Canadian humour - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Canadian humour is an integral part of the Canadian Identity. There are several traditions in Canadian humour in both English

Canadian English

Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...

and French

Quebec French

Quebec French , or Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Quebec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government....

. While these traditions are distinct and at times very different, there are common themes that relate to Canadians' shared history and geopolitical

Geopolitics

Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....

situation in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

and the world

World

World is a common name for the whole of human civilization, specifically human experience, history, or the human condition in general, worldwide, i.e. anywhere on Earth....

.

Various trends can be noted in Canadian comedy. One thread is the portrayal of a "typical" Canadian family in an on-going radio or television series. Examples include La famille Plouffe
La famille Plouffe
La famille Plouffe was a Canadian television drama, more specifically a téléroman, about a Quebec family that first aired in the French-language on Société Radio-Canada in 1953. The show was created to fill a void in francophone television in Canada...

, with its mix of drama, humour, politics and religion and sitcoms such as King of Kensington
King of Kensington
King of Kensington was a Canadian television sitcom which aired on CBC Television from 1975 to 1980.The show starred Al Waxman as Larry King, a convenience store owner in Toronto's Kensington Market who was known for helping friends and neighbours solve problems. His multicultural group of friends...

and La Petite Vie
La Petite Vie
La petite vie was first a stage sketch of the comedy duo Ding et Dong, formed by Claude Meunier and Serge Thériault, and later a hit Quebec television sitcom aired by Radio-Canada from 1993 to 1999...

. Another major thread tends to be political and cultural satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

: television shows such as CODCO
CODCO
CODCO was a Canadian comedy troupe from Newfoundland, best known for a sketch comedy series which aired on CBC Television from 1987 to 1992....

, Royal Canadian Air Farce
Royal Canadian Air Farce
Air Farce Live, also credited as Air Farce, previously Royal Canadian Air Farce, and Air Farce—Final Flight! for the final season, was a Canadian comedy series starring the comedy troupe The Royal Canadian Air Farce that previously starred in an eponymous radio show on CBC radio from 1973 to 1997...

, La Fin du monde est à 7 heures
La Fin du monde est à 7 heures
La Fin du monde est à 7 heures was a Quebec television comedy series, which aired on TQS from 1997 to 2000...

and This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials...

, monologuists such as Yvon Deschamps

Yvon Deschamps

Yvon Deschamps, CQ is a Quebec author, actor, comedian and producer best known for his monologues. His social-commentary-tinged humour propelled him to prominence in Quebec popular culture in the 1970s and 1980s...

and Rick Mercer

Rick Mercer

Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer is a Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist, and blogger.Mercer first came to national attention in 1990, when he premiered his one man show Show Me the Button, I'll Push It, or Charles Lynch Must Die at the Great Canadian Theatre Company in...

and writers, including Michel Tremblay

Michel Tremblay

Michel Tremblay, CQ is a Canadian novelist and playwright.Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual dialect, something that would heavily influence his work...

, Will Ferguson

Will Ferguson

William Stener "Will" Ferguson is a Canadian writer and novelist best known for his humorous observations on Canadian history and culture....

and Eric Nicol

Eric Nicol

Eric Patrick Nicol was a Canadian writer, best known as a longtime humour columnist for the Vancouver, British Columbia newspaper The Province...

draw their inspiration from Canadian and Québécois

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

society and politics. Another trend revels in absurdity, demonstrated by television series like The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...

and The Frantics
The Frantics
The Frantics or Frantics is the name of:*The Frantics , a punk rock band.*The Frantics , a Canadian comedy troupe.*The Frantics , a Showtime network series....

, and musician-comedians such as The Arrogant Worms, Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie

Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie

Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie are a Canadian comedy group from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Childhood friends Wes Borg and Joe Bird met actress Cathleen Rootsaert at a weekly Theatre Sports comedy jam to form the initial group. Later, Neil Grahn was recruited...

and Bowser and Blue

Bowser and Blue

George Bowser and Rick Blue, better known as Bowser and Blue, are a musical duo from Quebec, Canada who write and perform comedic songs...

