Posted on 01/09/2005 9:46:38 AM PST by srm913
Talking to Americans not what it used to be
MARTIN KNELMAN
Hockey Night in Canada may have been snatched away from us, but this country's second favourite spectator sport is enjoying a resurgence. In the wake of the November election, when U.S. voters dared to re-elect a president widely loathed in Canada, bashing Americans has become an even more satisfying feel-good diversion than it used to be.
And as the CBC discovered this week, it also happens to be just about the only reliable ratings booster that does not involve shooting pucks down the ice.
Here is the astonishing bulletin. In the CBC's much-touted Comedy Week, the biggest winner was Rick Mercer's Talking to Americans, which was aired for the fifth time in less than four years on the main network in prime time. This time, the mockumentary drew a phenomenal 963,000 viewers — almost three times as many as watched the premiere episodes two nights earlier of the comedy series Walter Ego.
Of course it was clear from the start audiences adored Mercer's one-hour comedy special, in which many ordinary U.S. citizens, and a few prominent elected officials, demonstrated their colossal ignorance of Canada with hilariously dumb answers to trick questions.
When the show had its premiere on CBC in April 2001, it was watched by more than 2.7 million people. In the era of countless channels and fragmented audiences, that's a number reached by CBC executives only in their dreams. It's a hockey number or an Anne of Green Gables number.
The CBC could bask in that triumph and more or less ignore the grumblers in the media who accused Mercer of ambushing innocent victims, taking cheap shots and making people look like fools when they were just trying to be helpful and polite. So what if they didn't know the difference between Chechnya and Saskatchewan? Who cared if they couldn't name the Prime Minister of Canada?
There was even talk of a sequel.
But five months later, the whole world changed. After Sept. 11, 2001, Mercer's satiric show became a poster for political incorrectness. Mercer issued a statement, asking the Academy of Canadian Cinema to withdraw his two Gemini nominations.
"This is not a time to be making light of the difference between two nations but rather a time to offer our unconditional support to our neighbours, friends and relatives to the south," said Mercer.
Still, by April 2002, almost exactly a year after the initial telecast, the CBC felt it was safe to air the show again. This time it drew over a million viewers — 1,155,000 to be precise.
Since the CBC almost never commands that big an audience even with the first showing of heavily promoted specials, the public broadcaster was not about to consign this one to the archives. With the third and fourth telecast, the familiar pattern of gradually declining ratings became apparent. In November 2002 a still-impressive 806,000 viewers tuned in, but by April 2003 the number had dropped to 583,000.
Logically there should have been a further drop-off for the fifth telecast last Wednesday. Instead, almost unbelievably, close to a million viewers enjoyed mocking our neighbours along with Rick. So far this hour has had well over six million viewers. There's no way of knowing how many of those are people watching it for a second or third time.
Watching the show last week for the second time, I had mixed feelings. Mercer is smart, funny and talented. There are some hilarious moments. But there is something disturbing about the show's afterlife, revealing as much about the smugness of Canadians as it does about the ignorance of Americans.
How much better would ordinary Canadians do if they were similarly outsmarted by a TV interviewer? And how come Canadians who enjoy mocking Americans got deeply offended last year when Conan O'Brien came here and made fun of us?
Personally, I have been talking to Americans all my life, including many wonderful friends in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and they have never seemed to me like aliens. But the U.S. more than ever is a polarized country, as suggested by a map published in one British paper that divided North America into two countries — with "the United States of Canada" in the north and "Jesusland" in the south.
I doubt whether any of my friends voted for Bush. In her annual festive-season report to members of her circle, one of them wrote: "I'm still suffering from shock and awfulness since the election, and though for many years I was reluctant to identify myself as a citizen of the U.S., I'm even more embarrassed now."
Indeed, she is busy filling out immigration papers so that, following the trail of United Empire Loyalists and Vietnam war protesters, she can sneak north. She is not the kind of subject Mercer would want to interview.
You have to feel sorry for CBC executives, because obviously they would love to capitalize on this crowd-pleaser by spinning it off into a long-running series. But Mercer's joke does not lend itself to variations.
Still, there's a DVD in the works, which will presumably include some of the outtakes. Perhaps the CBC could give this special a ritual annual telecast, giving it the status of It's a Wonderful Life and The Wizard of Oz.
And if the hockey stalemate continues, why not create a new Saturday night sports-comedy show, Highshticking Americans? The co-hosts would, of course, be Rick Mercer and Don Cherry.
Martin Knelman can be reached at mknelma@thestar.ca
Blame Canada!!!
I wonder if the Toronto Star knows that there are Canadians now deployed in Iraq?
anex canada it serves no purpose, the left can then move to france.
ok but the serious discussion on having the provinces become states of the USA is here:
http://www.unitednorthamerica.org
At the very least we should have the western and fart east provinces join the USA.
Does Canada really exist?
Note to Canada: We don't give a rat's a$$$ what you think. The people are too stupid to move away from the "frozen North" and the government is too weak to defend itself.
*Sigh* If only there was some way to remove the umbrella of American protection that these pathetic Canadian ingrates currently enjoy.
Santa Claus told me it does not.
I just sent him an e-mail saying that I was a New Yorker who voted for Bush. Other Freepers from LA,Chicago, San Francisco and New York should send one too !
Boy. Canadian TV must really stink if they're watching this FIVE TIMES!?!?
These SOBs are arrogant beyond belief.
BWAHAhaHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ROTFLMAO, eh!
Yep, we reelected W just to p!ss off our neighbors to the north. LOL!
How come the US is only polarized when the GOP wins? However, it is never polarized when some Dem wins?
Couldn't it be said that Canada is also polarized since the liberals again failed to gain a majority of the popular vote not to mention the seats in parliament?
I don't know about "arrogant" as they have nothing which they have accomplished to boast of - maybe "stupid" instead?
But don't dare question the patriotism of the left, sheesh....
It is revenge for the quarters.
All other things being equal this would have been as good a reason as any.
Hey, at least Canada can say they have produced some beautiful women. ;-))
Why not go into the some black neighborhoods and ask them about the price of tea in China? Say maybe the deep south where the host could find some "funny" accents, or maybe a homeless crack addict on the streets of any large city?
The only way to fight racism is to expose the hate. When someone starts bashing the "power" of Christians, agree with the liberal and say, "Yeah, they're almost as bad as the Jews". Such words will help them to realize just what they are saying and encouraging.
No joke.
It really is all about them.
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