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His father, Percy Macdonald, an Irish-American, served with the Canadian Army during World War II and helped liberate the Netherlands. After the war, he and his wife Fern became teachers, who raised three sons, Norm, Leslie, and Neil, an award-winning journalist with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Norm Macdonald attended grade school in the early 1970s at Alexander Wolff School on Canadian Forces Base Valcartier outside Quebec City, where his parents taught. His father was his genetics teacher in grades 6 and 7, and required Norm to address him as "Mr. Macdonald". After completing Grade 7 at AWS, he continued his education at Quebec High School in Quebec City, the same school as fellow comedians Mike Ward and Maxim Martin.

There are a number of conflicting stories about his educational background:

• He dropped out of high school at the age of 15.
• He attended Algonquin College in Ottawa, Ontario, majoring in broadcasting, where he ran for President of the student union against Warren Love, but dropped out to pursue a career in show business.
• He has also claimed to have attended Carleton University in Ottawa to study math, and to have played Junior AAA hockey in Ottawa.

Macdonald joined the cast of NBC's popular Saturday Night Live (SNL) program in 1993, where he occasionally did impressions of Larry King, Burt Reynolds, David Letterman, Charles Kuralt, and Bob Dole, among others.

On Saturday Night Live Macdonald most notably anchored the segment Weekend Update. Chevy Chase, the first anchor of WU, has opined that Macdonald is the only anchor since Chevy's tenure to have "done it right".[1] Macdonald used a deadpan style during the segment, which included repeated references to prison rape, 'crack whores' and the Germans with their love of Baywatch star David Hasselhoff. Macdonald then occasionally would enter an entry into his personal compact tape recorder reminding himself to do something similar to what he just ridiculed. He also commonly and inexplicably used Frank Stallone as a non sequitur punchline. Macdonald would repeatedly noodle public figures such as Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson. Throughout the Simpson trial, Macdonald would constantly pillory the former football star, saying Simpson was guilty of the brutal slaying of his wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. In the broadcast following Simpson's acquittal, Macdonald opened Weekend Update by saying: "Well, it's official: murder is legal in the state of California." He also continued to denounce Simpson after the trial.

After the announcement that Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley planned to divorce, Macdonald joked about their irreconcilable differences on Weekend Update: "She's more of a stay-at-home type, and he's more of a homosexual pedophile." He followed this up a few episodes later with a report about the singer's recent collapse and hospitalization. Referring to a report of how Jackson had decorated his hospital room with giant photographs of Shirley Temple, Macdonald remarked that viewers should not get the wrong idea, adding, "We'd like to remind you that Michael Jackson is, in fact, a homosexual pedophile." The joke elicited audible gasps from some audience members. He responded to this by saying, "What? He is a homosexual pedophile."

Another uncomfortable moment occurred during the April 12, 1997 show when, during a Weekend Update story about Tabitha Soren, he caught a frog in his throat in the middle of a sentence and, live on the air, muttered, "What the fuck was that?" The audience applauded, and Macdonald laughed the error away. At one point, he called it his "farewell performance" and, in closing, said, "Maybe I'll see you next week." NBC only received three complaints about the gaffe, and Macdonald was not punished.

A Rolling Stone magazine article about the show at the time suggested Macdonald had trouble getting along with some fellow cast members, whom he taunted frequently. In the article, Chris Kattan said, "If Norm says I'm gay then put in that I say he's an asshole."[2]

Macdonald's time with Saturday Night Live effectively ended in late 1997 when he was fired from the Weekend Update segment upon the insistence of NBC West Coast Executive Don Ohlmeyer, who pressured the producers to remove him, explaining that Macdonald was "not funny." Some believe that Don Ohlmeyer's friendship with O.J. Simpson — a celebrity whom Macdonald often antagonized on the show — may have fueled Ohlmeyer's decision.[1] Ohlmeyer denied the rumor, arguing that other NBC late-night comedians (e.g., Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and other SNL players) also constantly lampooned Simpson with little to no sanction, and that his decision was based solely on audience reaction through tapes he had personally reviewed. David Letterman and Howard Stern later insisted in interviews with Macdonald that Ohlmeyer was really just carrying out the work of producer Lorne Michaels, who was too cowardly to fire him directly.

On February 28, 1998, one of his last appearances on SNL occurred as host of a fictitious TV show called Who's More Grizzled?, who asked questions of "mountain men" played by that night's host Garth Brooks and special guest Robert Duvall. In the sketch, Brooks' character said to Macdonald's character, "I don't much care for you," to which Macdonald replied, "A lot of people don't."

After Macdonald left SNL, his successor, Colin Quinn, gave a short prologue in his first day anchoring Weekend Update, during which Quinn mentioned that Macdonald had shown him "the ropes" of the segment. Quinn then asked the audience if they ever went to their favorite pub seeking their favorite bartender -- and found him to be replaced by a less qualified man named "Steve". After a brief pause, Quinn deadpanned, "Well I'm Steve, what can I get you." Castmember Will Ferrell then appeared as Chicago Cubs announcer Harry Caray, who repeatedly referred to Quinn as "Norm", adding, "Norm, have you gained some weight?"

In a Late Show with David Letterman interview, Macdonald said that after being fired, he could not "do anything else on any competing show."[3]

• Stan Hooper, a cynical man who exploits other people. (The short-lived FOX sitcom A Minute With Stan Hooper featured a milder version of this character).