Norm Macdonald Sought David Letterman’s Approval Before Impersonating Him on ‘SNL’

Norm Macdonald isn’t primarily known for his celebrity impressions, but during his time on Saturday Night Live, he imitated Bob Dole and Burt Reynolds as well as also managed to gift/curse us all with this scarily accurate take on Quentin Tarantino.

But the best Macdonald impression, many would argue, is his David Letterman. 

Impressions of Letterman weren’t totally new to SNL. Back in 1983, Joe Piscopo played the host while he was still part of the NBC family. Piscopo’s Letterman was serviceable, but ultimately, uninspired.

Macdonald, on the other hand, was somehow able to tap into the core of Letterman’s comic persona, only slightly amplifying his mannerisms, and ultimately turning the Late Show star into a frenzied sketch comedy character without all that much exaggeration. And shout-out to Mark McKinney for his overly sycophantic Paul Shaffer. 

Macdonald must have been doing something right, because even now, several decades later, some of us still hear his voice ringing in our heads whenever we ask someone for a piece of gum.

But, of course, Macdonald absolutely loved Letterman, as evidenced by his countless appearances on The Late Show, especially the time that he literally told him that he loved him.

Macdonald was so reverential of Letterman, his comedy hero, that he made sure to secure his permission before performing the impression. 

While Letterman was recuperating from quintuple bypass heart surgery, former Tomorrow Show host Tom Snyder helped out by hosting a few episodes of The Late Show Backstage. On one show, Snyder questioned guest Macdonald about SNL’s Late Show parodies, specifically whether or not he had to “clear it” beforehand. “Not legally,” Macdonald responded. 

Macdonald went on to admit that he did make sure to contact Letterman beforehand. “Yeah, I told him, I won’t do it if you don’t want me to do it. ‘Cause I have, like, great respect for him.” He also noted that the goal wasn’t to make fun of Letterman, so much as to imitate him as closely as possible. “I didn’t want to do it in any way insulting,” Macdonald explained. “So I just tried to do an exact impression, with no comment on it. And then Letterman phoned me and he said he was okay with it.”

“I can only do impressions of guys I really like,” Macdonald added.

While Letterman was obviously a huge fan of Macdonald’s, he may not have been a huge fan of Norm Macdonald’s David Letterman character. During the famous interview between Macdonald and Letterman, which came just a day after Macdonald was fired from Weekend Update, the subject of the impression briefly came up. “Why didn’t they fire that?” Letterman quipped.

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