If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

'Norman... is that You', was popular on the dinner theater circuit in the '70's. It was strangely written by Sam Bobrick earlier of 'The Andy Griffith Show' then later created 'Save By the Bell'. This inspired casting by big time TV producer George Schlatter had Redd Foxx. I saw this when I was stationed at a remote site and they would send us one movie a week (before video, and it was like in 'MASH' except without any women). Everybody was looking forward to a raunchy Redd Foxx comedy and when it started every black guy walked out. The rest of us laughed our butts off at this funny, bawdy comedy. 'Madame' who became a TV star on 'Solid Gold' was the foul mouth older temptress and Pearl Bailey in limited screen time was Redd's wife and foil. With Redd Foxx trying to understand why his son has become gay (not Stephen Foster)the black guys in the original screening had to wait 40 years to accept black gay men on the screen, 'Empire', that's to bad. This is a very funny coming of age movie, and only for those who don't offend easily.

Like MOST movie critics, the opinions expressed here only serve to prove what most movie goers already know, movie critics should stay at home and read Garfield, Snoopy or the like. I attended the premier of this movie with a group of friends and we ALL laughed until our sides were sore. I guess you have to be of "average intelligence" and a movie goer of that era to really appreciate this movie. Red Foxx WAS up to his "usual potential," Pearl Baily was a bit bland, the late Wayland Flowers STOLE the movie. There were only a few "gay theme" movies that ever made it to the big screen during that time. The Ritz, The Boys in the Band, and Norman is that you? None of these movies were "spectacular" but they filled a niche. Maybe you just had to be "gay" to understand just how humorous these movies were.

This snarky, homophobic thing was dated in 1976. It seems particularly mean-spirited now, filled with gay stereotypes, and characters that are meant to be laughed at, rather than with. Redd Foxx does his standard schtick, Michael Warren at least tries to bring humanity to a one dimensional character, and Pearl--Pearl what were you thinking--? Pearl Bailey deserves far better.

Even though this movie came out a year before I was born, it is definetely one of my favorite comedies. It stars Redd Foxx as a father who tries to understand his son's homosexuality. Like most parents, he doesn't know a thing about what it means to be gay and has all of these stereotypical notions of what gay people are like. His son, Norman, is now grown up and living on his own. When his father, Ben, finds out that his son is gay, he pays his son a visit in hopes of changing him. The title comes from one of the funniest lines in the movie--when Ben gets to Norman's apartments he runs into a female prostitute and thinks it's his son in drag ("Norman... Is that you?"). The movie had me laughing from start to finish. Redd Foxx is great. Although a lot of the content is stereotypical, I didn't find anything offensive about the way the material was handled, and it even has a good ending. Highly recommended.