Canadian comedian Ron James talking about something near and dear to Canadian's "Tim Hortons"
Canadian humour is unique to our identity in both French and English. While these traditions are distinct and at times very different, there are common themes that relate to Canada's history, geography, politics and our relationship with the U.S and the rest of the world.
Various trends can be noted in Canadian comedy. One thread is the portrayal of a "typical" Canadian family in an on-going radio or television series. An example, was the seventies sitcom "King of Kensington".
Another trend tends to be political and cultural satire: television shows such as CODCO, Royal Canadian Air Farce and This Hour Has 22 Minutes, monologuists such as Rick Mercer and writers, including Will Ferguson and Eric Nicol draw their inspiration from Canadian society and politics. Another trend revels in absurdity, demonstrated by television series like The Kids in the Hall and The Frantics, and musician-comedians such as Bowser and Blue. Satire and our ability to laugh at our selves is arguably what defines Canadian Comedy.
Canadian television comedy begins with Wayne and Shuster, a sketch comedy duo who performed as a comedy team during the Second World War, and moved their act to radio in 1946 before moving on to television. They became one of Canada's most enduring comedy teams, not just on Canadian television, but in the United States as well: they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 67 times, a record for any performer. They were particularly famous for their Julius Caesar sketch, Rinse the Blood off My Toga, with its legendary catch phrase, "I told him, Julie, don't go!" Wayne and Shuster continued to appear on CBC Television until the late 1980s, with specials that mixed new sketches with their classic material.
Another pioneer in Canadian television comedy was, oddly, a news series. This Hour Has Seven Days, which debuted in 1964, was primarily meant as a newsmagazine, but its segments included political satire as well as serious news reports. Later series such as Royal Canadian Air Farce, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Rick Mercer Report have all drawn on the tradition of political satire established by Seven Days, and have been among Canadian television's most popular comedy series in recent years.
Canadian born Lorne Michaels, who had moved from Toronto to Los Angeles in 1968 to work on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, launched the NBC comedy show Saturday Night Live in 1975. Over the years, several Canadians came to fame as part of the SNL cast, including Dan Aykroyd, Martin Short, and Mike Myers. Michaels also produced The Kids in the Hall for Canadian TV in the 1980s.
Many Canadian comedy shows, while not directly about politics per se, have made profound political statements by satirizing society and pop culture. This includes shows such as SCTV and CODCO.
Other shows, such as The Kids in the Hall, The Frantics, Bizarre, Puppets Who Kill and Trailer Park Boys, revelled in absurdist humour, making household names out of characters such as Chicken Lady, Mr. Canoehead, Bubbles and Super Dave Osborne.
Canadian television also frequently showcases stand-up comedians. The popular series Comics, based around one comedian each week, has been the first national television exposure for many of Canada's current comedy stars. Another series, Just for Laughs, has for many years presented comedians appearing at the Montreal International Comedy Festival. That series has also spawned the more recent Just For Laughs Gags, a practical joke show similar to Candid Camera.
One of the most famous figures in Canadian television comedy in the 1990s and 2000s has been Rick Mercer. Mercer began his career in 1990 with a touring one-man show, Show Me the Button, I'll Push It, about Canadian life in the immediate aftermath of the failed Meech Lake Accord. That show was a sellout success; in 1993, he made his television debut as one of the writers and performers on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Mercer's "rants", short op-ed pieces on Canadian politics and culture, quickly became the show's signature segment. When he published a collection of rants in 1998 as Streeters, the book quickly became a bestseller. Mercer left 22 Minutes in 2000 to devote more time to his other series, Made in Canada. When that series ended its run, he launched the new Rick Mercer Report.
As with many other genres, Canadian television comedy also frequently plays with the topic of Canada's relationship with the United States. Mercer turned another 22 Minutes segment, Talking to Americans, into a 2001 television special, which was a ratings smash. In Talking to Americans, Mercer, in his 22 Minutes guise as reporter "J.B. Dixon", visited American cities to ask people on the street for their opinion on a Canadian news story -- the joke for Canadians was that the news story was always fabricated, and either inherently ridiculous (e.g. a border dispute between Québec and Chechnya or an annual Toronto polar bear hunt) or blatantly out of context (e.g. wishing Canadians a "Happy Stockwell Day".)
Other notable Canadian Comedians:
Dave Broadfoot (Royal Canadian Air Farce)
Mike Bullard (Open Mike with Mike Bullard, The Mike Bullard Show)
Brent Butt (Corner Gas, stand-up)
Sean Cullen (Corky & the Juice Pigs, The Sean Cullen Show, stand-up)
Don Ferguson (Royal Canadian Air Farce)
Luba Goy (Royal Canadian Air Farce, Bizarre)
Paul Gross (Due South, Men With Brooms)
Don Harron (aka Charlie Farquharson Spring Thaw, Hee Haw)
Ron James (Blackfly, stand-up)
Cathy Jones (CODCO, This Hour Has 22 Minutes)
Mike MacDonald (stand-up)
Eric Peterson (This is Wonderland, Corner Gas)
Gordon Pinsent (The Red Green Show)
Leah Pinsent (Made in Canada)
Dan Redican (Puppets Who Kill, The Frantics)
Kenny Robinson (stand-up, radio)
Nancy Robertson (Corner Gas)
Wayne Robson (The Red Green Show)
Mike Smith (Trailer Park Boys)
Steve Smith (The Red Green Show, Smith & Smith's Comedy Mill)
Tara Spencer-Nairn (Corner Gas)
Mary Walsh (CODCO, This Hour Has 22 Minutes)
Robb Wells (Trailer Park Boys)
Janet Wright (Corner Gas)
Lorne Cardinal (Corner Gas)
André-Philippe Gagnon (impressionist)
Famous Canadian Exports:
Dan Aykroyd (Saturday Night Live, The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters)
John Candy (SCTV, Uncle Buck, Spaceballs, Canadian Bacon)
Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Man on the Moon, The Mask, Liar Liar, In Living Color)
Joe Flaherty (SCTV)
Dave Foley (The Kids in the Hall, News Radio)
Michael J. Fox (Family Ties, Back to the Future, Spin City)
Phil Hartman (Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, NewsRadio)
Eugene Levy (SCTV, American Pie)
Rich Little (impressionist)
Tim Long (Head-writer for The Simpsons)
Howie Mandel (Bobby's World, The Tonight Show)
Andrea Martin (SCTV)
Rachel McAdams (The Hot Chick, Mean Girls)
Eric McCormack (Will & Grace)
Bruce McCulloch (The Kids in the Hall)
Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall)
Lorne Michaels (Saturday Night Live)
Colin Mochrie (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Supertown Challenge, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Improv Heaven & Hell, Blackfly)
Rick Moranis (SCTV)
Mike Myers (Saturday Night Live, Wayne's World, Austin Powers)
Leslie Nielsen (Liography, Zeroman, Men With Brooms, The Naked Gun)
Catherine O'Hara (SCTV)
Will Sasso (Mad TV)
William Shatner (Star Trek and various spoofs thereof, comedic commercials)
Martin Short (SCTV, Primetime Glick, Saturday Night Live)
Dave Thomas (SCTV, The New Beachcombers)
Scott Thompson (The Kids in the Hall)
Enjoy your long weekend Canada, Eh
Kenaz
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