A video of comedian Norm Macdonald has gone viral following the Saturday Night Live cast member’s death at the age of 61 following a private nine-year battle with cancer.
An edited clip of Harrison Greenbaum’s routine during Last Comic Standing was recently shared to Twitter by Washington Examiner and The Daily Wire editor and contributor Harry Khachatrian.
That time Norm Macdonald actually murdered a comic for a lazy Christianity joke referencing Harry Potter. How did nobody call 911 after witnessing this? https://t.co/1LZmmgfatt pic.twitter.com/IBBWfMYHvS
— Harry Khachatrian (@Harry1T6) September 15, 2021
As you can see in the clip above, Greenbaum begins his routine stating, “I actually got into an argument on the subway and the guy quoted the Bible at me. That is not fair. You get to quote from your favorite book, I should get to quote from my favorite book, right?”
He continued, “He was like, ‘Men do not live on bread alone. Matthew’s 4:4.’ And I was like, ‘Everyone’s a little bit magic. Harry Potter Chapter 7.'”
He concluded the joke, “It’s not a fair fight, right? One of those books is a classic about a man who has sacrificed himself for the good of the world. And the other is the Bible. Do you know what I’m saying people?”
The video then cuts to the judges’ reaction to his routine. Roseanne Barr would state, “Well, I just love you Harrison. You’re fantastic. And you are real brave. The stuff you are talking about, Bible jokes, that’s some brave [bleep].”
Macdonald then chimed in, “I disagree. I don’t think the Bible joke was brave at all. I think if you are going to take on an entire religion, you should maybe know what you are talking about.”
“J.K. Rowling is a Christian and J.K. Rowling famously said that if you are familiar with the scriptures that you can easily guess the ending of her book,” Macdonald concluded. “I don’t like it.”
In fact, Rowling talked about how Harry Potter paralleled her Christian faith. Back in 2007, she stated, “To me, the religious parallels have always been obvious.”
She added, “But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”
What do you make of Macdonald’s criticism of Greenbaum’s joke?