Canadian Comedy (Large # of youtube embeds warning)

(I'll preface this thread by saying I in no way claim to be an expert, but I grew up with all these and want to share them, I'm sure I'll miss a few key ones that never made their way into my life and feel free to add them.)

In the great discussion of film and TV, Canada has a tendency to get a bad rap, it's often the butt of a lot of jokes. And honestly when it comes to most of the arts i find it hard to counter the claims, the arts scene here, specifically film/tv is a struggling medium. There's a lot of reasons for it, that I won't go into here, my point being however that I think one of the things that gets lost in that conversation is Canada's extensive and excellent history of great comedy.

So I thought I'd compile something of a master list of some of the truly great Canadian comedy shows I grew up with and love, and maybe expose some people to some stuff they've never seen before. So here we go!

First up, The Red Green Show. One of the 2 shows here I basically grew up watching from birth.

The Red Green Show's premise is pretty simple. A men's lodge somewhere in rural Canada (I think it's technically somewhere in Ontario, but it doesn't really matter), has their own cable show, it follows the wacky exploits of the men of The Possum Lodge, dealing with their wives, the weather, and their own incompetence. Specifically Red Green (played by Steve Smith), our middle-aged, Handyman, host and his nephew Harold (Played by Patrick Mckenna. A nerd to end all nerds, who for the first few seasons directs the show until they move on and evolve his character in later seasons). There are also little shorts such as Handyman's Corner (Where Red Green, the host and main character, shows you how to use everyday items in all sorts of new ways, with a liberal use of the handyman's secret weapon....duct tape....to varying levels of success), the Possum Lodge Word game, Adventures With Bill (A silent movie type wacky adventure with voiceover by Red), and a ton of others.

I love this show, I really do. The characters are all great, they're wild and wacky. And more than anything it's an INCREDIBLY accurate depiction of a Canadian perspective on a lot of things, I think I've known at least somebody irl who is like each of the characters in this show, and definitely more than a few Handymen.

One of my favorite episodes:

(If you click through to the channel that video is on, it has every episode of every season...if you're you know interested)

Next up: The Royal Canadian Air Farce. The other show that I basically grew up watching, was definitely a family tradition for a while growing up. Unfortunately these days it's become sort of white washed and a pale echo of what it was, but the classic stuff is great.

Air Farce is a sketch comedy show, sort of a -very- Canadian Monty Python. The group spawned out of an Improv Group in the 70's, then started as a CBC radio show in 1973 then made the transition into TV in the 80's/early 90's.

One of the classic characters/sketches, "Get Stuffed" by the incomprable John Morgan.

And John Morgan again with another of the absolute classic characters.

And one from one of my favorite sketch series's.

And one of thier albums with 20 of their classic sketchs.

Every year Air Farce did (And still does) a New years eve special, which includes among other things the Chicken Cannon (Unfortunately to my dismay, they retired the chicken cannon proper in 2008, and now there is something kinda like it but lamer) that effectively...well it's really easier if I just show you...

Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to find full seasons of Air farce anywhere, the CBC has released collections of episodes, but unfortunately not full seasons. So you have to do some digging if you want to find a lot to watch.

Next up, probably the one most people will know. SCTV.

Spawning out of the Second City Comedy troupe in Toronto in the mid-70's, SCTV is a sketch comedy show, sort of Canada's answer to SNL in a lot of ways. It revolves around a fictional television network in the fictional town of Melonville. However all of it's programs and movies, are created by local incompetents and extemely low budgets.

Famously SCTV gave us the comedy giants of Rick Moranis, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, Harold Ramis, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin... to name a few. And gave us some of the most iconic Canadian sketches ever...of all time.

And then all I can really do is just give a couple of the classics:

Next up: Kids In the Hall. Started by a group of comedy writers in the mid/late-80's, Kids In the Hall is probably the closest thing to a Canadian Monty Python out there, often on the edge of social mores and giving Python a run for thier money in the drag department. KITH gave us Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald among others.

Next up: One of the smaller comedy groups, but a great one. The Frantics. I know them mainly from their sketches, but they had a regular radio show on CBC in the 80's.

Next up: This Hour Has 22 Minutes

If I'm being honest, I never really had any great love for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, it had it's moments, but it never really grabbed me. Although that may just be because I was too young at the time. 22 Minutes is a fictional news broadcast often mocking politcal events or local happenings, mixed with sketches or parody commercials.

(In reading up for this, I actually found out 22 Minutes is still on the air, despite being sure it was cancelled years ago...so hey, this is already paying off)

And 22 minutes leads us into our next one (Seeing as Rick Mercer started out on 22 Minutes)

The Rick Mercer Report.

The RMR's closest analogue would be The Colbert Report or The Daily show with John Stewart, although the RMR is usually played pretty straight.

Rick also has his infamous rants:

And of course, Rick has his talking To Americans series that I highly recommend you seek out and watch.

Next up, shifting away from sketch comedy.

Corner Gas.

Personally in my view, the greatest Canadian...sitcom...for lack of a better word. It focuses on the small fictional Sasketchewan town of Dog River, and it's eclectic small town population.

It's clever, witty, and distinctly Canadian.

The Pilot:

(You can pretty much find all the episodes on youtube if you want)

And that, my friends, brings us to a close. Like I said, I'm sure I forgot a couple that I told myself I wouldn't forget, and I'll update this as we go along if I remember any key ones I missed.

I hope you guys enjoyed and found something new to laugh at

Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2014-02-05 09:03:11)