Norm Macdonald Exacerbates #MeToo Backlash with 'Down Syndrome' Joke and Advice for Women Offended by Louis C.K.

“Norm Macdonald Has a Show” premieres on Netflix Friday, and the comedian isn’t holding back controversial comments as he promotes it.

Norm Macdonald is not good at interviews. He doesn’t think so, and neither do the people he pissed off by sticking up for fellow comics Roseanne Barr and Louis C.K. in a Hollywood Reporter interview that ultimately led to his "Tonight Show" appearance being bumped on Tuesday.

Well, the comedian promoting his new Netflix show (simply titled "Norm Macdonald Has a Show") didn’t do himself any favors on Wednesday by dropping comments likely to fire up more backlash on "The Howard Stern Show" as well as in a USA Today interview.

"I wish I never had to do an interview, especially print interviews," he told Stern, suggesting celebrities risk their comments being taken out of context in print interviews. "They put things together that you’re saying —- You know, I’m a f–king dumb guy, I get confused and shit, so they’re asking me a whole bunch of things at the same time."

And then he went and said this: "You’d have to have Down Syndrome — my new word — you’d have to have Down Syndrome to not feel sorry for [victims]. #MeToo is what you want for your daughters and you want that to be your future world, of course. And I meet all kinds of women with terrible stories of what’s happened to them. So, I wasn’t talking about the victims. They asked me about Roseanne."

Well, that’s probably not going to fly with anyone close to an individual with the genetic disorder.

The joke(?) comes a day after Macdonald came under fire for sharing his thoughts on the #MeToo movement and Barr with THR, revealing that he asked C.K. to call her after her racist tweet led to her hit "Roseanne" reboot being cancelled by ABC. Here’s what he said in the controversial interview published Tuesday.

MACDONALD: I’m happy the #MeToo movement has slowed down a little bit. It used to be, "One hundred women can’t be lying." And then it became, "One woman can’t lie." And that became, "I believe all women." And then you’re like, "What?" Like, that Chris Hardwick guy I really thought got the blunt end of the stick there.

THR: What about when someone admits to wrongdoing?**

MACDONALD:The model used to be: admit wrongdoing, show complete contrition and then we give you a second chance. Now it’s admit wrongdoing and you’re finished. And so the only way to survive is to deny, deny, deny. That’s not healthy — that there is no forgiveness. I do think that at some point it will end with a completely innocent person of prominence sticking a gun in his head and ending it. That’s my guess. I know a couple of people this has happened to.

THR: Who?

MACDONALD: Well, Louis [C.K.] and Roseanne [Barr] are the two people I know. And Roseanne was so broken up [after her show’s reboot was canceled] that I got Louis to call her, even though Roseanne was very hard on Louis before that. But she was just so broken and just crying constantly. There are very few people that have gone through what they have, losing everything in a day. Of course, people will go, "What about the victims?" But you know what? The victims didn’t have to go through that.

Macdonald told Stern he "never defended" C.K. or Barr, and added, "I am completely behind the #MeToo movement."

In another interview published today, but conducted earlier this week, Macdonald made another attempt at humor that will surely only incite more outrage.

While explaining he thinks it’s up to the audience to determine if it’s "too soon" for C.K. to start performing again after admitting to masturbating in front of women without their consent, he was informed that some women at C.K.’s surprise Comedy Cellar set told the media afterward they were uncomfortable in the audience.

"Oh, did they? Well, those women should get their money back, because I know it was a surprise set. I wasn’t there, but everything I heard about it was that he did very well. But if some women were upset, the Comedy Cellar should give them their money back and $200 each," he said. "I think they could get through the trauma if they were paid $200 and could buy some nice shoes."

While on Stern, he also gave a behind-the-scenes account of how Jimmy Fallon personally told him backstage they were cancelling his appearance. Read the entire story below:

"Jimmy comes to me … and he was like, ‘How should we play this? I said ‘I think we should say it at the end because if you say it at the beginning, you can’t come back from that.’ And he said, ‘What am I supposed to ask?’ And I said, "Jimmy, I don’t exactly know.’ So he leaves. Then someone suggested I start the show with an apology, and I go, ‘It’s not my show.’ And Jimmy came back in and said ‘Can I talk to you, buddy?’ He was very broken up about it. And he said ‘I don’t know what to do. And I said ‘Should I not do the show?’ And he said. ‘I don’t know. It’s just that I have so much pressure from so many people.’ He goes, ‘People are crying.’ And I say, ‘People are crying?!’ And he said, ‘Yeah. Senior producers are crying.’ And I said ‘Good lord! Bring them in and let me talk to them. I don’t want to make people cry.’ So Jimmy said, ‘Come back whenever you want, but I think it will hurt the show tonight. And I said, ‘Jimmy I don’t want to hurt your show. That is the last thing I want to do.’"

He apologized for his comments to THR earlier on Tuesday in a tweet.


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