. Satire is arguably the primary characteristic of Canadian humour, evident in each of these threads, and uniting various genres and regional cultural differences.

As is prevalent in other countries, humour at the expense of regional and ethnic stereotypes is also found in Canada. Obvious examples are 'Newfie

Newfie

Newfie is a colloquial term used in Canada for someone who is from Newfoundland. It appears in a 1942 dictionary of slang; at the time, 'Newfie' was used as often to refer to Newfoundland itself as to people from Newfoundland .The term 'Newfie' has been applied to the Newfoundland people, the...

' jokes (with 'Newfie' being a derogatory nickname for people from the island of Newfoundland) and jokes revolving around English-speaking Canadians' stereotype of French Canadians, and vice versa.

Humber College

Humber College

Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning is a polytechnic college in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Humber offers more than 150 programs including: bachelor’s degree, diploma, certificate, post-graduate certificate and apprenticeship programs, across 40 fields of study. Humber serves...

in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

and the École nationale de l'humour in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

offer post-secondary programmes in comedy writing and performance. Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

is also home to the bilingual (English

Canadian English

and French

Quebec French

) Just For Laughs

Just for Laughs

Just for Laughs is a comedy festival held each July in Montreal, Quebec, founded in 1983. It is the largest international comedy festival in the world.- Information :...

festival and to the Just for Laughs museum

Just for Laughs museum

The Just for Laughs Museum is a Canadian museum dedicated to humour located in Montreal, Quebec.- History :The Just for Laughs Museum was created by Gilbert Rozon, who wanted to buy in on the success of the Just for Laughs festival...

, a bilingual, international museum of comedy.

Literature

From the first major work of Canadian humour, Thomas McCulloch’s Letters of Mephibosheth Stepsure (1821-23) in the Halifax weekly Acadian Recorder
Acadian Recorder
The Acadian Recorder was a weekly newspaper published during the 19th century in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The newspaper was originally founded in 1813 by Anthony Henry Holland. He died in 1830 and the paper eventually came under the ownership of Hugh William Blackadar.- References :* * * * *...

, Canadian humorous writing has tended more towards prose than poetry. McCulloch's satirical letters have been described by Northrop Frye

Northrop Frye

Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....

as "quiet, observant, deeply conservative in a human sense…” McCulloch's satirical persona, the "conventional, old-fashioned, homespun" farmer, is part of a tradition that originates with Addison

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...

and Swift

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...

. Compared to McCulloch’s dry and understated style, Thomas Chandler Haliburton

Thomas Chandler Haliburton

Thomas Chandler Haliburton was the first international best-selling author from Canada. He was also significant in the history of Nova Scotia.-Life:...

showed the same conservative social values in the brash, overstated character of Sam Slick

Sam Slick

Sam Slick was a character created by Thomas Chandler Haliburton, a Canadian judge and author. With his wry wit and Yankee voice, Sam Slick of Slicksville put forward his views on "human nature" in a regular column in the Novascotian, beginning in 1835...

, the Yankee Clockmaker. Haliburton’s Sam Slick persona in The Clockmaker
The Clockmaker
-Selected cast:*Philippe Noiret as Michel Descombes*Jean Rochefort as Insp. Guilboud*Jacques Denis as Antoine*Yves Afonso as Insp. Bricard*Julien Bertheau as Edouard*Jacques Hilling as Costes*Clotilde Joano as Janine Boitard*Andrée Tainsy as Madeleine Fourmet...

(1836), as Arthur Scobie notes in The Canadian Encyclopedia, "proved immensely popular and, ironically, has influenced American humour as much as Canadian."

Folk humour and satire were responses to the domination of 19th-century French Canadian

French Canadian

French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...

culture by the Catholic Church. Napoléon Aubin satirized Quebec public life in his journals Le Fantasque (1837–45) and Le Castor (1843), and through his theatre troupe, Les Amateurs typographiques, established in 1839. He was imprisoned during that same year for his views. This cosmopolitan tradition is also seen in the journalism of Arthur Buies, editor of La Lanterne canadienne (1868–69), a highly satirical journal of that era.

