"I was the first spokesperson for the Better Hearing Institute in Washington. And that's the message we tried to send out - there is hearing help out there, and the technology and options are amazing"
About this Quote
A comedian talking about hearing loss is already doing a small cultural judo move: turning a condition people hide into something you can name out loud. Norm Crosby, best known for malapropisms and the persona of the lovable bungler, isn’t selling a miracle cure so much as selling permission. The Better Hearing Institute gig puts him in the oddly serious role of national translator, taking a medical anxiety and repackaging it as everyday common sense: help exists, you’re not alone, you don’t have to pretend you caught every word.
The line “first spokesperson” matters. It signals a moment when hearing aids were still coded as old-age stigma and personal failure, not as consumer tech. Crosby’s presence softens that shift. He’s a living reminder that communication is performance, and that missing a beat can be funny onstage but costly off it. His comedy built on mis-hearing and mis-speaking, which gives the advocacy a sly double edge: the guy who made a career out of linguistic derailments is now insisting that some derailments don’t have to be endured.
The pitch leans hard on “amazing” technology and “options,” language borrowed from late-20th-century optimism about gadgets. Subtext: don’t think of hearing aids as prosthetics; think of them as upgrades. It’s a stigma-reversal strategy, and it works because it meets people where their pride lives: not in admitting weakness, but in choosing a better tool.
The line “first spokesperson” matters. It signals a moment when hearing aids were still coded as old-age stigma and personal failure, not as consumer tech. Crosby’s presence softens that shift. He’s a living reminder that communication is performance, and that missing a beat can be funny onstage but costly off it. His comedy built on mis-hearing and mis-speaking, which gives the advocacy a sly double edge: the guy who made a career out of linguistic derailments is now insisting that some derailments don’t have to be endured.
The pitch leans hard on “amazing” technology and “options,” language borrowed from late-20th-century optimism about gadgets. Subtext: don’t think of hearing aids as prosthetics; think of them as upgrades. It’s a stigma-reversal strategy, and it works because it meets people where their pride lives: not in admitting weakness, but in choosing a better tool.
Quote Details
| Topic | Health |
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