The late Norm Macdonald was obviously famous for his stand-up comedy, his work on Saturday Night Live and his lengthy Twitter threads about impromptu slumber parties with rock music legends.
But on social media, Macdonald routinely goes viral thanks to old clips of his talk show appearances, be it the iconic Moth joke, or the time he murdered Carrot Top’s movie career on network television.
During a 1997 episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Macdonald was asked to stick around for the next guest’s segment. So the comedian scooched over, taking a seat next to Andy Richter in order to make room for Melrose Place star Courtney Thorne-Smith.
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The ever-mischievous Macdonald unsurprisingly couldn’t resist making the odd comedic interjection. But things really took a turn when Thorne-Smith, who was exiting the prime-time soap, announced that she had just shot a movie with prop comic Carrot Top. “Wait a minute, she left Melrose Place to do a movie with Carrot Top?” Macdonald asked.
After Conan noted that he was suddenly jealous of Carrot Top, Thorne-Smith joked that the movie had a ton of love scenes. “It’s like 9½ Weeks, but Carrot Top,” she quipped. “Is it called 9½ Seconds?” Macdonald said, adding, “like he’s a premature ejaculator.”
After the actress pointed out that the title of the project was still up in the air, Macdonald, once again, just couldn’t help himself. “If it’s got Carrot Top in it, you know what a good name for it would be? Box Office Poison.”
Then, in the final moments of the already chaotic interview, Thorne-Smith recalled that the movie was going to be called Chairman of the Board. “Do something with that you freak,” O’Brien served up to the comedian.
“I bet the ‘board’ is spelled ‘B-O-R-E-D,’” Macdonald fired back.
While Macdonald may have been correct about the moviegoing audience’s appetite for a big-screen Carrot Top vehicle, a lesser-known epilogue to this story is the fact that Macdonald immediately made amends with the red-haired comedian.
According The Times Colonist, Macdonald apologized to Carrot Top the day after the episode aired. “I kind of felt bad after that,” he admitted. “I was always too relaxed on that show. It was just like I’m in a room talking with (Conan). I forgot that Carrot Top might be watching.”
Carrot Top has claimed that he harbors no ill-will toward Macdonald, but he also argued that the “B-O-R-E-D” line was hacky, because the joke had already been made by him and others on the set of the movie. Meanwhile, Thorne-Smith has gone on the record as saying that, despite Conan’s concern that she may have been upset by Macdonald, she “authentically, was having a great time. I was laughing so hard I was crying.”
So at least something funny came out of Chairman of the Board.
