Who, me?
Posted on 02/17/2004 8:16:38 PM PST by Nachum
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Late-night comedian Conan O'Brien sought to defuse a flap over a recent segment poking fun at the French-Canadian province of Quebec by issuing a self-deprecating "apology" on Tuesday in French.
"People of Quebec, I'm sorry," the host of NBC's "Late Night" show said in English, as a translator recited in French, with English subtitles, "People of Quebec, I'm an albino jackass."
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
"People of Quebec, I'm sorry," the host of NBC's "Late Night" show said in English, as a translator recited in French, with English subtitles, "People of Quebec, I'm an albino jackass."
"We meant no harm with our comedy piece the other night," O'Brien continued, "translated" into French as: "The other night, I wet the bed like a little girl."
"I was a stranger in a strange land and I was very insensitive," he went on, with the subtitle: "I have a small penis."
The tongue-in-cheek mea culpa was delivered by O'Brien after his usual monologue during the taping of Tuesday night's show in New York.
O'Brien sparked a burst of outrage from the Canadian government last Thursday with a segment in which a rubber hand-puppet known as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a recurring character on the show, said to a Quebecer: "You're French, you're obnoxious and you no speekay English." The ribald puppet told another: "I can smell your crotch from here."
The controversial segment came during O'Brien's highly publicized road trip last week for a series of shows taped in and around Toronto to help boost that city's profile in the wake of last year's deadly SARS (news - web sites) outbreak.
But members of the federal government in Ottawa said O'Brien's jokes about Quebec, a province which has had separatist governments for much of the last 20 years and is a delicate political topic in Canada, went too far.
Alexa McDonough, a legislator for the left-leaning New Democratic Party, described the program as "racist filth" and "utterly vile." She demanded the government seek the return of the C$1 million ($760,000) subsidy paid by Ontario, the province of which Toronto is the capital, to General Electric Co.'s NBC network to help bring O'Brien's show to Canada.
Triumph is one Nasty Dog.
Who, me?
Do you realize the idiots have Code Napoleon civil law, even though they were never part of the Napoleonic Empire? They'll issue people with French driver's licenses Quebec driver's licenses without a test even though the rules of the road are different in France while requiring road tests of American who learned to drive with the same rules of the road! Their provinical taxes are as high as Canadian federal taxes because the duplicate in monolingual French services the federal government provides (bilingually!).
O'Brien should respond by doing an even bigger send up of the wretched place.
ROFL.... the anal-retentive Canucks really need to lighten up a bit and laugh at the effete French among them!
Hush, before folks in Louisinana give you some Southern comfort :-)
Sheesh, talk about butchering the joke. The correct line was:
"I can tell you're French, you know. You have that proud expression, that superior look, and I can smell your crotch from here."
To two froofy-looking French guys who had their arms around each other and were singing: "Here we have the Canadian Mountie, and the Canadian Mounter!"
To a big fat guy: "You're a Separatist?" The reply: "Oui". Triumph's response: "Maybe you should try separating yourself from doughnuts." Then he asks the guy, "I thought Babar was from Paris" and the guy starts giving this long explanation in French that Babar wasn't from Paris but instead from Celesteville...
He replaced various street signs with English ones. Rue de Glace became Ice Street, and then he started making up streets like Quebecqueer Street and Celine Dion Sucks Street.
I wonder if there's a full video on the web. The Canadian TV stations had some clips in their news segments the other night, but only excerpts, and then they'd have these totally humo(u)rless people discuss how terrible it was. This New Democratic Party woman from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Alexa McDunough, has got to be about the sourest person on the planet. I guess she doesn't get out into the sun enough. Her politics are about 10 miles left of John Kerry, and she was calling the Triumph skit vile and racist. Like a sock puppet is Canada's biggest problem.
Conan Apologizes to Smelly-Crotched French-Canadians
Just damn.
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