Mark Steyn: Severe Winter Storm

Opinion Journal ^ | 02/20/04 | Mark Steyn

[Pokey78]

Conan O'Brien finds Anglophone Canadians can't take a joke about Francophone ones.

W.C. Fields said never work with children or animals. That goes double if the animal's a hand puppet. So when Conan O'Brien's sidekick, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, visits Quebec and characterizes the natives as obnoxious, dull and mostly homosexual, and rent-a-quote Canadian Members of Parliament are asked for their reaction, the best response is: "Sorry, I'm a little tied up today. Why not try Miss Piggy or Lamb Chop?"

[JohnHuang2]

"He used to work for the National Post of Canada but I think he quit over some issues."

Forgot about that..you're right.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

bttt and thanks for an unexcerpted version..

YES!!

[GeronL]

He has an article on the british Spectator's website... last I checked anyway, about Conrad Black

[JohnHuang2]

That's correct.

[JohnHuang2]

He's writing for National Review, too.

[GeronL]

He should be a FReeper, he is everywhere

[JohnHuang2]

He should be a FReeper...

Hmmm...may be already...would be surprised if he wasn't.

[Fledermaus]

He's syndicated now. Thus he is picked up by anyone that wants to buy his stuff.

[GeronL]

hhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm.....

I wonder who....?? probably a lurker more than a poster I would think...

[GeronL]

Good! But he does still write some dedicated stuff, like in the National Review and the british Spectator

[JohnHuang2]

More than likely -- that distinctive writing style would give him away in an instant.

[Fledermaus]

Yes, he currently has a piece on the last page of the National Review magazine (or NRODT as we call it)!

[Tamzee]

Just for the record, Canadians are not humorless. We're humourless, OK?

[dixiechick2000]

ROTFLOL BUMP!

Thank you, both, for the post and the ping!

"As for Francophones, nothing the dog puppet did is as devastating an indictment of their (and my) ramshackle backwater as the first half-hour of Denys Arcand's current film, "The Barbarian Invasions," partly financed by Telefilm Canada, Telefilm Quebec and all the rest. For Americans, the scenes set in a Montreal hospital are a fascinating preview of what U.S. health care would be like if the Democrats ever get to "reform" it."

Ooooh! Nice slam!

It's very nice to see you, JH2. I'm not babysitting tomorrow. It's too bad I don't have the energy to find some trouble to get into...;o)

[JohnHuang2]

You're very welcome -- and GREAT to 'see' ya, too! :-)

[beaversmom]

He's got a wonderful British sounding voice. I assumed he was a Brit living in Canada. Then on Hewitt's radio program he talks about living in New Hampshire. I don't know where he's from. Have to see if I can find a bio on him.

[mylife]

Gags are one of the great pillars of a common culture, but they're one of the first things to get lost in translation--and if you can't share a joke, it's hard to have a shared culture.

Aint that the truth!!

that the problem with the moral high ground of the rue des Pussies is that it's a cul de sac.

Way to end on a high note Mark!!

[ModelBreaker]

Good! But he does still write some dedicated stuff, like in the National Review and the british Spectator

I thought it was going to be impossible to replace Florence King. But NR managed it quite nicely with Steyn.

[Tom D.]

"There's a lesson here, both for the European Union and an increasingly Hispanicized U.S.: Gags are one of the great pillars of a common culture, but they're one of the first things to get lost in translation--and if you can't share a joke, it's hard to have a shared culture. That's why multilingual societies tend toward the humorless: see Switzerland and Belgium."

P.J. O'Rourke once wrote something to the effect of, "Seriousness is stupidity sent to college". I believe that he was referring to the lack of humor in the pseudo-elite class found on many college and university campuses. Steyn seems to have hit on part of the underlying problem here.

[Ichneumon]

So when Conan O'Brien's sidekick, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog...

Triumph is great. He's like a cross between the best of Groucho Marx and Don Rickles.