Found Norman On YouTube

[RoninFox]

OK, Norman.

New Norman short, never saw the first riffed one.

What is the poing of these educational shorts?  What are we learning?

That life is nothing more than a bag of sadness, slowly deflating.

[GordonZola]

NOW it makes more sense. I was thinking it was one of their normal educational or business shorts when they riffed it.

thought the story was GOING somewhere....

It's building to a climax: in the fifth episode entitled "Norman takes a woodchipper, 5pounds of Semtex and a flamethrower to Walmart"

[gojikranz]

Funny you should mention that. I found an abstract of a scholarly article asking just that question:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrdq.3920010412/abstract

my girlfriend who has access to journals cause she is a grad student got me the entire article.  it stops talking about norman on the second page but concludes that the norman series is "deplorable" as a training video because the mishaps that happen to norman are for the most part out of his control and thus only teach the employee that horrible things will happen to them.

[MSTJedi]

Funny you should mention that. I found an abstract of a scholarly article asking just that question:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrdq.3920010412/abstract

my girlfriend who has access to journals cause she is a grad student got me the entire article.  it stops talking about norman on the second page but concludes that the norman series is "deplorable" as a training video because the mishaps that happen to norman are for the most part out of his control and thus only teach the employee that horrible things will happen to them.

So, basically the "bag of sadness" that RoninFox mentioned.

[Darth Geek]

Funny you should mention that. I found an abstract of a scholarly article asking just that question:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrdq.3920010412/abstract

my girlfriend who has access to journals cause she is a grad student got me the entire article.  it stops talking about norman on the second page but concludes that the norman series is "deplorable" as a training video because the mishaps that happen to norman are for the most part out of his control and thus only teach the employee that horrible things will happen to them.

So, basically the "bag of sadness" that RoninFox mentioned.

Yes. It's the cinematic equivelant of a bagpipe.

[CJSchmidt]

These type of videos were used as a springboard for conversation in a classroom setting. The idea is that you show a short humorous video in class and then ask the kids questions like "Do you ever have days like this?", "What could the hotel manager have done to help Norman?" or "Did you ever think that the grumpy person you met at the store was having a day like Norman?". My guess is that it was mostly used as a way to teach kids to empathize with others. The other thing you have to keep in mind is that it was probably just considered a generic tool that a teacher could use however they wanted. Educational material now is much more focused on teaching a specific curriculum. Still, probably a pretty crappy educational tool though.

[Darth Geek]

These type of videos were used as a springboard for conversation in a classroom setting. The idea is that you show a short humorous video in class and then ask the kids questions like "Do you ever have days like this?", "What could the hotel manager have done to help Norman?" or "Did you ever think that the grumpy person you met at the store was having a day like Norman?". My guess is that it was mostly used as a way to teach kids to empathize with others. The other thing you have to keep in mind is that it was probably just considered a generic tool that a teacher could use however they wanted. Educational material now is much more focused on teaching a specific curriculum. Still, probably a pretty crappy educational tool though.

Huh. Interesting way to use this.
Perhapse the lesson could be "get a good education so you can get a better job than Norman's."

[pstokely]

Stress management?

[CineGraphic]

Hi,
I joined the forum just because of this thread as I am a huge fan of the Norman Krasner series and own 16mm prints of at least 3 of them. (I might have all four, but I recently moved and all of my films are still in boxes)
The writer/director of the series Shev Goldstien just emailed me to let me know that the actor who played Norman, Douglas P. MacIntosh had passed away recently.
Here's his obit: http://www.tributes.com/show/Douglas-P.-MacIntosh-94416270

I remember screening "Krasner, Norman: Beloved Husband of Irma" for my father in my home theater many years ago....I didn't tell him the tile of the film, and for those of you who've seen it, you know that the title appears at the end. I should mention that my last name is Krasner.....my father howled!
I re-titled it many years ago to share on Youtube... http://youtu.be/I-D5I_DXluM

[CineGraphic]

PS...Here's "Norman Checks In" again re-titled: http://youtu.be/fmpoHXaB888