About This Bit
Norm Macdonald tells his legendary, long-form 'Moth Joke' on The Tonight Show—a masterpiece of shaggy-dog storytelling that subverts the traditional joke structure with an anticlimactic punchline.
Why We Love Norm's Moth Joke
- Signature Norm subversion: An epic, tragic setup with a tiny, absurd punchline flips the traditional joke structure on its head.
- Commitment as comedy: The humor lives in Norm's deadpan delivery of an overwrought backstory—the final line is almost secondary.
- Meta framing: Crediting the 'driver' as the source is a wink at how comedians discuss their material (and often steal it).
- Perfect room work: Conan's visible confusion mirrors the audience's rising laughter—the release at the punchline lands huge precisely because the setup is so grand.
- Existential comedy: The moth's monologue touches on real pain—cowardice, mortality, alienation—while dressed in absurdist language.
Key Moments
- 0:00–0:40: Intro framing — Norm says his 'strongest material comes from real life,' specifically a joke his driver told him—already meta and funny.
- 0:40–4:10: The Moth's monologue — An existential spiral about a moth's bureaucratic job, failed marriage, dead daughter, and cowardice—increasingly tragic and absurd.
- 4:10–4:20: The podiatrist's question — 'Why on Earth did you come to my office?'—the setup for the punchline.
- 4:20–4:25: The punchline — 'Because the light was on.'—a tiny, silly answer that undercuts the massive tragedy before it.