| MOTH | Insect found in the theme entries (and the subject of a famous joke told by Norm Macdonald) |
| SEA | "I'm on a ___food diet: I see food, and if it's a fish, I eat it" (groaner told by Norm MacDonald's son Dylan in a 2014 podcast) |
| HORSECHESTNUT | Old joke told by Quick Draw McGraw? |
| NEWYORKKNICKS | Team in the NBA Finals ... it finishes strong in our seven theme entries and, hopefully, in the series, too |
| KFC | Fast-food chain whose spokesman has been played in ads by Norm MacDonald and Jim Gaffigan |
| BURT | Reynolds parodied by Norm MacDonald in "Celebrity Jeopardy!" sketches on "SNL" |
| FREESTYLESKIING | Winter Olympics discipline, as illustrated in this puzzle's theme entries (and title) |
| DOLE | Also-ran played by Norm Macdonald |
| GROANED | Reacted to a joke told by 55-Across, probably |
| LGA | NYC airport found in the theme answers |
| ISH | Suffix meaning "sorta" (found in the theme answers) |
| BROKENARROW | 1996 Travolta/Slater film (or what's found in the theme answers) |
| NATO | Alliance whose full name is spelled out by the first words of the four theme entries -- and which 16-Across formally joined on March 27 |
| SUPERBOWL | Event that could feature any of the athletes found in five squares in this puzzle ... and a Feb. 9, 2025, event featuring the athletes spelled out in the first letters of five Across entries and then |
| JONES | American locomotive engineer - killed in a train crash and the subject of a famous ballad (5, 5) |
| DAVIDBOWIE | Rock legend who hoaxed the art world in 1998 by promoting Nat Tate, a nonexistent painter and the subject of a novel presented as a full-length biography |
| DNA | National ___ Day (April 25, commemorating the 1953 publication of the discovery of its double-helix structure; you can discover six strands of it in the theme entries) |
| COLDOPEN | Certain TV intro ... or a description of each of 12 letters in the grid (the starts of six Across entries and then six Down entries) that spell out an alternate title for this puzzle |
| LETTER | A different one (or two) of this makes the first sound in the theme entries' words, despite their alliteration |
| MATADOR | Hero with a cape, and the subject of a Gretchen Peters song with the line "I knew it when I threw the rose" |
