Norm was a comedian whose audience was never really the folks in the cheap seats. He was playing for other comedians. Even when he was playing to piss them off.

Like that roast where he used an entire deck of generic gags - cards in hand! - and then sat down and opened a newspaper. The laughs he cared about were from people onstage with him. The schmucks at home couldn’t understand it. The professionals around him couldn’t believe it.