Norm Macdonald apologizes for his Down Syndrome remark as The View presses him on #MeToo

Entertainment Weekly

Macdonald's press tour to promote his new Netflix talk show Norm Macdonald Has a Show has turned into an endless apology tour as the comedian appeared on The View this morning. “It’s always bad when you have to apologize for the apology,” a miserable-looking Macdonald said in apologizing for telling Howard Stern yesterday that “you’d have to have Down syndrome” not to feel sorry for victims of sexual abuse. “There used to be a word we would all say to mean stupid that we wouldn’t say any more," he said. "You know the word I’m talking about? Stupidly I was about to say that word and I stopped and (wondered) what the right word was to say, and I said a different word that was equally (offensive). I realized at that moment I said something unforgivable…The remark I made about people with Down syndrome is terrible.” Joy Behar asked him about his comments in The Hollywood Reporter dwelling on the hardships faced by Roseanne Barr and Louis CK. "That doesn't compute," Behar said. "Can you explain yourself a little?" Macdonald explained that he was saying that their victims didn't go through this. "This particular event," he said. "Of course, the victims have gone through worse than that. But am I going to get a victim to phone Roseanne?” Towards the end of the interview when Whoopi Goldberg brought up his Netflix show, Macdonald said, “I feel a little weird plugging it at this point.”