Posted on 01/09/2005 9:46:38 AM PST by srm913
Talking to Americans not what it used to be
MARTIN KNELMAN
Hockey Night in Canada may have been snatched away from us, but this country's second favourite spectator sport is enjoying a resurgence. In the wake of the November election, when U.S. voters dared to re-elect a president widely loathed in Canada, bashing Americans has become an even more satisfying feel-good diversion than it used to be.
And as the CBC discovered this week, it also happens to be just about the only reliable ratings booster that does not involve shooting pucks down the ice.
Here is the astonishing bulletin. In the CBC's much-touted Comedy Week, the biggest winner was Rick Mercer's Talking to Americans, which was aired for the fifth time in less than four years on the main network in prime time. This time, the mockumentary drew a phenomenal 963,000 viewers — almost three times as many as watched the premiere episodes two nights earlier of the comedy series Walter Ego.
Of course it was clear from the start audiences adored Mercer's one-hour comedy special, in which many ordinary U.S. citizens, and a few prominent elected officials, demonstrated their colossal ignorance of Canada with hilariously dumb answers to trick questions.
When the show had its premiere on CBC in April 2001, it was watched by more than 2.7 million people. In the era of countless channels and fragmented audiences, that's a number reached by CBC executives only in their dreams. It's a hockey number or an Anne of Green Gables number.
The CBC could bask in that triumph and more or less ignore the grumblers in the media who accused Mercer of ambushing innocent victims, taking cheap shots and making people look like fools when they were just trying to be helpful and polite. So what if they didn't know the difference between Chechnya and Saskatchewan? Who cared if they couldn't name the Prime Minister of Canada?
There was even talk of a sequel.
But five months later, the whole world changed. After Sept. 11, 2001, Mercer's satiric show became a poster for political incorrectness. Mercer issued a statement, asking the Academy of Canadian Cinema to withdraw his two Gemini nominations.
"This is not a time to be making light of the difference between two nations but rather a time to offer our unconditional support to our neighbours, friends and relatives to the south," said Mercer.
Still, by April 2002, almost exactly a year after the initial telecast, the CBC felt it was safe to air the show again. This time it drew over a million viewers — 1,155,000 to be precise.
Since the CBC almost never commands that big an audience even with the first showing of heavily promoted specials, the public broadcaster was not about to consign this one to the archives. With the third and fourth telecast, the familiar pattern of gradually declining ratings became apparent. In November 2002 a still-impressive 806,000 viewers tuned in, but by April 2003 the number had dropped to 583,000.
Logically there should have been a further drop-off for the fifth telecast last Wednesday. Instead, almost unbelievably, close to a million viewers enjoyed mocking our neighbours along with Rick. So far this hour has had well over six million viewers. There's no way of knowing how many of those are people watching it for a second or third time.
Watching the show last week for the second time, I had mixed feelings. Mercer is smart, funny and talented. There are some hilarious moments. But there is something disturbing about the show's afterlife, revealing as much about the smugness of Canadians as it does about the ignorance of Americans.
How much better would ordinary Canadians do if they were similarly outsmarted by a TV interviewer? And how come Canadians who enjoy mocking Americans got deeply offended last year when Conan O'Brien came here and made fun of us?
Personally, I have been talking to Americans all my life, including many wonderful friends in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and they have never seemed to me like aliens. But the U.S. more than ever is a polarized country, as suggested by a map published in one British paper that divided North America into two countries — with "the United States of Canada" in the north and "Jesusland" in the south.
I doubt whether any of my friends voted for Bush. In her annual festive-season report to members of her circle, one of them wrote: "I'm still suffering from shock and awfulness since the election, and though for many years I was reluctant to identify myself as a citizen of the U.S., I'm even more embarrassed now."
Indeed, she is busy filling out immigration papers so that, following the trail of United Empire Loyalists and Vietnam war protesters, she can sneak north. She is not the kind of subject Mercer would want to interview.
You have to feel sorry for CBC executives, because obviously they would love to capitalize on this crowd-pleaser by spinning it off into a long-running series. But Mercer's joke does not lend itself to variations.
Still, there's a DVD in the works, which will presumably include some of the outtakes. Perhaps the CBC could give this special a ritual annual telecast, giving it the status of It's a Wonderful Life and The Wizard of Oz.
And if the hockey stalemate continues, why not create a new Saturday night sports-comedy show, Highshticking Americans? The co-hosts would, of course, be Rick Mercer and Don Cherry.
Martin Knelman can be reached at mknelma@thestar.ca
Blame Canada!!!
I wonder if the Toronto Star knows that there are Canadians now deployed in Iraq?
anex canada it serves no purpose, the left can then move to france.
ok but the serious discussion on having the provinces become states of the USA is here:
http://www.unitednorthamerica.org
At the very least we should have the western and fart east provinces join the USA.
Does Canada really exist?
Note to Canada: We don't give a rat's a$$$ what you think. The people are too stupid to move away from the "frozen North" and the government is too weak to defend itself.
*Sigh* If only there was some way to remove the umbrella of American protection that these pathetic Canadian ingrates currently enjoy.
Santa Claus told me it does not.
I just sent him an e-mail saying that I was a New Yorker who voted for Bush. Other Freepers from LA,Chicago, San Francisco and New York should send one too !
Boy. Canadian TV must really stink if they're watching this FIVE TIMES!?!?
These SOBs are arrogant beyond belief.
BWAHAhaHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ROTFLMAO, eh!
Yep, we reelected W just to p!ss off our neighbors to the north. LOL!
How come the US is only polarized when the GOP wins? However, it is never polarized when some Dem wins?
Couldn't it be said that Canada is also polarized since the liberals again failed to gain a majority of the popular vote not to mention the seats in parliament?
I don't know about "arrogant" as they have nothing which they have accomplished to boast of - maybe "stupid" instead?
But don't dare question the patriotism of the left, sheesh....
It is revenge for the quarters.
All other things being equal this would have been as good a reason as any.
Hey, at least Canada can say they have produced some beautiful women. ;-))
Why not go into the some black neighborhoods and ask them about the price of tea in China? Say maybe the deep south where the host could find some "funny" accents, or maybe a homeless crack addict on the streets of any large city?
The only way to fight racism is to expose the hate. When someone starts bashing the "power" of Christians, agree with the liberal and say, "Yeah, they're almost as bad as the Jews". Such words will help them to realize just what they are saying and encouraging.
No joke.
It really is all about them.
I understand your indignation. However, this article is the first time I have read somthing from the Star denigrating the Canadian custom of putting down America as an inferiority complex antidote. This "Americans are stupid because they no nothing about Canada" practice is peculiar to the Toronto based MSM which is mainly populated by disgruntled Quebecers, flaming feminists, faint hearted irrelevant and snobby elitist scribes and failed actors like Mercer who failed to get a shot south of the border.
I do not believe the so called ratings the author quoted for satirical effect,for a minute. It would be a gross miscalculation to assume all Canadians are snobby American bashing ingrates. We have our cultural lefty/righty conflicts just as you do, however, thanks to the likes of Limbaugh et al, Americans have rediscovered thier right wing, a process now in it's infancy but nevertheless underway up here.
This is the letter I sent to Mr. Knelman:
Mr. Knelman:
NONE OF your American friends voted (as the majority of Americans did) for Bush?
Doesn't that suggest a rather narrow perspective on your part? I mean, you almost gotta work hard to avoid us Bushies.
The show you mention sounds a bit sophomoric. I suspect that if some American station had a tv show showing how little some Canadians (even some Canadian newspaper reporters) knew about the U.S., Canadians would denounce this as "canuck-bashing". I also suspect that anyone could do a similar show mocking how little Canadians know about Canada.
In the opinion of many Americans, if your American friend moves to Canada, that will raise the IQ level of both countries.
Best regards,
Bruce xxx
Chicago, USA, and proud Bush voter (who not only knows where Saskatchewan is, but can name from memory the Prime Ministers of Canada, in order, and tell Arthur Meighan stories to boot)
Albertans should sue the Canadian government to be annexed by the United States.. Just to give the British Colombians ideas and give Ottawa something to think about.. Western Canada just may not be total morons.. Shock therapy is surely needed.. Socialism is a social disease..
If it weren't for all of these Canada posts on Free Report, I would forget there is a Canada. Someone tell them we just don't care.
Great letter. The letter I sent was more angry. I am a former Canadian and now a US citizen. I grew up surrounded by people like Knelman and I guess I have finally had it !
Ping !
I hear too much for leftists about how Americans are ignorant about Canada. Yet I watched on TV some people in Toronto and they were asked to sing O Canada, they didn't know what the lyrics were. Ask them what the Capital of Canada is, or the capital of the provinces in Canada and they couldn't tell you. It's a bloody disgrace to not know your anthem and not know what the capital of your country is. It is quite obvious that those people voted liberal. The ones who do are the most ignorant or should I say stupid ones. I recently saw a poll before our elections about naming who the president of the US is vs. the Prime Minister of Canada was. approx. 85 percent of Canadians named Paul Martin as the PM of Canada and 97% of Canadians said George Bush was the president of the United States, meaning that 12% more of Canadians knew that Bush was the president than those who knew Paul Martin as PM.
