Norm Macdonald's deadpan Twitter campaign was a Cool Golf Thing

Comedian Norm Macdonald died on Tuesday at the age of 61. Unbeknownst to the world outside a close circle of friends, he had been battling cancer for nearly a decade. Per Macdonald's point of view, the outcome was a draw (NSFW language here).

Macdonald was a fan of golf. Longtime Twitter users have are well aware of his penchant for live-tweeting the action of certain tournaments in dry, play-by-play fashion. The effect was peculiar, which meant that it was precisely in the wheelhouse of a comic who, at the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget in 2008, delivered a performance so spectacularly self-consciously bad and awkward that it has been hailed as one of his funniest all-time performances.

When it came to golf, Macdonald's output was largely mundane. The vast majority of the time, he simply reported what was going on during the telecast. Was it subtle satire of golf's historically stiff public image?

Macdonald did get excited occasionally, though. While Tiger Woods was winning the 2019 Masters, the Canadian comedian was as delirious as the rest of Golf Twitter.

It is fitting that Macdonald was a master of the shaggy-dog story joke, which starts off seemingly with a point, meanders to unexpected places, trails off, eventually picks itself up but ultimately ends absurdly. Isn't that the story of just about every round of golf?

Cool Golf Things

March 22, 2019

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