I literally gasped when I heard this. There is something uniquely sad when one's favorite comedian passes away.
There were many things that made him special, but one thing stands out right now:
I don't think I've ever seen a comedian pursue Truth so rigorously. So much of his comedy was him shining a light on a given topic and giving 100% unflinching attention toward it, even if everyone else wanted to ignore it or "move on". This often made the "joke" the audience, in that we found ourselves laughing when we thought we shouldn't be. But why shouldn't we be laughing? Why shouldn't we be discussing this? Wait, why is this uncomfortable in the first place? Have I thought about this enough?
Norm MacDonald and Patrice O'Neal's comedy should be studied by every comedian as they pursued comedy and nothing else. No social saintness or political hackery.
If there were a Michelin star, we just lost two three star Michelins in about a decade... There aren't many (perhaps even any) left to fill this void.
Thank you for mentioning Patrice O'Neal and Norm MacDonald in the same breath. We really lost comedy greats that cannot be filled by anyone anytime soon.
There were many things that made him special, but one thing stands out right now:
I don't think I've ever seen a comedian pursue Truth so rigorously. So much of his comedy was him shining a light on a given topic and giving 100% unflinching attention toward it, even if everyone else wanted to ignore it or "move on". This often made the "joke" the audience, in that we found ourselves laughing when we thought we shouldn't be. But why shouldn't we be laughing? Why shouldn't we be discussing this? Wait, why is this uncomfortable in the first place? Have I thought about this enough?