Light comedy that mocked local customs was typical of 19th-century theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

in Quebec. Examples include Joseph Quesnel's L'Anglomanie, ou le dîner à l'angloise (1803), which criticized the imitation of English customs, and Pierre Petitclair

Pierre Petitclair

Pierre Petitclair was one of the first native French Canadian writers. He wrote two popular plays of the 19th century, La Donation and Une partie de campagne , the latter notable for using rural québécois speech for the first time on stage...

's Une partie de campagne (1865). More serious drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

s attacked specific targets: the anonymous Les Comédies du status quo (1834) ridiculed local politics, and Le Défricheteur de langue (1859) by Isodore Mesplats, (pseudonym of Joseph LaRue and Joseph-Charles Taché), mocked Parisian

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

manners. Other examples of theatrical satire were Félix-Gabriel Marchand's comedy, Les faux brillants (1885) and Louvigny de Montigny's Les Boules de neige (1903), which took aim at Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

's bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

.

By the early 20th century, the satirical tradition was well developed in English Canada

English Canada

English Canada is a term used to describe one of the following:# English-speaking Canadians, as opposed to French-speaking Canadians. It is employed when comparing English- and French-language literature, media, or art...

as exemplified in the writing of Stephen Leacock

Stephen Leacock

Stephen Butler Leacock, FRSC was an English-born Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist...

. In Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a sequence of stories by Stephen Leacock, first published in 1912.It is generally considered to be one of the most enduring classics of Canadian humorous literature....

(1912), Leacock, renowned for his satirical wit, used tragic irony and astute insight in examining day-to-day, small-town life. The book remains a classic of Canadian literature, and was followed by Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich
Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich
Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich is a work of humorous fiction by Stephen Leacock first published in 1914. It is the follow-up to his 1912 classic Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town...

in 1914. An annual Canadian literary award, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour

Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour

The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour is an annual literary award presented to the best work of humorous literature in English by a Canadian writer. The award is a tribute to well-known Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock , and is accompanied by a cash prize of $15,000...

, is named in his memory. The award is presented to the year's best work of humorous literature by a Canadian. Donald Jack

Donald Jack

Donald Lamont Jack was a Canadian novelist and playwright.He was born in Radcliffe, Bury, England and grew up in Britain, attending the well regarded Bury Grammar School and Marr College and later serving in the RAF in World War II .After the war he emigrated to Canada in 1951, and became a...

, three-time winner of the Leacock Medal, wrote a number of comedies for the stage, radio, and television, but is best known for his nine-part series of novels about aviator Bartholomew Bandy

Bartholomew Bandy

The Bandy Papers is a series of novels by British-Canadian author Donald Jack chronicling the exploits of a World War I fighter ace named Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy. Every book in the Bandy Papers series contains the word 'me' in the title as do many of the chapter titles which can also be interpreted...

.

Following the Révolution tranquille
Quiet Revolution
The Quiet Revolution was the 1960s period of intense change in Quebec, Canada, characterized by the rapid and effective secularization of society, the creation of a welfare state and a re-alignment of politics into federalist and separatist factions...

in Quebec, theatrical satire reappeared in 1968 with Michel Tremblay

Michel Tremblay

's play Les Belles sœurs, written in Québécois joual

Joual

Joual is the common name for the linguistic features of basilectal Quebec French that are associated with the French-speaking working class in Montreal which has become a symbol of national identity for a large number of artists from that area...

. The controversial play picked apart the myth of a stable bourgeois Quebec society with a mix of realistic comedy and allegorical satire. Following Tremblay’s lead, Jean Barbeau exposed Quebec popular culture in La Coupe stainless (1974). Tremblay and Barbeau set the stage for reviews such as Broue (1979), a collective production, which toured English-speaking Canada as Brew (1982).

