Norm MacDonald has spent his life telling jokes as a stand-up comedian. But today, it was announced that MacDonald may have pulled off his greatest joke ever…..he is now the host of High Stakes Poker.
No this isn’t some spoof post as the last statement was completely true. MacDonald has taken over the High Stakes Poker hosting duties from the more-than-capable Gabe Kaplan. Kaplan was revered throughout the poker community for his ability to analyze hands and insight into the games. Don’t expect the same from MacDonald, who was obviously brought on here to provide humor instead of concrete poker analysis.
Now don’t get me wrong, I thought that MacDonald was pretty funny on Saturday Night Live, and in pretty much everything else he’s done. However, the idea of replacing Kaplan on a show that’s already successful is baffling to me. This all reminds me of when Monday Night Football brought Dennis Miller on as an announcer because they thought he could be the boost of humor that the announcers booth needed; the plan went down in flames.
I can’t quite say that this plan will go down in flames too, but I don’t see MacDonald dispensing nearly the amount of poker knowledge that Kaplan did. Sure MacDonald has a few live tournament cashes, he plays poker with his buddy Sam Simon (formerly The Simpsons producer), and he will be funnier than Kaplan; however, I don’t see the need to further mess up something that was already successful – even after ousting A.J. Benza in favor of Kara Scott.
In any case, I guess it will be interesting to see if the combination of MacDonald and Scott will further High Stakes Poker, or start its decline.
