norm-macdonald
Norm MacDonald on his new Netflix show (photo: Eddy Chen / Netflix)

Norm Macdonald apologizes for Louis CK & Roseanne comments (after Jimmy Fallon cancelled)

Comedian Norm Macdonald was scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday (9/11) to promote his new Netflix talk show, Norm Macdonald Has a Show. That appearance was cancelled, though, following a controversial interview Macdonald gave with The Hollywood Reporter. In the interview, Macdonald said he’s “happy the #MeToo movement has slowed down a little bit,” and expressed sympathy for Chris Hardwick, Louis C.K., and Roseanne Barr:

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.

What about when someone admits to wrongdoing?

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.

Who?

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 posted an apology to Twitter for his comments, saying, “Roseanne and Louis have both been very good friends of mine for many years. They both made terrible mistakes and I would never defend their actions. If my words sounded like I was minimizing the pain that their victims feel to this day, I am deeply sorry.”

On a Howard Stern interview on Wednesday (9/12), Macdonald expressed further regret over his comments, saying, “‘you’d have to have Down syndrome to not feel sorry’ for harassment victims,” as Deadline reports.

Norm Macdonald Has a Show, at least for now, and it’s scheduled to premiere Friday (9/14) on Netflix.