Norm Macdonald: Hitler's Dog, Gossip & Trickery

Norm MacDonald's genius is in the expectations of where his anecdotes and observations will take a turn. The finale of this special is a key example as he starts with saying a deep and true thing that with all the problems in the world and so on loving one another is the most important thing... And this leads into describing (in a first person imitation as Norm can do) of Hitler's dog and how much he loved the guy because... Well, dogs love people and don't judge.

I almost feel weird explaining a joke like that, or how he'll take apart things like Wikipedia or how we use our phones (they didn't used to be 'magic' is the premise of that bit) or the absurdity in the commandment "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's ox." Nevermind the fact that no one in like 500 years has seen an ox let alone referred to that commandment that way - that I think is part of the joke - so much of the laughs, and I found as many and as hearty to be had as in the best of the Chappelle or Louis CK specials (also new on Netflix in 2017.

The key I think is that Norm comes off so... Unassuming. He's not a comic that has a rapid fire or super-high energy delivery, he takes his time with every bit he does, and it's like being drawn in to a trick (again with the subtitle of the special). There's a YouTube reviewer called the Nerdwriter who goes more in depth but the key thing is that there's a magic level to what Norm does, and not in a cheesy way, I mean that you are pulled in little by little as he does each movement of thought and winds up at something that is .... Whoa. His comedy is absurd and wholly delightful, and the intelligence behind it could cut through ten plates of glass.

If nothing else his bit about bringing back the word 'score' ala Abraham Lincoln and George Washington cutting down the tree would get this three stars by default. There's more though so it gets the bump up to just shy of 5 (maybe a couple of minutes fell flat for me but only a couple).