Normism: The Philosophy of Norm Macdonald

by Max West

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.

Genres: Comedy, Nonfiction

108 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 23, 2021

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the liberal use of direct quotes from Norm to address the overarching topics. However, I could have done without the author's constant supposition and assumptions about what this meant for Norm's inner self and personal views (which he was very secretive about); the author also shows his own significant biases in several places using value laden language to describe other people mentioned in the text, which further calls into question whether the suppositions are based in what Norm himself believed or what the author believed he believed.

[William Bigelow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Norm Macdonald is one of my favorite comedians of all time. I highly recommend this book to other Norm fans despite the fact that it is incredibly short, and only took me a couple of hours to read. It's well-written and worth the price of admission alone for its value as a reference to the literature written on him during his lifetime and its transcripts of a couple of his greastest jokes. I learned a couple new things about him and found some material of his that was referenced that I hadn't seen before, which is awesome, because I thought I'd seen and heard just about all of his stand-up clips and interviews that are available online. I read "Based on a True Story" earlier this year and was craving more of his words in print, and this satisfied that itch for the most part for now.

That being said, I have a small complaint about it. I deducted one star off my rating because the author revealed too much about his own political views; while I think Norm was sort of an old-fashioned Canadian "Tory" type, the author seems to have bought into former (and hopefully not future!) President Trump's slop. If Norm ever voted at all, it would've only been in Canadian elections since he didn't bother to try to apply for citizenship; based on his general personality and approach to life it comes as no surprise to me that he'd just prefer to renew his green card over and over. By MAGA standards, the Canadian Conservative Party is probably "communist, socialist, and fascist!" I think the author makes him seem more right-wing than he was because he wants him to be on the list of pro-MAGA celebrities. Other than that however, I loved the book. The philosophy and religion chapters were quite fascinating and intuitively seem to me like more accurate in terms of portraying Norm's Weltanschauung. I hope that many more "biographies/hagiographies" of him come out in the future.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, it just seemed like the author did what all Norm fans did after Norm's death - search YouTube for clips. He certainly did, but he also searched Twitter and assorted articles and did a decent job organizing Norm's thoughts on various topics into chapters. Ending on a Norm quote.... "Death is a funny thing. Not funny haha, like a Woody Allen movie, but funny strange, like a Woody Allen marriage."

[Michael Bozmarov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book for those fascinated by Norm Macdonald, as I am. My one issue is in the section on philosophy, which feels deeply speculative and not nearly as enlightening as the rest of the book.

[Brian Pangburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Interesting

A great insight into the mind of Norm, who I consider one of the all-time greats. This book shows a lot of depth... which might surprise some readers.

[Sean Bills · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Norm Macdonald you'll like this. It really leans into what a unique voice he was not only as a comic but as a human being. Cheers to you, ya old chunk of coal!

[Kevin M. Birchfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insight Into Comic Genious

Norm was an amazing storyteller. This read gives an amazing look into his process. Some of the psycho babble was much, but a good read.

[Titus D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't even know he was sick...

[Rohan Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was more of a beautiful trip down memory lane and homage to an icon rather than sharing any new insights.
it was great to reflect on how great Norm really was.
a great read before picking up Norms book.

[Patrick Steinberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite comedian.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normism by Max West explores the philosophy of Norm Macdonald. Norm is (present tense) one of my favorite comedians, and I am blessed to say that I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live. His comedy and podcast clips on YouTube were instrumental in getting me through difficult times in my life such as a breakup and the Covid lockdown. Watching Norm was (and still is) a pastime that I share with my dad, of whom I owe my sense of humor and understanding of faith and politics.

Max West does an incredible job of laying out a succinct picture of who Norm was. This book is short and sweet, and it doesn’t give you nonsense fluff. He explores the highs and lows, makes you laugh and makes you cry. I love the screenshots of Norm’s tweets that are included in the text. This serves as a hardcopy archive of Norm’s genius that will outlive all of us (Twitter recently removed Norm’s verified checkmark, leading some to believe that they will delete his account too).

Norm professed a belief in our Lord Jesus Christ. This warms my heart and it is my prayer that he had a saving faith in Christ. Despite his battle (or draw, rather) with cancer (I didn’t even know he was sick!) Norm demonstrated a deep and abiding belief in God as revealed in the scriptures. West writes about when Norm spent two days with Bob Dylan, in which they spent hours upon hours just talking. They discussed their favorite books of the bible, Norm’s being Job, and Bob Dylan’s being Ecclesiastes. It was so fitting for Norm to choose Job. Norm was very accustomed to suffering (as are many comedians), but I like to think that his understanding of the scriptures had a comforting guidance for him in continuing on and not resorting to meaninglessness or suicide. Norm was not a perfect man, and does not fit our concept of the Christian gentleman, but he was a kindhearted man who seemed to be a decent person. I wish I had the opportunity to meet him. It is my prayer that one day I will be worshiping our Lord together in paradise.

PS: Since posting this review I remembered that this book includes Norm's influences in literature, which include Cormac McCarthy, Leo Tolstoy, Chekov, Steven Pinker, Jordan Peterson, Dylan Thomas, Jack London, JD Salinger, William Faulkner, and Philip Roth. He was a voracious reader and his own work has been compared to Hunter S. Thompson and even the great Mark Twain. This book has influenced me to expand my horizons for reading, and I'm excited to branch out.

[Steve Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I love Norm