Norm Macdonald’s Weekend Update gags about Sly Stallone’s less famous brother were a lesson in anti-comedy. There was nothing particularly funny about invoking his name week after week, but the sheer silly repetition of “You guessed it — Frank Stallone” got more laughs every time Macdonald repeated the bit.
Like Macdonald’s constant jokes about David Hasselhoff’s popularity in Germany, the out-of-nowhere reference was the source of the funny. While Macdonald never cleared the bits with Frank Stallone, he did get the chance to discuss the recurring gags with his big brother, Sylvester.
When the Rocky star hosted the Saturday Night Live season opener in 1997, he wanted to have a word with the Weekend Update host. Specifically, he found Macdonald and asked, “What the fuck with Frank?”
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Macdonald told Stallone that he didn’t mean anything by the jokes. “It’s a complete non-sequitur,” he explained. “It’s ridiculous.”
Stallone understood, but he remained protective of his younger sibling. “The thing with Frank is, after Rocky, he decided to become a boxer,” Stallone told Macdonald. “He’d go in the ring. It would say, like, ‘The Italian Stallion’s Brother.’ Every boxer in Philadelphia just beat the shit out of him.”
Sly tried to gain Macdonald’s sympathy. “He’s never been right since, and I feel guilty about it,” he confessed. “If you could just lay off him for a while…”
Not wanting to beat a man while he was down, as it were, Macdonald never did another Frank Stallone joke.
What did Frank Stallone think about being blamed for unemployment, toxic waste or the mass murder of fish? “I never got it,” he said in a BroBible interview. “A lot of people thought it was funnier than I do.”
If he was going to be the butt of the jokes, Stallone at least wanted in on the bit. His idea: “You know that picture of me behind him? I wanted to come through it and strangle him. I thought that would be a great funny thing, like the picture comes alive.”
Though Stallone never got the chance to throttle Macdonald on Saturday Night Live, he was more than gracious when Macdonald passed away in 2021.
“I was saddened to hear that Norm Macdonald passed away today at 61,” Stallone posted on his Instagram account. “He had a lot of fun with me on Weekend Update with, You Guessed It Frank Stallone. I thought it was funny. My only regret was that I never got to do the show with him. I thought he was an original and very funny. My condolences go out to the Macdonald family.”
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