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Norm MacDonald, #MeToo, and the Fatal Flaw in the New Morality
Twitter is a cesspool. As if we needed more evidence, legendary comedian and acclaimed author Norm MacDonald was targeted for saying words to a reporter that a microscopic minority of humorless scolds didn’t care for. That’s all the pretext needed to subject a person, famous or not, to Twitter’s two-hour hate.
The Hollywood Reporter interviewed MacDonald on Tuesday to preview his upcoming Netflix show. The affable Canadian politely spoke his mind. For better or worse, his mind works differently than the rest of ours, which is one of the reasons he’s so funny.
Here are the meager examples of MacDonald’s wrongthink:
I’m happy the #MeToo movement has slowed down a little bit. It used to be, “One hundred women can’t be lying.” And then it became, “One woman can’t lie.” And that became, “I believe all women.” And then you’re like, “What?” Like, that Chris Hardwick guy I really thought got the blunt end of the stick there.
Obviously men and women can lie to ruin the lives of those around them; we’re all flawed humans after all. But in a trial by media, due process isn’t provided. Hardwick might be the most famous example of a possibly innocent celeb caught in the anti-harassment dragnet, accused of being too controlling by an ex-girlfriend. Hardwick might be guilty, he might be innocent, he might be a mix of both. No proof was offered by either side, but his career was tossed overboard regardless. Better one innocent man go to the gallows than a guilty man go free.
MacDonald then talks about Roseanne Barr, who gave him his first job in comedy, and Louis C.K., who wrote the foreword to his brilliant book.
Louis [C.K.] and Roseanne [Barr] are the two people I know. And Roseanne was so broken up [after her show’s reboot was canceled] that I got Louis to call her, even though Roseanne was very hard on Louis before that. But she was just so broken and just crying constantly. There are very few people that have gone through what they have, losing everything in a day. Of course, people will go, “What about the victims?” But you know what? The victims didn’t have to go through that.
Nothing offensive there either, though the detractors claimed offense. Roseanne got in trouble for a racist tweet, which is essentially victimless. (If idiotic tweets are victimizing, everyone on that ridiculous site is victimized every time they open the app.)
Louis C.K. was the more egregious offender, since he, er, sought testicular release in the presence of unwilling women. Such acts are illegal and appalling, however, his very real victims most likely didn’t have their careers destroyed by it. Louis should have been prosecuted for these actual crimes, but his very public shaming at least gave him some, er, comeuppance.
In both cases, MacDonald was sticking up for long-time friends who have fallen on hard times. The smart play for the self-interested celebrity is to turn on people when they get bad press. MacDonald values loyalty; quite an old-fashioned notion.
Hours after the interview was released, Norm’s long-time friend Jimmy Fallon quickly chose self-interest. MacDonald was scheduled to appear on “The Tonight Show,” but Fallon ran to his dressing room to call it off. Here’s what Norm said happened:
Jimmy came back in. “Can I talk to you buddy?” And he said, he was very, very broken up about it, he didn’t want this, he said, “I don’t know what to do.” I said, “You think I shouldn’t do the show.” “People are crying.” I said, “People are crying.” “Yeah,” he said, “senior producers are crying.” I said, “Good Lord, bring them in and let me talk to them. I didn’t even know I had the capacity to make people cry. So I felt so bad from that comment. Jimmy said, “Come back whatever you want but I think it will hurt the show tonight.” I said, “Jimmy, I don’t want to hurt your show. That’s the last thing I want to do is hurt your show.”
“People are crying.” Yeah, ok.
Norm quickly apologized on Twitter, which only encouraged the professionally offended. The online mob, however, ignored the most interesting part of the interview, which helped prove MacDonald’s main point.
The interviewer asked how we should treat people when they admit to screwing up. Here’s MacDonald’s answer:
The model used to be: admit wrongdoing, show complete contrition and then we give you a second chance. Now it’s admit wrongdoing and you’re finished. And so the only way to survive is to deny, deny, deny. That’s not healthy — that there is no forgiveness. I do think that at some point it will end with a completely innocent person of prominence sticking a gun in his head and ending it. That’s my guess.
By mentioning forgiveness, MacDonald reveals the biggest flaw in our new woke morality. The Church of Social Justice has more rules than a monastery during Lent and the list grows daily. But unlike traditional morality, there is no path to redemption.
The ancient Hebrews confessed the community’s sin, placed it onto a scapegoat, and restored the flawed people. Early Christians confessed to their priest or bishop, perhaps did some acts of penance, and were redeemed in the eyes of the church. For especially egregious and public sins, the process could be quite involved. But the model held across time and faith: confess to wrongdoing, repent, and be forgiven.
The new secular church enforces the first and second steps with a vengeance but offers no mechanism for the third and most important step. Louis and Roseanne both confessed and repented. And then … nothing. Perhaps both could have done more. Donating millions to a well-regarded charity. Crawl on their knees to the Hollywood sign and sacrifice an Emmy.
Even if they did, forgiveness, redemption, and restoration were not possible. Instead, they were cast out into weeping and gnashing of teeth with no way to make things right.
This latest faux outrage will be soon forgotten as the Twitter mob lurches after another celebrity’s career tomorrow. As for me, I’ll watch “Norm MacDonald Has a Show” on Netflix and continue to chill. Life’s too short for outrage.
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Published in Culture, Entertainment, Religion & Philosophy
As my late sainted mother would absolutely have said, “F*** ’em if they can’t take a joke.”
That sounds just like him!
Anyone who was made to cry by Norm MacDonald needs to be made to cry repeatedly until they either die of outrage or get over it.
Mother was a very witty woman. Her sense of humor has been generously described as “ruthless” but needless to say, it toughens the breed.
Loyalty, an old-fashioned notion you say.
I remember back in 2010 that some conservatives were upset that Sarah Palin endorsed John McCain instead of J.D. Hayworth for the U.S. Senate in Arizona. The conservative establishment in the Northeast often likes to pretend that these seats belong to certain incumbents. Back then I remember listening to Mark Levin on the radio who very reluctantly stated that loyalty is also a virtue.
People will call me crazy, but comedians are First Amendment heroes now and not people who attach one’s name to a McCain-Feingold free speech-limiting bill. When John McCain decided to bar Sarah Palin to his funeral, he proved that both loyalty and free speech are not important to insider politicians.
Apparently we now learn that Leonard Nimoy barred William Shatner from his funeral even though they had been friends and partners for decades. (I think Nimoy was upset that Shatner tried to use a video clip of Nimoy for his 2011 documentary The Captains.) As Shatner and Norm are from both from Quebec, perhaps loyalty is a now a English-Quebec trait rather than a U.S. Navy or Vulcan trait.
Forgiveness is also a virtue. The Left (who control the power in the media) wants people like Louis C.K., Roseanne Barr, and others who make mistakes or so-called mistakes to be banished forever. The world just keeps getting … less funny.
“The tragedy of seeing Norm McDonald once again do something self-destructive just as he was about to stage a late-career surge is heartbreaking.” — John Podhoretz, 12 Sep 2018
Wow, way to have your finger on the conservative pulse there, John.
(You could have at least spelled his name right.)
Have you ever noticed how getting a NetFlix deal (ahem, threatening the existing arrangements in Media Land) suddenly earns you some deep sixing mob justice? Just a curious coincidence I guess.
Which makes me think my Netflix comment has more relevance than before I read this.
Jimmy: People were crying Norm.
What Norm should have said: Did you tell them to man up, grow a pair and to stop or that you would give them something to really cry about?
Me: There is nothing to apologize for and never apologize to those people. These people are the new sans-culottes and we know how to deal with those people. Grape shot at close range.
Then again I am a hard bound reactionary.
I am now using Facebook for an hour a day. Its not really my page and I have to hide posts from half the people and cant share what I want to it anymore lest I upset the sans-cullotes. People need to get over themselves.
He wouldn’t say that because he is, at heart, a really good hearted sweet guy. I’m sure he was like “holy Lord, what could I have said to make someone cry???”
They could of just had him come on but do something like this . . .
“He wouldn’t say that because he is, at heart, a really good hearted sweet guy.”
My mother, on the other hand, was rather proud of not being “sweet”. She was very good indeed to those of us she liked, provided we could take a joke.
Aaaah, the same Norm MacDonald that got fired from Saturday Night Live when his bosses told him to stop telling OJ and Michael Jackson jokes, causing him to just tell more. His bits were so funny that they actually changed the entire narrative about both stars. This is the same Norm MacDonald that went on The View and repeatedly called the Clintons “murderers” until they went to a commercial break and he was banned from the show. His Hitler bits are legendary.
Not necessarily. The subject of Norm’s tear-jerking defense, Chris Hardwick, was “investigated” (and temporarily suspended) by his own company and AMC, but they concluded that the accusations were unfounded and have restored his involvement in their projects.
I don’t know how many of you read Medium, but the comments there lean towards typically “woke” sympathies. The comments on the original post accusing Hardwick are almost 50% in his favor, which seems out of the ordinary, including a few victims of real sexual abuse telling her to get over her bad choices.
That phrase triggers a crisis among atheists . . .
Who is Don Ohlmeyer?
And he praises Bill Cosby there. The crimes just keep adding up.
I notice that the same crowd that has allowed for very lukewarm “jokes” about Trump is now stating that the only way a person can tell a Hitler joke is if the joke is hilariously funny. W’as up with that? Hitler jokes have been rampant since the 1930’s. My dad got free drinks throughout the Depression for his ability to stand on a chair, black comb under his nose, and recite Hitler jokes.
Since “Trump is literally Hitler” if we can have lukewarm jokes about Trump, we should be allowed have any type jokes about Hitler.
I did Nazi that coming.
My brother just gave me this card. Seems very apropos to this thread:
Leftism destroys art like it destroys countries. Who here can name me a truly great Marxist novel written by a Marxist? Right now in comedy, politics is more important than being funny so many comedians have sensibly decided to cease being funny. It is a perverse market incentive. (Though there are perverse social and spiritual incentives as well.) So comedy becomes less funny as it becomes more lefty like how great art is enervated under Communism. Totalitarian arguments tend to get in the way of Truth of excellence.
Norm MacDonald is the anti matter version of John Podhoretz.