Humorous fiction in French Canada draws from the oral tradition of folk songs and folktales which were the common coin of humour in the 19th century. Only a few of these folk tales surfaced in writing prior to the 20th century. However, contemporary writers such as Jacques Ferron

Jacques Ferron

Jacques Ferron was a Canadian physician and author.Jacques Ferron was born in Louiseville, Quebec, the son of Joseph-Alphonse Ferron and Adrienne Caron. On March 5, 1931 his mother died. He attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf but was expelled in 1936...

(Contes du pays incertain, 1962) in Quebec and Antonine Maillet

Antonine Maillet

Antonine Maillet, is an Acadian novelist, playwright, and scholar. She was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick and lives in Montreal, Quebec....

in Acadian

Acadian

The Acadians are the descendants of the 17th-century French colonists who settled in Acadia . Acadia was a colony of New France...

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

(La Sagouine, 1974, and Pélagie-la-Charette, 1979), rely extensively on folk humour and popular culture. Other Quebec writers noted for their humour include Roger Lemelin

Roger Lemelin

Roger Lemelin, was a Quebec novelist, television writer and essayist.-Biography:Lemelin was born in Quebec City. From 1944 to 1952, he was a Canadian correspondent for the American magazines Time and Life and, from 1972 to 1981, chief executive officer and editor of La Presse.In 1980 he was made...

, Gérard Bessette

Gérard Bessette

Gérard Bessette was a French Canadian writer and educator.Bessette grew up in Montreal and attended the Collège Saint-Ignace...

, Jacques Godbout

Jacques Godbout

Jacques Godbout, CQ is a Canadian novelist, essayist, children's writer, journalist, filmmaker and poet. By his own admission a bit of a dabbler , Godbout has become one of the most important writers of his generation, with a major influence on post-1960 Quebec intellectual life.-Biography:Born in...

, Roch Carrier

Roch Carrier

Roch Carrier, OC is a Canadian novelist and author of "contes" . He is among the best known Quebec writers in English Canada....

and Yves Beauchemin

Yves Beauchemin

Yves Beauchemin is a Quebec novelist.Born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Beauchemin received his degree in French literature and art history at the Université de Montréal in 1965. He taught literature at the Collège Garneau and Université Laval...

. Beauchemin's picaresque novel

Picaresque novel

The picaresque novel is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society...

Le Matou (1981) is the all-time best-selling novel in Quebec literature.

The plain talking alter-ego as an instrument of satire continued with Robertson Davies

Robertson Davies

William Robertson Davies, CC, OOnt, FRSC, FRSL was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", a term Davies is variously said to have gladly accepted for himself...

' series of Samuel Marchbanks

Samuel Marchbanks

Samuel Marchbanks is a fictional character who wrote editorials for the Peterborough Examiner newspaper in the small city of Peterborough, Ontario, northeast of Toronto, during the middle of the 20th century....

books (1947–67) and John Metcalf

John Metcalf (writer)

John Metcalf, CM is a Canadian writer, editor and critic.-Biographical:Metcalf was born in Carlisle, England on November 12, 1938. His father, Thomas Metcalf, was a clergyman and his mother, Gladys Moore Metcalf, was a teacher. Metcalf immigrated to Canada in 1962 at the age of 24. It was in...

's James Wells in General Ludd (1980). Davies is one of many Canadian writers of "serious" literature who were also renowned for humour in their work. Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

, Farley Mowat

Farley Mowat

Farley McGill Mowat, , born May 12, 1921 is a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian North, such as People of the...

, Paul Quarrington

Paul Quarrington

Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...

, Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler

Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...

, Carol Shields

Carol Shields

Carol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...

, W. O. Mitchell

W. O. Mitchell

William Ormond Mitchell, PC, OC better known as W.O. Mitchell was a Canadian writer.-Early life and career:...

, Pierre Berton

Pierre Berton

Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist....

