He Did the Norm Macdonald Meme

Oct 21, 2026 7:20 PM
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He Did the Norm Macdonald Meme
AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani

It takes rare genius to encapsulate anything's absurdity in just a few characters. And given that most of Norm MacDonald's best bits relied on long, winding, seemingly disconnected stories that land partly because of anticipatory timing, it's particularly striking that his most memorable one lands in 23 words. 

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But there it is.

Norm's line hits like a .50-caliber sniper round right in the bull's-eye because you instantly recognize the absurdity of the Left's obsession with diverting attention from the real issue. 

Adam Gopnik, a pretentious New Yorker writer (but I repeat myself), did the Norm MacDonald joke yesterday, and no doubt his readers nodded sagely as he decried the idea that the French might choose order over chaos.

What's striking is that Gopnik loves France, and he hates what he sees happening on the streets of Paris and other cities. He is not a "collateral damage" guy, and he recognizes that the far Left (half right) is wreaking havoc on his beloved France. While the Black Bloc thrills at the destruction, Gopnik is saddened. 

But what saddens him more, of course, is the possibility that the lesson the French take from all the chaos and destruction is that they voted for the wrong people. 

Sure, the destruction is horrific, but what if somebody stops it? Wouldn't that be even worse?

The Left is always more concerned with holding the Right views and saying the right things than with getting the right outcomes. This explains both their horror at the thought of Donald Trump and their willingness to vote time and again for people who speak the language of compassion and tolerance while actively destroying everything they touch. 

These are the people who will move heaven and earth to protect a child rapist, as long as he is an illegal alien. 

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"He's a father!" Yes, well, he raped his child... But he is an illegal alien, and part of the fabric of our community. 

FFS, man.

Gopnik acknowledges that, despite France loving the idea of protests, which I suppose is a hangover from their idiotic reverence for the French Revolution, this time might really be different, and worse.

What has been interesting to you about these protests in particular?

As you can imagine, I’ve been on the phone and on FaceTime with friends in France over the past few days. People who have a very high panic threshold nonetheless feel very alarmed by what’s happened. A friend said that they are sitting on a volcano on the verge of civil war, and I was shocked to hear people speaking that way. I was startled by just how different this seemed to people who are on the scene, as, obviously, I am not right now.

What’s happened conforms to a classic pattern of far-left and far-right politics in France, and in Europe generally. What it will most likely do—and this is the most frightening part of it—is bring the far right to power. There was already a very real prospect that Marine Le Pen and the National Rally party would be able to win elections next year. The people who will benefit from the violence, inevitably, will be those on the far right who promise to restore order. That pattern—far-left street action, far-right power—is one that’s very frightening.

His liberal friends are genuinely worried in a way that they usually are not by such things. Yet, in the way that liberals always do, his bigger worry is that the French will vote in people who will reimpose order. 

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What's worse than having your country burn down? That intolerant people will rise to power. And to Gopnik, the horror is that France may elect a Donald Trump figure, as if Trump were Hitler. He wants to deport people, which is altogether too close to putting them in gas chambers or something. 

The absurdity is rich, because the fault for all this clearly lies with the people he still supports. The connection just never gets made because of that attachment to expressing the right sentiments, regardless of the outcomes that follow. 

It's so similar to the people in California who keep voting for Democrats who have "plans" to solve homelessness, and mouth all kinds of absurdities about "caring" and compassion. 

Look around you! Is this compassion? 

Reality matters little. Having the right luxury views is all that counts. 

Editor's Note: The Democrat Party has been infected by socialism, and it's spreading FAST. Democrats are claiming there's nothing to worry about, but we know the truth.

Help us continue to shine a light on the socialist takeover by joining HotAir VIP.  Use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.

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