The hot-button issues of conservative politics have been distilled into a new anti-woke sitcom called “The New Norm.” The show, which stars conservative commentator Dave Rubin and radio host Larry Elder, jokes about gender, the Bud Light boycott, and LGBTQ officials in President Joe Biden’s administration, among other topics.
“The New Norm” positions itself as an antidote to the “woke mind virus” and has already gone massively viral: Since premiering on X on Tuesday, the show’s mini-pilot has been viewed over 22 million times.
But it’s unclear if all those views are from fans.
During the approximately four-minute clip, viewers meet Norm, the father of a teenage girl. Norm is currently on house arrest for threatening his daughter’s school after it taught her that “girls aren’t girls and men aren’t men,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to actual violent threats sent to schools recently.
Then Norm’s wife, Janice, brings home Chaz, a non-binary person who is required to teach Norm how not to be homophobic, transphobic, and racist as part of his parole. Norm and Charlie, Norm’s best friend, refer to Chaz as “that.”
Chaz is likely a play on the Seattle autonomous zone erected in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
Chaz struggles with how they’re being treated by Norm and Charlie, so they call members of the Biden administration: Sam Brinton, a non-binary former Department of Energy official, Admiral Rachel Levine, who is trans and an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, and a man in a dog mask and fatigues, a reference to viral posts from military officials.
The animated version of Levine tells Chaz to “find a way to break” Norm in order to “fix the country.”
In the end, Janice tells the group they’re all going to Disney World where “it’s a woke world after all.”
The mini-pilot also included a shoutout to Elon Musk, the current CEO of X.
“Thank god for Elon Musk,” the show’s theme song states. “X is the home of free speech.”
While some replied to the show’s premiere saying that they hope more episodes come out, a majority of the responses were negative.
“This sucks,” one X user tweeted. “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.”
“Probably one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life,” another person said.
Some even accused the show of using artificial intelligence to create its dialogue and theme song.
“The script is 100% AI generated,” an X user wrote.
“Love how you can clearly tell the theme song was made with AI,” another X user tweeted. “There wasn’t a single country singer available?”
The show acknowledged the reception it received in a follow-up tweet.
“Thank you for the LOVE! (and Hate!)” the show’s account tweeted yesterday. “THE NEW NORM is a ‘safe space’ for people on all sides to come together and laugh (or yell at each other). Like a family.”
And though only the mini-pilot has been released, “The New Norm” show has tweeted out an image of all the characters at Disney World’s “Hall of Presidents,” and Norm near a debate stage ahead of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump’s first debate Thursday evening.
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