{"id":1502027,"date":"2022-06-03T09:18:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T13:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1502027"},"modified":"2022-06-03T09:18:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T13:18:55","slug":"norm-macdonald-has-one-last-laugh-in-nothing-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/norm-macdonald-has-one-last-laugh-in-nothing-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Norm Macdonald Has One Last Laugh In \u2018Nothing Special\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnorm-macdonald-has-one-last-laugh-in-nothing-special%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1502027&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/image-2022-06-02T084345.773.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>During the summer of 2020, when most of the world was shut down over Covid-19, Norm Macdonald was scheduled to undergo a procedure related to the leukemia that would ultimately kill him. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/norm-macdonald-says-he-didnt-want-to-leave-anything-on-the-table-as-he-jokes-about-mortality-and-death-in-final-stand-up-special\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">comedian<\/a> \u201cdidn\u2019t want to leave anything on the table in case things went south,\u201d so he shot a special in his house, seated, with no audience. The result is brutal, brilliant, and hilarious.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The original intention was to re-film the set with an audience once the world opened back up, but the comedian never got that chance. Instead, we\u2019re treated to a unique performance from a dying man, dispensing wisdom through jokes. The performance takes place at the bottom of a stairwell in his house. A yappy dog heckles him briefly at one point and causes him to restart the joke he was telling; his cell phone rings at another.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He meanders around, pretending to have forgotten the point he was trying to make. The color yellow appears repeatedly. He leans into his trademark mispronunciation of words. He even offers eye contact and nods to the nonexistent crowd. <\/p>\n<p>But he\u2019s not just telling jokes, he\u2019s trying to do his part to heal a broken world, knowing it\u2019s likely his last time to do so. He\u2019s using humor to remind us of our own humanity, to bring people together, which was especially visionary considering the fear of each other that was so prevalent when he filmed it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Macdonald is also offering his goodbyes. In the closing portion, he expresses his limitless love for his selfless mother and celebrates her sacrifices. I\u2019ll avoid spoilers, but Macdonald\u2019s love for her is evident. Leaving nothing on the table, he finishes his last show ever discussing her, closing out his career with a tribute to her, almost coming to tears at one point, although it ends with a crude joke.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Macdonald, who hid his illness, was obviously dealing with his own mortality during the performance, but he was also doing something more. He was playing the part of a philosopher. <\/p>\n<p>As he jokes at one point in \u201cNothing Special,\u201d \u201cI hear people say, \u2018The comedian is the modern-day philosopher.\u2019 First of all, it makes me feel sad for the actual modern-day philosophers, who exist, you know. They\u2019re working, trying to come up with their philosophy, you know, and they go, did you hear this? The nightclub comic is doing great work on totaligism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While he wasn\u2019t elucidating upon totaligism, or any other fake -isms, the special does, as Matt Mehan <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MTMehan\/status\/1531763099967135746\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote on Twitter<\/a>, offer a brutal indictment of \u201cmodern ideological immorality.\u201d\u00a0 Mehan, director of academic programs and professor of government at Hillsdale\u2019s D.C. campus, also offered me this comment: \u201cHe is reaching out to a fallen people, with a humor designed to free them from their worst habits and opinions, under the guise of admittedly crude stand up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And it is crude. The language is salty, and many of the jokes are dirty. During the process, though, Norm hints at the cruelty of aborting children with Down syndrome, pointing out that their only crime is being extremely happy. He discusses the problems surrounding living wills and euthanasia.<\/p>\n<p>Norm wasn\u2019t afraid to openly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.knoxnews.com\/story\/entertainment\/columnists\/terry-mattingly\/2021\/09\/30\/mysterious-faith-comedian-norm-macdonald-terry-mattingly\/5880128001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">profess<\/a> his Christianity. That faith, which obviously influenced the entire set and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/09\/20\/opinion\/norm-macdonald-christian-comedy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">much of his comedy in general<\/a>, opens people to his message. Norm spoke the truth in love.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not that the lack of a live audience, with potential converts sitting in the chairs, changes his style. Just as he did on stage, in \u201cNothing Special,\u201d he refuses to flinch. As Anthony Jeselnik <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qy4U0MW-C6A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> when asked what he learned from Macdonald, \u201cBelieve in your joke. And if the audience doesn\u2019t get it, you still need to believe in it \u2026 You don\u2019t want to be a crowd-pleaser. You want to be a great comedian.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the reaction to the special from David Letterman, Dave Chappelle, Molly Shannon, Conan O\u2019Brien, Adam Sandler, and David Spade, a story came up in which Macdonald told a group of comedians he was the best amongst them. None of those present could argue with that assessment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When Macdonald passed away, the world lost a great comedian. Were he looking over my shoulder right now, he might even instruct me to call him the greatest. Given that one of his last acts was to leave a brilliant gift for us to enjoy now that he\u2019s gone, I wouldn\u2019t disagree. For while all comedy has the potential to be <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/05\/31\/in-supernature-ricky-gervais-defends-comedy-from-leftist-spinsters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">transformative<\/a>, Norm\u2019s vision was to transform us in ways that allow us to become better, more connected, more faithful people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He invited us to believe, even if popular sentiment wasn\u2019t on his side. With \u201cNothing Special,\u201d he still invites us to do so. Norm wants us to have faith, to believe in God, in ourselves, in us, in the goodness all people have the power to try to capture, even as we mostly fail. May we all be so unflinching, regardless of how the audience responds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Richard Cromwell is a writer and senior contributor at The Federalist. He lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife, three daughters, and two crazy dogs. Co-host of the podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/coffeeandcochon.com\/%E2%80%9C\">Coffee &#038; Cochon<\/a>, you can find him on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jrichardcromwell%E2%80%9C\">Facebook<\/a><br \/>\nand <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rcromwell4\">Twitter<\/a>, though you should probably avoid using social media.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the summer of 2020, when most of the world was shut down over Covid-19, Norm Macdonald was scheduled to undergo a procedure related to the leukemia that would ultimately<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":1502195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1502195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}