Jim Norton cancels three AT&T Stadium shows for Ed Sheeran
The bit keeps escalating, and now it has a Cowboys owner in it.
Jim Norton has cancelled three shows at AT&T Stadium, and says Jerry Jones took it hard.
"Jerry Jones begged me not to cancel my 3 shows at @ATTStadium," Norton posted. "We had a great chat, I stand with @edsheeran." That follows his earlier post announcing he was pulling his upcoming shows at LFF Stadium and Gillette Stadium in solidarity with Macklemore.
Jerry Jones begged me not to cancel my 3 shows at @ATTStadium.
To be clear, this is a joke. Norton does not have three nights booked at the home of the Dallas Cowboys, and the running gag is a comedian issuing grave stadium press releases like a headlining arena act with a conscience. The escalation is the point. First two stadiums, then three dates at a bigger one, then a personal phone call from a billionaire owner that we are all supposed to take at face value.
What he is riffing on
The bit is playing off the Ed Sheeran tour drama that Tim Dillon opened his show with on The Tim Dillon Show #513. Dillon says opener Khalid was cut from the tour after saying free Palestine, and claims Robert Kraft pressured Sheeran to drop him, with Sheeran's band and other support acts walking as a result. Dillon, joking, offered to open the tour himself.
That context is where Norton's posts get their shape. Musicians walking off a tour in solidarity is the format, so Norton adopts it with nothing at stake, and the joke works because the language of a solidarity statement sounds the same whether you are pulling out of a stadium run or not pulling out of anything at all.
The Gillette Stadium detail in the first post lines up with Kraft's name, which is doing the actual work in Dillon's story. The AT&T Stadium follow up swaps in Jerry Jones, who has nothing to do with any of it, which is funnier.
Episode #513 of The Tim Dillon Show is the one to watch for the tour drama Dillon is describing. Norton's version is three sentences on X and no refunds required.
In solidarity with @macklemore, I am cancelling my upcoming shows at @LFFStadium and @GilletteStadium.
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