Political Satire in Canada
I live up in the frozen wasteland, the Great White North, Canada. I can say “up” when referring to Canada because Google Analytics shows most people who read stuff here are in the US. Most of you can just skip ahead to the next unread subscription, because I’m going to talk about the state of news and political satire in Canada.
I saw the movie Man of the Year recently, and loved it. It was brilliant. The premise, in a nutshell, is that a Jon Stewart clone runs for president of the US, and hilarity ensues.
One of the points they made in the movie, that I’ve heard elsewhere recently as well, is that more and more people are getting their news from “fake news” shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Bill Maher, SNL, and similar shows. Shows that you’re watching because they’re funny. You’re not really there for the news, but in the process, you become aware of what’s going on politics and to some extent, in the world around you.
But only if you live in the United States.
What do we have in the way of political satire entertainment in Canada? Well, there’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and the Royal Canadian Air Farce. In my opinion, slim pickings – and they’re weekly shows. There is no daily fake news in Canada.
On the web, a few I’ve found are The Hammer, Daily Hog, and The Toque, none of which are publishing on a regular basis.
The US shows cover world news, which interests Canadians, and Canadian media generally covers US politics anyway, so all that’s missing from US satire is any sort of local Canadian content. But that’s a big loss.
Instead of jokes about American Politics, we need news about Tim Hortons and toques and hockey sticks and curling and people saying “Eh?” and newfies and the Canadian Tire guy and his wife and everything else that we identify as Canadian. And the news, of course.
The reason for this post is to ask, what am I missing? Are there some great programs that I’m just not watching? Share them with other Canadians by posting them in a comment here.
November 17th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
I find it compelling that you don’t think there is a lot of satire in Canada. While you focus specifically on the daily news format of the Daily Show, Colbert Report, Weekend Update, etc., Canada has a rich canon in terms of satirical cultural production, particularly through the CBC – an institution that is supposedly invested in the development of Canadian content. I would, in fact, argue that Canada taught the US what they know about satire; the long running history of Canadian television satire begins with the 60s newsmagazine, This Hour Has Seven Days, which regularly placed satirical bits/skits in amongst the “real” news items in the program (you can imagine the confusion/jokes this produced in the public). This show, of course, becomes the basis of the newer program, This Hour has 22 Minutes. There is lots of radio programming that is satirical as well, like Double Exposure and the earlier radio format of The Royal Canadian Airfarce, both of which have been around for years. Additionally, there is some other fantastic satirical programs called “Made in Canada” (on the machinations of television programming and production) and most emblematically, “The Newsroom,” which, in and of itself, makes fun of not only the production of daily news, but also the CBC and its bureaucracy. In other words, we have lots and lots and lots of satire – and unlike the US – PRIMETIME satire, which figures largely in terms of the demographics partaking in the jokes. Most importantly, however, is that perhaps we just don’t have the resources to produce daily news satire programs like the big networks down South.
November 29th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
I think resources may be the problem. I used to be a fan of This Hour and Air Farce, but I just don’t find them all that funny. The Daily Show and the Colbert Report just seem like better shows to me – maybe because they each are built around one person, and in both cases I find that person funny. The writing is also, in my opinion, consistently better.
November 20th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Go Colbert! As wacky and wierd as he is, I’d vote for him.
January 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I’m actually trying to write an article on political satires in Canada for a Magazine called Fine-print, it’s a film and television magazine and would love to gain more information on this topic. If any of you know of any resources that may be useful it would be much appreciated. Thank you