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Norm Macdonald is getting his own Netflix show because David Letterman felt sorry for him—why, I cannot be sure. And, because sympathy must be paid forward, Norm MacDonald feels sorry for Louis C.K. and Roseanne Barr—two people who do not need anyone’s sympathy, as evidenced by recent actions. As you know, both C.K. and Barr have lost career opportunities in the last year: C.K. because he admitted to masturbating in front of other female comics and Barr because her show was terrible and she made her racist beliefs about Valerie Jarrett known on Twitter.


In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Macdonald reveals he has deep sympathies for both C.K. and Barr. It came up in a portion of the conversation about #MeToo (emphasis mine, except where bolding denotes THR is speaking):

What about when someone admits to wrongdoing? 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. I know a couple of people this has happened to. [Who? Well, Louis [C.K.] and Roseanne [Barr] are the two people I know. And Roseanne was so broken up [after her show’s reboot was cancelled] 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.


So we’ve established that Macdonald thinks C.K. and Barr both lost “everything in a day.” He goes on (again, emphasis mine):

What did the two of them talk about? They both said they had a good conversation and were just giving any advice you could give to each other. There would be no way for me to even understand that advice, because who has ever gone through such a thing? All their work in their entire life being wiped out in a single day, a moment.

Never mind that C.K., just a few days after Macdonald sat down with THR, did a surprise show at the Comedy Cellar in New York, and is totally fine. Lost everything, yeah, but not so badly that staying in time out for a few months and returning to the stage looking appropriately sheepish can’t smooth things over. Who knows, maybe a powerful person will take pity on him and Barr and give them both second chances. I guess it wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened.