What does Carrolyn Parrish have in common with Michael Moore, aside from rabid, seething hatred for America?
Michael Donovan – The producer of This Hour Has 22 Minutes was also co-producer of the Canadian location rich Bowling For Columbine. Bowling was produced by the government subsidized and recently defunct Salter Street Films.
Mr. Donovan seems to be gifted with a special kind of cluelessness (which must serve as an advantage when working with Mr. Moore). NYT:
The full sketch, including the five-second stomping, was finally broadcast on Friday night, a day after Ms. Parrish was exiled from her political party. Before that, the show had received about 1,000 e-mail messages, mostly critical.
“There’s been an outpouring here I haven’t seen for years, although I’m not sure it’s good for the show,” Mr. Donovan said. “What’s caused a lot of this is that there’s a tremendous, deep-rooted anxiety now about Canada-U.S. relations. Canadians have lost their famous sense of humor.”
Well, actually no. In his cozy little government-funded Trudeaupian paradise, Donovan and his ilk have never understood that American bashing isn’t “comedy”, and never was. What he’s experiencing is the backlash of Canadians who are fed up having their tax dollars used to support Canadian content arts/media welfare cases.
I sort of remember when 22 Minutes was funny . The first half season I think.
Was Royal Canadian Air Farce ever funny? I don’t know anyone old enough. to remember.
Let me make a modest proposal. Real humor is about laughing at yourself, its self-deprecating and acknowledges a shared human condition. I think (hope) most Canadians still posess this gift.
22 Minutes smart-ass humor is snide and eliteist and is generally about laughing at people. In short its Blue-State humor.
Air Farce was good entertainment especially back in the days of Dave Broadfoot. They weren’t selective; anyone was fair game for a put down. It was also better on Radio. It was a source of entertainment for us military people when we were overseas.
22 Minutes on the other hand is selective. They had a great target for ten years in Chretien but mostly let him off the hook. Instead they went after the Stockwell Days and Preston Mannings, people that don’t wear the CBC colours. And of course its a good medium for displaying the CBC’s anti-Americanism.
Oh and yes,Air Farce was funny.
And who can forget that laugh riot “Talking to Americans” – can you believe how hilariously ignorant the average Yank is about the minutae of Canadian life, har har har?
I’ve always pined for a “Talking to Canadians” version where an American comedian tries in vain to find people in downtown Toronto who know their CFL team is in the Grey Cup.
Oh wait – CTV news already did that on Sunday.