Norm Macdonald & The Unbearable Balance of Being
"a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance."
Norm Macdonald achieved a stalemate with cancer last week at the young age of 61, and the world of comedy and entertainment is lesser for it.
Odds are, no matter your age, Norm has made you laugh at some point in life through his stand-up routines, his time on Saturday Night Live, his many appearances on talk shows, his two-episode stint as Norm the Genie in Nickelodeon’s The Fairly Oddparents (which was my first exposure to him), or one of his other cameos or roles across a large number of projects. And if by some unfortunate circumstance the Old Chunk of Coal himself has not made you laugh, then please either check out his official Youtube channel or the I’m Not Norm channel for some current stuff and a seemingly endless amount of highlights, respectively.
For your convenience, I am also going to include one of the most well-known talk show appearances by him below:
Disclaimer: Some of the linked videos and podcasts coming up in this article may contain explicit language.
It feels weird, and even a bit disrespectful (or at the very least, unearned) for someone like me to write an article talking about Norm Macdonald in any sort of way. After all, I had no personal relationship with him and I had never seen him perform live. Plus, there are those who actually knew and loved him, such as Bob Saget, Conan O’Brien, and Jeff Ross, who have said/are saying things that are way more deserving of your time than an article written by a random 27-year-old in South Carolina. Anything and everything I say is based solely upon the impressions of him that I have ascertained through recorded material and his book, Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir, and none of that can hold a candle to a real-life bond. Yet, Norm Macdonald’s life is one worth celebrating and he is a man that everyone can—and should—learn from, so I am going to do my best to highlight just why Norm was so special.
The above tweet is one of the many times that Norm displayed an understanding of and zeal for life that is all too rare in people. Granted, this was tweeted out in 2018, before the letters C, O, V, I, D, and the numbers 1 and 9 were ever placed next to one another, but you must also keep in mind that he said this a mere three years before his passing; a period of time during which he already knew and had known that he had cancer. Norm’s idea of joy was thus one that transcended any temporary, worldly affliction or trouble.
After following him for years, and from the multitude of clips I have watched or tweets I have read, Norm Macdonald seemed to be a Christian. In fact, Michael Knowles, a contributor for The Daily Wire, confirms as much in a tweet that he sent out on the day of Norm’s passing.
Thus, it may be reasonable to assume—see this clip from an interview with Larry King where Norm references regular discussions with a Jewish Rabbi—that Norm was familiar with Biblical passages such as Proverbs 17:22:
“A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”(ESV)
And it may have been the reassurance that comes with the belief in an all-powerful Creator God—a reassurance that there is meaning to the universe—that powered Norm through the toughest of days and gave him a joyful heart.
It is also probable that Norm was familiar with the Book of Ecclesiastes, wherein chapter 3 begins (emphasis mine):
“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal;
a time to break down and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;(Eccl. 3:1-4, ESV)
Norm’s comedy routinely touched upon mortality and topics that are typically met with weeping and mourning rather than laughing and dancing. In retrospect, many of his best bits appear to be his way of laughing at and dealing with his own disease, and the audio included below explains why his passing is considered a “stalemate.”
Even the forward to his book includes the following quote:
“I know of only two very real evils in this life: remorse and illness.”
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
And there are still many more examples to pull from, but all of it goes to show that Norm was someone who was keenly aware of his own mortality but still chose to make people laugh again and again. His answer to the unbearable balance of being—which is the weight of finding a livable way in which someone can find the line between laughing and weeping, dancing and mourning, without collapsing into oneself—was to simply try. He was intimately familiar with the harsh reality of death in this life, yet he also knew how important trying to find joy and laughter was in the face of it.
He had cancer for 9 years and during that time he continually tried to do more. He filmed a Netflix special, performed stand-up, wrote a book, voice acted, hosted a talk show, and so much more. He tried to make other people laugh, and, in his later years, he sought to defend his faith from both bad comedians and the occasional Twitter user.
“The Enlightenment turned us away from the truth and toward a darkling weakening horizon, sad and grey to see. The afterglow of Christianity is near gone now, and a stygian silence lurks in wait.”
A now-deleted tweet by Norm Macdonald from November 15, 2018
Pretty heavy stuff from the man who starred in Dirty Work, right? He comes across more like a scholar familiar with Nietzche’s Parable of the Madman than as someone who voices a talking pigeon on Mike Tyson’s Mysteries.
In his quest to do more, his quest to try, Norm continually committed himself to a “spiritual journey.” Whether it be the aforementioned interview with Larry King in 2013 or his appearance on WTF with Marc Maron in 2011, Norm did not shy away from the fact that he was trying to find the deeper truths in life. Luckily, as has been discussed, Norm did ultimately arrive at the truth that is the Gospel; but only after a long journey. What is admirable about that journey was that he attempted to work out his salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 1:12, ESV), and it did not stop once he arrived at the destination of salvation. He openly asked questions, admitted to a lack of knowledge, met with clergy and those who knew more than him, and attempted to engage with some of the world’s most well-known thinkers.
And many Christians may not be able to say the same. For a lot of Christians, myself included, it is commonplace to rest easy in salvation; to have a sort of “hm, oh well, my eternal fate is sealed so I’ll just go on with life as usual” mentality and have our spiritual journeys effectively end the very day that we become saved. We do not ask questions, we do not challenge ourselves, we grow lazy in our Christian bubbles and shake our fists at the rest of the world.
Now, Norm Macdonald was by no means a saint; he was a sinner, as we all are. But we can learn from him and how he seemed to heartily fear God and strive to better himself while finding his own flaws and shortcomings. Norm was extremely well-read and smarter than most anyone would expect, yet he appeared to maintain a humility that is not too common. That humility allowed him to come up with some phenomenally funny material, where half the fun of the joke was sometimes laughing at his (intentionally) bumbling demeanor, and it also granted him the room to love others deeply and well.
In the previously linked video from Bob Saget, Bob mentions how his and Norm’s last communication was a simple text exchange. A week before his passing, Norm had sent Bob “I love you,” and Bob replied back, “I love you Norm.” You can also read through the acknowledgments section of Norm’s book or listen to/read many of the tributes by his friends that are available online, to see how many people loved Norm and whom he loved in return.
For many, the act of being is nigh unbearable, especially when surrounded by the suffering that is in the world today. Alongside that weight, withholding love from the people around us and losing the hope of joy comes easy. But, as Norm shows, neither of those responses are concrete. We can find a joy that we can hold onto and we can declare our love, all while enriching the lives of the people—oftentimes, strangers—around us.
Norm Macdonald was a comedian, yes, but beyond that, and most importantly, he was a beloved friend, son, partner, believer, and father. He loved deeply, even in the face of illness, and there is no reason that we cannot do the same.
We all miss you, Norm.