If you haven't watched the new Norm Macdonald documentary on Netflix, Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald, I recommend it. It doesn't sugar coat the dumb shit Norm did, nor do those things over shadow the great things he did or who he was. If you love Norm (and Dave) as much as I, you'll probably remember those incidents when they happened. I cried at that moment when you can see on Dave's face how fucking mad he was when Norm said he was fired. Dave continued the vocal hate for Ohlmeyer from that point forward. It's every bit as good as the Martin Short doc for comedy nerds, just different. It sucks having to watch all of those people I've lost all respect for throughout the film, especially after learning they are shameful giant pussies waffling on genocide, or just outright denying it. Apatow does do a good job of making about Norm, and how much everyone loved and respected him as a comic, and not the blowhards/nazis themselves (including Apatow). The Roseanne bit did make me cry a little because I can't explain how much that woman meant to me growing up. I agree with her and Metcalf, that Jackie call when their dad died is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on a sitcom. I've seen it so many times, I can almost recite the entire call (Metcalf was my hero). Roseanne was never quite right in the head, but that was part of her charm. The National Anthem bit was fucking hilarious to this 12 year old shithead. It's a very sad, dark rabbit-hole she got locked in. Wish she had gotten help from the appropriate people when it could have mattered. Don't judge me, the Conners were all I felt I had as a family at times those last few years in that isolated empty house. I was a tv kid and she was my tv mom.
There was about a 5-10 year period when brave people and the universe conspired to reveal that about 60-70% of the people many of us grew up loving and admiring were terrible people and proud cowards. Many of these same people were apparently too stupid to understand that genuine comeuppance, humility and contrition are a huge opportunity for collective social reckoning and growth. It won't erase what you did, and not everyone can forgive and forget, nor should they, but it's a first step to acknowledging your privilege in that moment. By the time Norm said that stupid shit and then doubled-down as only a shit head comedian cannot not do, I had not watched much of anything he'd done in probably 10 years. I still checked on him to see what he was up to every once in while, and from what I remember Norm apologized and it didn't kill his career, because he was authentic. In some circumstances, public humility can eventually be turned into comedy gold when done with care, sincerity and honesty (see Maron and his openness about being an impossible asshole in his early days in comedy). I unintentionally ended up disengaging from the comedy world because of how muddled it got. Learning that there were a whole lot of known sex pests in the scene and a lot of people knew about it and did/said nothing really made me question what I knew about the comedy scene as a whole and question how many were bad faith actors. Holy shit, if I only knew what what coming.
It was the sex pest shit that pushed me away, but all of the boring fucking lib shit during and after Obama didn't help. I just can't with the 10+ years of lazy orange guy bad and dumb, democrats=dumb and lazy but not bad bullshit, it's so Lorne Micheals coded. Yes, I'm sure once Trump is gone this will all go away and it'll be all because the democrats sat on their hands and waited him out. At best, that shit is so stale it's petrified. At worst everyone has always known that was the lowest hanging fruit and meaningfully confronted nothing of consequence, intentionally keeping public discourse to stagnant.
It's the Disnification of America: Everything seemingly shiny, new and history baby-birded to the public to make it easily digestible. You only get the nazi approved cliffsnotes. We only speak in platitudes, headlines, and golden books now. I mean, you have a nazi who openly facilitates genocide through their show on CNN regularly asking democrats why are they so mean. That's where we're (still) at. Where is the constant take down of every public figure pushing fascism? I don't just mean politicians or politics. None of what is happening is just politics and choosing to believe that it is is HUGE part of the problem. During the mega corporate takeover of everything, the unfunny and their benefactors saw an opportunity to kill comedy as a tool of the proletariat, and they took it. Then they put their power behind blaming the victims of sexual abuse, assault and violence to make sure nothing like Me Too ever happens again. And they're still running shit, publishing redacted photos of victims of sexual exploitation, while hiding the identities of those involved in their exploitation, right out in the open on government websites to be disseminated throughout the entire world. Not enough to effectively put a target on their backs, it was to tell those victims and ALL VICTIMS to trust that one will help you. At a time when every single day, all day long, comics and culture commentators/observers, should be lambasting, ripping to shreds the Hitlers, Oswald Mosleys, Henry Fords, and Prescott Bushs of today, those are the guys signing their checks.
And that bit about atheism and faith is 100% right. If you are truly an atheist or an agnostic, you should not give a shit about whether or not someone has faith. If you want to talk about dangerous organized religions, that is not a conversation about faith. That is conversation about spiritual separation and manipulation for political purposes. I know I've said this here many times, but no one should care what god(s) someone does or does not believe in, it's none of your business. It's how you live your life, and if you use your faith or lack thereof as a cudgel to beat people with, that's not about your relationship with a spiritual being, that's your lack of faith or doubt in your own beliefs that requires you to force other people to validate your convictions. Still, not a conversation about converting the faithful. Don't try to convert me, as I will never try to convert you.
As a kid who loved people that didn't do what was expected of them, Norm made you howl at the shit he would say in that delightfully devilish way he'd say it (that he was a nice looking man did not hurt). It was like someone accidentally let this genius maniac loose on the relatively mundane SNL news slot. It was the same way I felt watching Letterman or early Conan, somebody was letting these guys normalize adult comedy and absurdism for the general public and we were all the better for it. I don't know if that had really been done in so many different conventional settings so effortlessly before that era, as overt innuendo or the bonk on your head, over the top shit, that was often just poorly disguised racism, homophobia, or misogyny, was aging itself out of mainstream comedy unless it was drenched in irony or self-deprecation. At least as far as gen X was concerned, anyway. I don't know if that honest, deadpan style was ever so prevalent in the US as it was in the early 80s to mid 90s. We were so lucky to grow up in a very fruitful and varied age of comedy, with parents who at times shared it with us, other times looked the other way or were too tired/drunk to care if we stayed up until 4 in the morning watching it. We had no idea how fucking good we had it.
C'mon Canada, please send us more of your best. Our new faces of comedy are now old faces. The Boomers have boomed, many have already or are aging out of being relevant with the kids. Especially since so many of them showed they are dangerous, brainwashed, grifter larpers supporting genocide. The number of them who (((STILL))) don't have balls to say anything about it, 3 fucking years into article by professional journalists, photos, videos being on your phones every single day since, if you choose to not ignore it. Their legends are still our legends, they don't have many of their own. Most of what they've got are youtube dipshits who, through no fault of their own, don't really understand what comedy is or the purposes it necessarily serves in a functioning society. The circle jerk got too big, the money got too good, too easy, which allowed the unfunny, lazy chuds to sneak in the backdoor. Then they kicked out the weirdos, nerds, and smart people, and barred the doors. We only have the likes of Elephant Graveyard, Nathan Fielder, Conner O'Malley volunteering on the front lines, and we know it's only a matter of time before the chuds or their billionaire overlords try to shadow ban them from the physical realm, just disappearing them into the ether. Or they destroy themselves, as it seems to often go with comedy-types. We really, really need a comedy reset down here, Canada. I know with Trump being a cunt and all, probably no one wants to come down here to help, but please Canada, if you can spare them, send us your best and brightest... and most ruthless.
Dude. This was a 4 sentence post. What the fuck is wrong with me.
10/18/26 4:13 PM