Canadians bash U.S. U.S. bashes Canadians and so it goes.
I like Candians and I like Americans. My genealogy shows my ancestors helped found both countries, countries with the same kind of history, traditions, religion, etc.. Our differences with run of the mill Canadians makes us indistinguishable. God Bless Canada and God Bless the U.S.A. and let us both address our arrogance and hypocrisy. The enemy lies elsewhere. Patriotism means loving your country, not hating everyone else.
I remember years ago on Royal Canadian Air Farce when they did a show in Yellowknife, they opened with (IIRC) "The North, a place where men are men, women are women, and people who weren't sure stayed in Toronto."
I agree with you and the question not asked is this:
Q: Why do Americans not know all this nonsense about Canada?
A: We dont know because we dont care about Canada and its stupid ideas and views.
Remember when American look at Canada they look into a mirror but when Canadians look at the USA they look through a window with envy and fear.
Good news.
My church is full of hostility towards President Bush and American...typical brainwashed Canadians. I say very little.
The only person I could speak with at church about W and the war on terror, etc., was this wonderful gentleman and his wife who had immigrated from Iraq.
A couple of months ago he stopped coming to church and I was unable to get in touch with him. Well, I ran into him today after church and we were just so happy to see each other.
He is now attending a church in Ancaster, where, here's the good part, EVERYBODY LOVES PRESIDENT BUSH AND SUPPORTS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
I'm changing churches!
P.S. I dislike Mercer. I saw him do a nasty little spoof on Ralph Klein recently. He hates conservatives. The same mentality as the CBC...Michael Moore Syndrome. MMS.
"If it weren't for all of these Canada posts on Free Report, I would forget there is a Canada. Someone tell them we just don't care."
That is why posting on F/R is so important to many of us. Post 9/11 revealed a lot of ugly truths, erroneous stereotypes and hidden attitudes. Canada and the United States are connected, how we, on both sides of the border, manage this relationship is vital to our collective futures.
It is easy for Americans to trivialize this relationship due to our size differential, however the issues that divide Canadians are the same ones that divide Americans, they are cultural and not nationalistic.
The end of WW II saw the rise of the United Nations, a concept fostered and financed mainly by the U.S. and wholly supported and bought into by the smaller western democracies. We now see that politically correct mismanagement allowed the U.N. to morph into an instument of left wing ideology. America now supplants the U.N. in areas of her own critical self interest thereby challenging Countries like Canada to abandon it's former long term commitments and join the new world management team or face the consequenses.
Thus, the rift between left and right wing ideologies deepens, staunch allies and trading partners start to be marginalized in favour of the new team members and the International sniping intensifies and Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts are rolling on the ground laughing. That is why we post and why , today, nobody is irrelevant and North American cohesiveness vital.
I don't doubt that some of the Canadians watching this show do so to make themselves feel smug and superior, but I think Mercer's intentions in making the show were less haughty. The CBC's constant replaying of that one show seems a bit more mean-spirited, though, although it is hard to argue with the ratings.
Yeah, we have a lot of dumb Americans who think Al Gore is our current Vice-President and that Texas is on the Pacific Ocean. I hope they are not casting votes.
But you can get the same stupid answers to easy questions in every country in this world. Half of us have below-average intelligence.
No, I'm just a figment of your imagination. ;-)
"Does Canada really exist?"
Yes, I've been there. Unless it was one of those fake moon landing type things.
"bush is just a fake cowboy."
Maybe so, but look at what he's done with his life, and what you've done with yours.
Anyway, that's President Bush to you, sonnyboy. And oh yeah. Welcome to FR. The initiation team will be contacting you, when you least expect it.
Giant frogs ate it years ago. If you don't believe me, when was the last time you got a call from Saskatchewan?
Bush knows where Iraq is. Something you canucks forgot.
You're on the wrong board at the wrong place at the wrong time. Good-bye.
Wow! Higher ratings than hockey or "Anne Of Green Gables"!!
Apparently that's considered impressive by a Canadian Commie. Down here, it would be considered "the 3rd lowest-rated TV show of all time".
don't know about "arrogant" as they have nothing which they have accomplished to boast of - maybe "stupid" instead?
...It's all the same thing:
Arrogant=Leftist=Weak=Whiney=Stupid....?
AND THERE LIES THE RUB....CANADA (A portion of it)IS DOOMED BECAUSE YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID.
U.S. + Canada = 65% of world food production...
What are you doing on an American site?
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