Norm MacDonald

Getting shit-canned from Saturday Night Live is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Notable names with blink-and-you-missed-them SNL careers include Sarah Silverman, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Christopher Guest, Janeane Garofalo and Ben Stiller. To the best of our knowledge, however, Norm MacDonald’s the only former cast member to turn being deemed a “not ready for prime-time player” into his schtick for awhile. Not only did MacDonald make several memorable late-night talk show appearances hilariously recounting the circumstances of his 1998 sacking, he got maybe the ultimate comedy revenge when they asked him back to host the show the following year. “I haven’t gotten funnier,” MacDonald famously said in his opening monologue, “the show has gotten really bad.” But MacDonald, currently the best part of Cartoon Network’s wonderful Mike Tyson Mysteries, has gotten funnier with each passing year, as witnessed in 2008’s damn-near avant-garde roasting of Bob Saget and 2011’s dark, beautiful and twisted Me Doing Standup, to name just two examples.