Earlier this week, the “mini pilot” for The New Norm, an anti-woke cartoon show, appeared on X, proclaiming itself to be “The South Park of X” and the platform’s “first animated sit-com.” It was greeted with near universal ridicule.
As several X users noted, the nearly four-minute clip appears to be something of a riff on All in the Family by way of Family Guy filtered through the snide, reactionary worldview of the platform’s most insipid MAGA trolls. The show centers on Norm, a curmudgeonly Archie Bunker-type who is apparently under house arrest for threatening the members of his local school board because he didn’t want them “brainwashing” his daughter into believing that “girls aren’t girls and men aren’t men.”
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He said that “Arthur” should have portrayed the “negative” of same-sex marriage.
There’s also a pink-haired nonbinary character who perpetually wears a surgical mask — because the right is still big-mad that some of us tried to do our best to slow the spread of a global pandemic four years ago — and has been sent to “re-educate” Norm out of his “homophobic, transphobic, racist” ways. Except, according to The New Norm, Norm can’t possibly be racist because his best friend is Black. Said Black bestie shows up wearing a t-shirt bearing the former logo of the Washington Commanders and complaining that his child has come out as trans.
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Chaz, the nonbinary character, apparently answers to a Washington cabal that includes out trans woman and Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, former Department of Energy deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition and LGBTQ+ activist Sam Brinton, and someone in a dog mask. (Notably, Brinton has not worked for the federal government since at least December 2022, after they were allegedly caught on camera stealing two different women’s bags from airports.)
According to The New Norm’s X account, the clip features the voice talents of failed anti-LGBTQ+ Republican presidential candidate Larry Elder, gay conservative talking head Dave Rubin, and conservative comedian JP Sears.
It also features an unvoiced animated cameo of X owner Elon Musk. While Musk has not endorsed the show — which does not appear to have any actual connection to him or X beyond the clip’s appearance on the platform — its creator sure seems thirsty for his attention. The clip’s closing theme song includes the lyrics “thank God for Elon Musk and his s**t-post memes / X is the home for free speech.”
Despite its creators’ call to “legalize humor,” the only funny thing about The New Norm is the fact that it appears to be the only thing in America’s highly polarized political climate that everyone can agree on. X users from across the political spectrum have utterly savaged the show in the post’s comments.
“This sucks, it’s like a cartoon designed for 50 year olds that revolves around a constant onslaught of facebook tier cringe political references that are too explicitly obvious to be funny,” one user wrote.
“I almost died of second hand embarrassment for you,” another commented.
Another called The New Norm “a ham-fisted mishmash of pop conservative talking points rolled into a flash animation from 2003.”
Yet another wrote that the clip was “so disturbingly unfunny,” they thought it was “a deep Hollywood parody of lame conservative media.”
This sucks, it's like a cartoon designed for 50 year olds that revolves around a constant onslaught of facebook tier cringe political references that are too explicitly obvious to be funny.
—
Aristophanes
This was so disturbingly unfunny I thought it was a deep Hollywood parody of lame conservative media.
— 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐍
𝐋𝐎𝐃𝐆𝐄 (@ReaganLodge) June 25, 2024
Many users took issue with the show’s creators’ comparison of their own work to South Park and criticized their bizarre use of a laugh track in a cartoon.
One commenter did concede that The New Norm was “perfect for the demographic they are targeting.” But the responses from plenty of conservatives tell a different story:
I hate leftism/progressivism, it's just that this show isn't funny, it's lame, it's corny, it's contrived.
They should have just called it "All In The Family Guy" because it's just trying to fuse those two concepts together, both of which were liberal projects anyway.
—
Of course, The New Norm isn’t entirely without laughs. In what can only be described as a hilariously unintentional self-own, the show’s creators include a quote from unctuous libertarian talk show host Bill Maher on their website alongside endorsements from Elder and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys star Kevin Sorbo. “Brilliant!” Maher is quoted as saying, while below it’s noted that the Real Time host was in fact referring to the “creator’s previous work” and not The New Norm.
This is just sad pic.twitter.com/MyUVww0aZU
— 𝓥𝖔𝐱 𝓝𝖊𝖜𝖘 ᴾᴿᴵᴰᴱ ᴹᴼᴺᵀᴴ
(@Vox_Oculi) June 26, 2024
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