Normism

The Philosophy of Norm Macdonald

De: Max West

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

In this essay, Norm Macdonald’s philosophy of life, death, and comedy is sketched out thematically from his original material, as well as from extant interviews with him and profiles of him over the years.

Among his fellow comedians, Norm Macdonald was widely hailed as one of the funniest men alive, a DGAF Mark Twain whose unique combination of cadence, persona, material, and delivery left a cultural impact that greatly outsized the limited commercial success he experienced. To his fans, Norm’s everyman persona engendered a sense of relatability and connection.

But there were aspects of his life not well known. He was a child prodigy who graduated high school at the age of 14. His experiences with cancer since his youth led to a lifelong existential obsession with death, which was also the dominant theme of his comedy throughout his career. In the last decades of his life, he led a notably ascetic lifestyle and was largely unconcerned with achieving breakout success.

For comedic effect, early on his career Macdonald carefully crafted a ‘dumb guy’ persona, but there was a trickster element to this. Largely hidden from public view was his Christianity, his cultural conservatism, and how versed he was in literature, philosophy, and theology, all of which he would subtly weave into his material. From a position of anti-intellectualism, he played the Philosopher-Fool. Through both his original works and the various interviews he did over the years, Macdonald would touch upon subjects ranging from the nature of comedy, to culture, politics, religion, and his all-consuming fear of death.

More than just a comedian telling jokes, Macdonald embodied his material -- the comedy and comedian were one and the same.

‘Normism’ was his philosophy, his way of being.

Long live Norm.

Enriching view of Norm

I am a really big fan of Norm’s and have watched all his talk show appearances, interviews, and comedy specials I could find. I have listened to his audio book probably 10 times and read it twice.

This audiobook revealed deeper insights on Norm’s nature and intellect. It not only provides little known facts about his life, but unique interpretations of well known stories.

I love and miss Norm, the John Prine of comedy. Thank you for this book.

Great if not for the AI voice

Good content but Norm deserves a real human to read this. It just seems kind of disrespectful, although Norm might have laughed at the idea!

Norm Forever

Great insights, it makes my heart yearn and miss Norm all the more. He is more sorely missed than he could have imagined.
Norm really Got It. Never an NPC.