Dem
51
GOP
49
Many readers will be familiar with SCTV (1976-84), which was, to a greater or lesser extent, the Canadian version of Saturday Night Live (though it might be argued that Saturday Night Live is ALSO the Canadian version of Saturday Night Live, since it was created by a 'Nade, who has produced it for 45 of its 50 years).
SCTV produced some great material, but few would dispute that the show's most popular recurring sketch was Bob and Doug McKenzie. The two characters, played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, hosted a fictional talk show called "Great White North." The McKenzies wore heavy winter clothing and knit caps, chugged Canadian beer, ate back bacon by the handful, and made liberal use of the disfluency "eh" and the insult "you hosers!" In short, they were the most stereotypically Canadian characters you could possibly imagine. You can see examples of the sketch here and here; the sketches only had a runtime of about 2 minutes (for reasons that will be made clear in a moment).
SCTV began its life on the privately owned Global Television Network, but then moved to the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) starting with its fourth season (of six total). Because the CBC ran fewer commercials, that meant that episodes (including re-aired episodes) had to be about 2 minutes longer. Further, because the CBC was calling the shots, its management declared that the 2 extra minutes of content had to feature "identifiably Canadian content."
The SCTV crew thought this was silly, but the rules were the rules, and so Moranis and Thomas told their fellow castmembers that they would take care of it. They hastily tossed together a set, took a single cameraman to make the recording, and then improvised a dozen or so 2-minute "episodes" of "Great White North." They kept the funniest ones and tossed the rest.
The sketch was basically meant to be an "F-U, eh" to the CBC, but... it caught fire and quickly became the show's most popular segment. Moranis and Thomas did not expect to do additional entries, beyond the original batch, but they ended up doing one for every episode prior to their departure from SCTV. And every single one was produced in the same way: bare-bones, improvised, use the funniest and toss the rest.
There were a total of 41 "Great White North" sketches, followed up by a bunch of encores in various media over the last 44 years. The duo did a movie, called Strange Brew (1983), appeared on The David Letterman Show, starred in an animated series called Bob & Doug, were featured as two moose characters in the Brother Bear movies, and had several reunion specials for Canadian television.
Why are we talking about them here? Well, a number of reasons, among them:
All of this said, the biggest reason we chose this topic, this week in particular, is because the two actors got Bob and Doug McKenzie out of mothballs last year, and earlier this year, to do a bunch of political commercials in opposition to a national beer tax. The commercials were not successful, inasmuch as the tax was ultimately implemented, but those who oppose it, including the hosts of "Great White North" are hoping it might eventually be reversed.
This week, if you watch any news, or if you watch the DNC, you are likely to see some vicious, vicious political ads. Sometimes it's good to remember that it doesn't HAVE to be that way, and it's at least possible to advocate using some gentle, good humor.
Have a good weekend, all! (Z)