Netflix/Eddy Chen(NEW YORK) — Norm Macdonald faced an online backlash on Tuesday, as well as the cancellation of his scheduled Tonight Show appearance, following controversial comments he made about the #MeToo movement.
NBC abruptly canceled the appearance following an interview published in The Hollywood Reporter in which the Saturday Night Live alum said he was “happy the #MeToo movement has slowed down a little bit.”
“Out of sensitivity to our audience and in light of Norm Macdonald’s comments in the press today, The Tonight Show has decided to cancel his appearance on Tuesday’s telecast,” a spokesperson for the late-night talk show said on Tuesday, according to Deadline.
Macdonald, who was promoting his upcoming Netflix series, Norm Macdonald Has a Show, debuting on Friday, also told THR that he sympathized with his fellow comics Roseanne Barr and Louis C.K.
“Roseanne was so broken up [after her show’s reboot was canceled] that I got Louis to call her, even though Roseanne was very hard on Louis before that,” he said. “But she was just so broken and just crying constantly. There are very few people that have gone through what they have, losing everything in a day.”
“Of course, people will go, ‘What about the victims?'” he added, “But you know what? The victims didn’t have to go through that.”
Macdonald later tweeted an apology for the comments, explaining, “Roseanne and Louis have both been very good friends of mine for many years,” Macdonald tweeted Tuesday evening. “They both made terrible mistakes and I would never defend their actions. If my words sounded like I was minimizing the pain that their victims feel to this day, I am deeply sorry.”
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