What’s normal?
I’m Mr. Beat
I’m not normal. And you know what? These are not normal times.
The whole world is in a pandemic right now.
You know what? I better let my brother know about this.
(Pick up phone and call Steven)
Steven: Hello?
Mr. Beat: Steven, there’s a very contagious virus going around right now. Don’t leave
your home. But if you do leave your home, only leave to get toilet paper and food, and make sure
you wear a mask.
Steven: Ok, I appreciate you letting me know. I was wondering if something was going on.
Mr. Beat: Yeah, well I figured I’d better tell you since you don’t watch the news
Steven: What is news?
Mr. Beat: I’ll talk to you later, bro
Steven: Toodles!
Anyway, yeah, times are crazy right now, and we all want a return to normalcy.
Normalcy Normalcy Normalcy Normalcy Normalcy Normalcy Normalcy Normalcy
Normalcy, it seems normal to say that word now, but the word never used to be normally
said. In fact, it only recently seems to be more um...normal...to use it in conversation.
Check out Google Trends, see that bump in the middle of March, right when the pandemic
was beginning to cause lockdowns across the world? “Normalcy” even caught up with
“Rickrolling” for a bit. Impressive.
Anyway, we can thank Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, for first
popularizing the word, normalcy. He apparently first used it in a speech in Brooklyn in February
1920, just over 100 years ago. It might have been an accident. After all, Harding was not
known to be a good speaker, nor even a very intelligent man. Regardless, he later began
using the word more and more as he liked the sound of it, even making it part of his official
campaign slogan as he ran for President.
“Normal times and a return to normalcy”
On May 14th, 1920, he gave a well known speech that brought the word into the mainstream.
“America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not
revolution, but restoration.” Harding later clarified he didn’t want the country to
go back to traditional ways that hindered progress. Rather, he just wanted there to
be less chaos and more routine to ease the nation’s anxieties. You see, 1920 was after
two years of lots of chaos. World War One had just ended in November 1918, but things
remained crazy due to a horrifying pandemic commonly known as the Spanish Flu. It killed
anywhere from 50 to 100 million people worldwide, and had a frighteningly high mortality rate
for young adults, an age group that normally doesn’t have to worry as much about influenza
outbreaks. Not only that, but 1919 saw an increase in race riots, the First Red Scare,
and a President who was unable or unwilling to do much about it.
The Cynical Historian has a terrific video about 1919. Check it out after this video if
you haven’t seen it yet.
Anyway, so yeah, the country was anxious and yearned for normality, or as Harding called
it normalcy. While Harding seemed so proud of himself using that word, his critics most
definitely made fun of him for using it.
They mostly said Harding was an idiot because that word didn’t exist, and he was indeed
mixing it up with a real word: “normality.”
One such critic said “The friends of Senator Harding are defending his language now by
saying that ‘normalcy’ is a perfectly good word. Well, so is jackasstical, when
applied to fantastic verbiage.” Newspaper editors literally changed Harding’s quoted
“normalcy” to “normality,” assuming he made an error.
After Harding’s unexpected death in 1923, the historian George N. Clark said “if ‘normalcy’
is ever to become an accepted word it will presumably be because the late President...did
not know any better.” Even today, one of the most popular Google searches related to
the word is “is normalcy a word?” In fact, when you search “normalcy,” normality
still pops right up.
Still, Harding had the last laugh. Normalcy is more popular than ever, and it's all thanks
to him. But did he invent the word? As it turns out, nope.
“Normalcy” has been in use at least since 1855, although it was mostly only used by
math geeks before Harding. By the 1860s, the word was appearing in dictionaries all over
the place, and by the 1890s theologians were using it in discussions. But mainstream folks
certainly were not using the word much. So by 1920, either Harding had a really extended
vocabulary and was a math geek OR he accidentally said normality wrong and then later played
it off as if he knew what he was doing all along.
I’m going to assume that it was the latter. As many of you already know, I do not think that highly
of President Harding. For more on why that is, check out my Worst Presidents video.
Regardless, thank you President Harding, for popularizing the word normalcy. It is
an outstanding word, and most of my Twitter folks agree with me that it’s
sooo much better than that boring word, normality.
Mr. Beat: (phone ringing) Oh excuse me. I have another phone call. Oh, it's my brother again.
Steven: Yeah, it's me again. Mr. Beat: Hey Steven
Steven: I was just calling you to let you know your website sucks.
Mr. Beat: (with mouth full) WHAAAT?!
Steven: It's very difficult to navigate, and I
Mr. Beat: WHAAT? Steven: and I can barely make it out on my mobile phone.
Mr. Beat: Well fine! Just redo it then, and for a great price!
Steven: Ok.
Mr. Beat: Goodbye, sir.
Steven: Good day! (puts phone down, looks at camera)
Does your website suck? I hope it doesn’t, because you're missing out on potential business.
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(Voiceover with screenshot of logo and contact info.)
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So yeah, that's brother's company. Check it out. Uh, he paid me a million dollars to sponsor this video so I figured
hey, I'd give him some time.
Also, one more thing to check out. If you or a family member is thinking about applying
to college, have them check out checklistprogram.com. It was created by Harvard students to make
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a free 2-week trial.
So what do you think? Is normalcy normal? Is Joe Biden the “normalcy” Presidential
candidate like Harding was 100 years ago? Let me know in the
comments below. A shout out to all my viewer in Normal, Illinois.
If you are watching from Normal, I definitely want to hear from you. Thanks for watching
like you normally do.