Conan the obnoxious; berates audience for laughing with Triumph segment

The Star ^ | 02/14/04 | The Star

[Pikamax]

Feb. 14, 2004. 01:00 AM

Conan the obnoxious

In an editorial yesterday, we praised U.S. talk-show host Conan O'Brien for bringing his program here and featuring lots of Canadian talent.

Well, we spoke far too soon.

The editorial went to press before Thursday's episode was broadcast. Had we known the mean-spirited content of that instalment of NBC's Late Night With Conan O'Brien, we never would have invited him to return anytime.

The program featured a nasty segment taped in Quebec city in which the show's obnoxious canine hand puppet stopped unsuspecting residents in the street and crudely insulted them for being francophone.

It wasn't just poking fun, it wasn't clever — it was hateful and, yes, racist.

O'Brien would never have dared such a stunt at home in New York City with American Hispanics or Jews. Not a chance.

Many Canadians will dismiss O'Brien as an out-of-touch American who doesn't realize how sensitive French-English issues are here.

What is truly appalling, however, was the reaction of the audience at Toronto's Elgin Theatre. Most members laughed wildly at the crude anti-French jokes. Earlier in the week, the crowd, many their 20s, booed the mention of singer Céline Dion.

Regrettably, French-bashing is once again becoming all too prevalent in English Canada, and in Toronto. It is as if all the efforts over the past 25 years by both anglophones and francophones to ease tensions between the two groups was a waste of time for these young Canadians, who you would think would be more tolerant in multi-ethnic Toronto.

Taxpayers chipped in $1 million to bring the show here. We welcomed O'Brien to our turf and fawned over him. In return, we were repaid with ill-mannered conduct.

Goodbye, Conan. Don't come back soon.

[Paul Atreides]

Not to be a ninny, but I would say that a lot of Canadians deserve that derision. Thankfully, we have some conservative Canadians on FR. I wouldn't want to lump them in with the bad ones.

[Paul Atreides]

Peyton Place is fully of Peyphones.

[ChadGore]

Laughing @ Chiraq is something the world enjoys because it's a natural thing.

[vpintheak]

Wow, go figure, ignorant, arrogant, and no sense of humor. Man do the French suck!

[anniegetyourgun]

And can you imagine the stir if Conan had gone up to "people of size" and called them Megaphones?

[JoJo Gunn]

A racist puppet. Who would have thought it?

This "editorial" is more proof that Leftists are dangerously mentally disturbed.

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

It is as if all the efforts over the past 25 years by both anglophones and francophones to ease tensions between the two groups was a waste of time for these young Canadians, who you would think would be more tolerant in multi-ethnic Toronto.

Maybe people are just sick and tired of hearing French Quebec constantly threatening to separate from Canada.

[Paul Atreides]

Or, to the illiterate, and called them grammophones.

[YaYa123]

"I can smell your crotch from here",

the little dog said to one of the Frenchies. And I gotta admit, I laughed out loud!

Everyone knows the French are rude, don't bathe enough, and have greasy hair.

Don't like it? Eat my grits!!

[gcruse]

[inkling]

Is Eminem French-Canadian?

[GulliverSwift]

Boy, this editorial sets new standards for arrogance, even from a newspaper editorial.

Funny, the show's segment with Jim Carrey ripping up an "American passport." There were plenty of shots at America in his segments. It's fine to do that as long as you do some at Canada, which he did.

This editorial board apparently (unsurprisingly) believes the Quebecois are above criticism.

[Destro]

How can it be racist? French Canadians are as White as Conan is and as white as the hand that holds the puppet. You are all the same race dimwits.

[Eastbound]

Monicaphones for Headphones?

[Bob J]

Obviously, the Francophones are a "protected" liberal group in Canada. No making funny noises around them and a crime to make them feel "incomfortable".

Lefties are arrogant, obnoxious and humourless...everywhere.

[HHFi]

"No one would dare try such a stunt with Jews in New York."

No, but if you insulted Jews in Paris, I bet you'd get big laughs from the French.

Cry me a River Seine.

[Reactionary]

The little knee-jerk liberals don't really have a tidy mental box for this one, so they've adopted the most convenient idiocy they can imagine.

It's racist for a puppet to call an effete liberal idiot names.

[katana]

The English Canadians I know are sick and tired of having had to kowtow to the Quebecois for going on forty years (ever since the Pierre Trudeau days) and in private they tell pretty good jokes about the French, so I'm not at all surprised that O'Brian's Toronto audience went crazy with laughter. It's a release from the PC straightjacket.

That being said, compared with the jokes they tell about Newfies (Newfoundlanders) any that I've heard them tell about the frog princes are pretty mild. It's amazing people with such thin skins could stand living in such a cold climate.

[ItsForTheChildren]

Let's not leave out the fine people in Alabama and their mobile phones!

[Peter Libra]

Thanks for the input. Yes right on. Finally someone may have cleansed the Augean stables. This being in Greek mythology, of which I know but little. O'Brien has, whether or not he realises it, defanged the icy,hateful, spiteful politically correct activists. (Alexa are you listening?)

Oh by the way, French Canadian working class in Ontario can take a joke with the rest of us. Cheers.