Thank you, God and Norm Macdonald
Every once in a while, I’ll run into Conan and he’ll apologize, and I say, ‘That was one of my favorite moments of my life.’ Teased by Norm Macdonald? Are you kidding? I did The Tonight Show once, and Don Rickles made fun of my father, and my father never stopped talking about it. This is my version of that.
I told a story about my father telling a joke at my sister’s wedding, and then Don Rickles just went off on my father being crazy, and it was the high point of my father’s life. That’s how I felt when Norm teased me. It didn’t even occur to me that it could possibly be negative. I was beside myself.
I was there to promote Chairman of the Board. I was not thrilled about having to do it, so when Norm took over, I’m like, Oh, thank you, God and Norm Macdonald. It was a blessing. Look — had I thought that Chairman of the Board was my path to an Oscar, I might have been offended. I did not. So it was a joy to be teased about it. Because I didn’t know what I was going to say [on the show]. I was like, Good, Norm, you take over.
— Courtney Thorne-Smith