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The presentation of it underscores that monumentality.
On one side, theres the heaviness ofMacdonalds deathand his memory.
On the other side is the special itself, which is not quite ephemeral, but its close.
The chief tension is between the gravity of the circumstances and the slightness of the special itself.
Its not as though the special is atypical of Macdonalds earlier work.
It feels like a Norm Macdonald special, with all the delight and baggage that carries with it.
He has material on reparations and Me Too and a section of fat jokes.
Macdonald has a perpetual impulse tomake things up.
He invents a wife named Ruth for the sake of a few throwaway lines.
We can applaud him for his ability to define that space, but the result still feels like emptiness.
It does not stand well on its own.
Like the comedians gathered at the end, its an invitation.
