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If you’re not following Norm Macdonald on Twitter after last night’s surprise Twitter story about the behind-the-scenes of the SNL 40th Anniversary Special, you’re a damn fool. He broke down the history and origin of one of the greatest SNL sketches of all time, “Celebrity Jeopardy” and talked about how they almost convinced Eddie Murphy to play the role of Bill Cosby in the sketch.
While that part of the story gotten a lot of attention, a lot of people may have missed the fact that Bill Murray, who reprised his role as terrible lounge singer, Nick Ocean singing the “Jaws Theme Song”, almost blew off the show entirely to play golf. Power move.
Norm explains:
Downey had remembered a thing Bill Murray used to do around the office, the theme from Jaws, and thought that would be perfect.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
@dustinesmith Bill Murray singing Jaws was IT, man. My old running buddy, Jim Downey, said Bill used to do it around the office.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 18, 2015
But there was a problem. Bill Murray was in Carmel for the Pro-Am, which he had won a couple of years back with DA Points.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
With Bill Murray, golf always comes first.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
I wish I could take that attitude and somehow have people just accept it. Fuck all my responsibilities, I’m gonna play golf. Unfortunately for the SNL 40 participants, this left them in a bit of an uncertain lurch.
And so it was Saturday and Bill Murray may not make it and Eddie Murphy may not do Jeopardy and who was in charge of Update?
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
So, Norm did the only thing he could do in the situation: He spoke to God, aka SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels.
And Lorne was in his office,which overlooks 8H,which overlooks 40 years of memories.And he was looking out the window, down on to the floor.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
The rest, of course, is history. Bill Murray showed up and absolutely crushed it with Paul Shaffer, and Eddie Murphy didn’t do the Bill Cosby cameo, or much of anything at all, really. All in all, it still turned out to be a pretty fucking awesome show.
Quite a week.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
You said it, Norm..
[via SB Nation]
Image via LaCameraChiara/Shutterstock.com