A ‘Delusional’ Jay Mohr Thought That Lorne Michaels Would Ask Him to Play Norm Macdonald for ‘SNL50’
It seems as though most surviving former Saturday Night Live cast members were invited to attend February’s 50th anniversary celebration, even if they weren’t actually participating in the show itself. And while some ex-SNL stars bailed on the event for mysterious reasons, others were more than happy to come sit in the audience.
In the latter camp was Jay Mohr, who called his time at SNL50 the “greatest weekend of my life.” But according to Mohr, he did believe that there was a slight chance that he might be asked to fill in for a deceased star.
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During a recent episode of his podcast Mohr Stories, the one-time Jerry Maguire villain told guest Will Forte that he spent the lead-up to the show fantasizing that Lorne Michaels and company would request that he impersonate the late Norm Macdonald. “(In) my delusional brain at SNL50, I’m like, at the last minute, they’re going to be like, ‘We need someone to do Norm,’” Mohr told Forte. “Like that was what I never told my wife I was thinking from Thursday to Sunday.”
While the idea of impersonating a dead cast member may seem a little odd, in Mohr’s defense, he does do a really great Norm Macdonald impression.
Plus, it’s not like there isn’t a precedent for dressing up like dead comedians on Saturday Night Live anniversary specials, lest we forget that Emma Stone took over for Gilda Radner on SNL40, and Melissa McCarthy put on Chris Farley’s old suit.
But importantly, Stone and McCarthy were embodying famous SNL characters, whereas playing Norm Macdonald would just mean pretending to be a real man who is no longer with us.
Come to think of it, SNL50 didn’t really offer up much of a tribute to Macdonald, except of course for that one moment in Adam Sandler’s song:
Also on the subject of Macdonald, Mohr claimed that the Dirty Work star had a “danger” to him, as evidenced by the time he “dropped (SNL writer) Ian Maxtone-Graham with one punch.” As the story goes, Macdonald was smoking a cigarette in the writers’ room even though smoking was banned. “Ian Maxtone-Graham, all 6-foot-9 of him with his ascot — he looked like Neidermeyer (from Revenge of the Nerds) — he walks in and just takes his water and pours it on Norm’s lap to put the cigarette out. And Norm just gets up — Whap! One shot (and he’s) unconscious. Like in a movie.”
Thankfully, Mohr didn’t start randomly decking staffers at SNL50 just in case he needed to be in character.
