%0 Journal Article
%T ¡°What a Loser That Guy Was¡±: Norm Macdonald¡¯s Humorous Critique of the Romantic/Warrior Narrative
%A Nicholas T. Iannarino
%J Journal of Communication Inquiry
%@ 1552-4612
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0196859918771891
%X Illness narratives are stories that focus on, or are inspired by, the sometimes life-altering experience of illness. Most narrative constructions of these illness experiences are built upon one of three broad narrative ¡°skeletons.¡± One skeletal subform, the romantic/warrior narrative, is critiqued by comedian Norm Macdonald in a humorous anecdote that mocks the expectation that cancer patients must wage an epic and heroic battle against their pernicious cancer to have a chance to survive. Macdonald explicates that such a mentality produces heroes and villains, winners and losers, and places additional burden on cancer patients. In this analysis, I argue that Macdonald¡¯s effective use of humor and fulfillment of the five functions of health-related narration enable his story to gain narrative rationality and serve as effective rhetorical tools in encouraging the audience to accept the narrator¡¯s critique of the romantic/warrior subform
%K illness narration
%K humor
%K narrative analysis
%K narrative fidelity
%K quest narrative
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0196859918771891