herself invisible. The Invisible Woman is your name from now on. Johnny Storm, you are human, and yet you are a torch — the Human Torch!”

“And I, Reed Richards,” he continues, “can stretch my body like a rubber band. I will be… Mr. Fantastic!”

But the rest of the group takes issue with Reed giving himself such a self-aggrandizing name. “We all have fantastic powers, but we’re called what we do,” the Human Torch argues. The group then suggests some alternate names for Richards, including “Stretch Guy,” “El-Strecho” and “Mr. Stretchy Arms.” But he doesn’t care for them.

After arguing about this for several minutes, Richards petulantly relents. “You don’t want me to be called Mr. Fantastic? Okay I won’t be Mr. Fantastic. You can call me Mr. Assface. I’m changing my name.” 

Oddly enough, Marvel actually addressed the subject of Mr. Fantastic’s name selection in a 2002 comic. “‘Mr. Fantastic.’ Does that sound like something anyone would really want to call themselves?” Richards asks his young daughter. “No. But that’s the kind of thing that made headlines. And T-shirts. And action figures.” He also said that he believed the “Fantastic” branding would “keep people from fearing” the superheroes. 

Then again, maybe Macdonald was right, and he really was really just a big jerk.