If you were one of former “Saturday Night Live” star Norm MacDonald’s Twitter followers yesterday, you were in for a tweet. The comedian, who returned to the show for the first time in years for the 40th anniversary show, let loose with well over a 100 tweets about getting ready for the epic show, describing the process of putting together the “Celebrity Jeopardy” sketch, which grew and grew, and what it was like seeing the insane celebrity guest list. Turns out, even “SNL” actors get stopped by security when they try to take a cell phone video of Paul McCartney rehearsing. Notably, if you check the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, MacDonald had something like 420,000 Twitter followers in January, and after his storytelling efforts, he’s now sitting at 516,000. The whole thing is worth reading on his Twitter feed (a brief list of names mentioned includes McCartney, David Spade, Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, and Eddie Murphy for the climax), but we’ve gathered a few highlights here. And we have to give a tip of the hat to the man, who turns out to be a pretty great Twitter storyteller.
I got in early, Monday, so I could write. It was a massive undertaking, a 3 hour show. People were exhausted.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
I saw Lorne, thanked him, congratulated him, and shook his hand as Canadians do. He accepted. Got that out of the way early.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
I came up with the idea of Celebrity Jeopardy years ago by stealing it, note for note, from an SCTV classic, Half-Wits.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
Without Will’s perfect take on Trebek,maddened by the outright hostility of Connery, the faraway uninterest of Burt, the sketch is nothing.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
Among many other things, this show was to be the return of Eddie Murphy.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
The last anniversary was the 25th. Eddie did not attend due to a remark by David Spade. David is a very kind man, but his remark was not.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
Mike and Dana showed up. They were going to do Wayne’s World. I joined the writer’s room, which Mike helmed, and tried to help.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
Mike Myers has an incredible work ethic and no joke is ever good enough and must be beaten, must be beaten. This is what makes him so good.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
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
Eddie Murphy, I realize, is not like the rest of us. Eddie does not need the laughs.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
Eddie Murphy is the coolest, a rockstar even in a room with actual rockstars.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
Quite a week.
— Norm Macdonald (@normmacdonald) February 19, 2015
