Damian Penny's "Daimnation" covered the overreaction, and I like this reply:
Incidentally, for anyone that thinks all Francophone kids in this province grow up to be fluently billingual, come to the Faubourg De L'Île shopping centre here in Pincourt, which is still ostensibly an officially "bilingual" town, and ask a random teenager a simple question in English. Some speak English well in spite of the crappy amount of hours of English language instruction they get at French language public schools, probably from watching a lot of English-language TV and movies, since, under Bill 101, Francophone students and most immigrants don't have the option of going to English-language public schools, but all too many cannot answer really simple questions, like, say, asking for directions to get to the Couche-Tard depanneur (convenience store), just south of the shopping centre on Cardinal Leger boulevard.
Damian Penny also makes a good point about Alexa McDonough's outrage in this entry:
"Terrorists murder 3,000 people on 9/11, and the New Democrats ask for calm and say we have to understand the "root causes". But a puppet insulting Quebeckers? Unleash the dogs of war!
No pun intended.
Actually, I agree that the government shouldn't be using taxpayers' money for an American talk show, especially one as lucrative as Late Night With Conan O'Brien. In fact, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was complaining about it earlier this week, when we Canadians were still swooning over the fact that a U.S. television star actually noticed us. Seems like McDonough and other outraged critics aren't against subsidizing the program in principle, but just against doing so for something they personally find offensive.
"
I personally didn't have a problem with them spending a million dollars to get Late Night up here for a week, even though, if I lived in Ideologically-Pure Free Market Paradise-Land, it would be unacceptable on general principle, but, since we live in Canada in the real world, better to spend that million on a show seen by millions around the world (including outside North America) and which will hopefully pay for itself in the long term through increased tourism, than, say, another Pierre Felardeau separatist propaganda film (oh, wait... the Canadian government gives him millions to produce his filth, not just a million).
But, yeah, so the NDP only reacts to unneccesary expenditures when they're poltically incorrect. You know if $1 million had gone to a documentary about the lack of wheelchair ramps at the organic vegan cafeteria at the Haida Nation GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, & Transsexual) Friendship Centre (I don't know if such a thing exists, this is just a hypothetical example), if the NDP complained at all, it would be that the documentary makers didn't get a big enough grant for a documentary only three Canadians whom aren't CBC employees would ever watch.
Ah, fortunately, Damian points out that there is a place where we can see the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in Quebec video and it's on the website for the CBC programme Zed, which also hosts that Ohgr "Majik" video with the George Bush puppet and the inept lighting (note to people coming here from that Skinny Puppy board... my big complaint was about the lighting; I was only reporting what the PABAAH guy said, I couldn't see a fricking thing for most of the video myself, just dark blurs.).
And, oh, so Triumph's a rip-off of Ed the Sock, eh, Sari? Well, Ed the Sock's a rip-off of Ralph the Happy Contest Goose. It's the same as with Kimba the White Lion vs. The Lion King; people can similarities make too much hay about characters in the same medium whom use the same general personality archetypes (though I'm not sure how serious she is about this... I don't think Ed gets too much exposure south of the border).
posted by Steve Brandon @ 2:03 AM
"Quebeckers once again reveal their thin-skinned immaturity. For folks who pride themselves on worldly sophistication, they seem strangely unaware of such cultural notions as "kidding", "ribbing" and so forth.
Why exactly do we Anglos (I'm thinking of the Globe gal, and Taylor Parnaby today on CFRB, who was an embarrassment of outrage) pretend to get so worked up about this, the Cherry business and so forth? Do we really buy that old thing about them being The Niggers of Canada. Why do we have to pretend to be all shocked just because they are too?
Frankly, I thought I'd die laughing this morning when I heard that routine. "Learn the language" is apt enough, but the best one was aimed at a fat guy: "I thought Babar lived in Paris!" Man, my boyfriend and I just got ourselves a new catch phrase.
Lighten up, frogs, or leave! Oh, and learn English. God, they bug me!"
Posted by: Kathy at February 13, 2004 05:15 PM