, M.A.C. Farrant

M.A.C. Farrant

M.A.C. Farrant is a Canadian short fiction writer, memoirist, journalist, and humourist.Born in Sydney, Australia, and residing on the Saanich Peninsula, Vancouver Island, Canada, since the age of five, she is the author of ten collections of satirical and humorous short fiction and a...

and Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews

Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer of Mennonite descent. She grew up in Steinbach, Manitoba and has lived in Montreal and London, before settling in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She moved to Toronto in 2009....

are all acclaimed writers of mainstream literature who have also been acknowledged for using humour and wit in their writing. Many other writers of Canadian humour have been published as newspaper or magazine commentators, including Gary Lautens

Gary Lautens

Gary Lautens was a Canadian humorist and newspaper columnist. He wrote for the Toronto Star from 1962 until his death....

, Richard J. Needham

Richard J. Needham

Richard J. Needham was a Canadian humour columnist for The Globe and Mail.Many of his columns were collected in a variety of books, including The Garden of Needham and Needham's Inferno, which won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1967.Needham also coined Mop and Pail and Grope and...

, Eric Nicol

Eric Nicol

Eric Patrick Nicol was a Canadian writer, best known as a longtime humour columnist for the Vancouver, British Columbia newspaper The Province...

, Joey Slinger

Joey Slinger

Joey Slinger is a Canadian journalist and author, particularly known as a long-standing humour columnist for the Toronto Star....

, Will Ferguson

Will Ferguson

William Stener "Will" Ferguson is a Canadian writer and novelist best known for his humorous observations on Canadian history and culture....

and Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay is a Canadian-American humourist, author and former columnist. He has published books of autobiography and both humorous and dramatic detective fiction, and he formerly wrote the thrice-weekly humour column in the Toronto Star, as well as releasing a podcast with his articles. He...

.

Humour is also central to the work of Canadian children's writers such as Gordon Korman

Gordon Korman

Gordon Korman is a Canadian author, primarily of novels for children and young adults. He lives in Long Island's Great Neck, New York, with his wife and three children....

, Dennis Lee

Dennis Lee (author)

Dennis Beynon Lee, OC, MA is a Canadian poet, teacher, editor, and critic born in Toronto, Ontario. He is also a children's writer, well known for his book of children's rhymes, Alligator Pie.-Life:...

and Robert Munsch

Robert Munsch

Robert Norman Munsch, CM is an American-born Canadian children's author.-Personal life and career:Robert Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

Music

Particularly in recent years, Canada has produced a number of musical groups who have been described as "comedy rock". Bands such as Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies

Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian alternative rock band. The band is currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart. Barenaked Ladies formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, then a suburban municipality outside the City of Toronto...

, Moxy Früvous

Moxy Früvous

Moxy Früvous was a politically satirical folk-pop band from Thornhill, Ontario, Canada. The band was founded in 1989, and was active throughout the 1990s...

, Odds

Odds (band)

Odds are a Canadian alternative rock band. The band's power pop style has been frequently compared to that of contemporaries such as Squeeze, Elvis Costello, Weezer, Tom Petty, Sloan, The Clash, XTC, Franz Ferdinand, and The Tubes.-Odds :...

, Crash Test Dummies

Crash Test Dummies

The Crash Test Dummies is a Canadian folk rock/alternative rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, widely known for their 1993 single "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm".The band is most identifiable through Brad Roberts and his distinctive bass-baritone voice...

, The Awkward Stage

The Awkward Stage

The Awkward Stage is a Canadian indie pop band, based in Vancouver, British Columbia and fronted by singer-songwriter Shane Nelken. The band's supporting lineup currently consists of Tygh Runyan on lead guitar, Tony Koelwyn on drums and Chris Mitchell on trumpet and keyboards.Nelken, who works as a...

and Rheostatics

Rheostatics

Rheostatics was a Genie Award-winning Canadian indie rock band, active from 1980 to 2007.Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been...

are sometimes misunderstood as being strictly novelty bands, but in fact many of their songs use humour to illuminate more serious themes. A number of other acts, such as Corky and the Juice Pigs

Corky and the Juice Pigs

-Filmography:* 1996 - A Little Off the Top* 1996 - MadTV * 26 October 1998 - SketchCom -References:**...

, Arrogant Worms, Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie

Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie

and Bowser and Blue

Bowser and Blue

George Bowser and Rick Blue, better known as Bowser and Blue, are a musical duo from Quebec, Canada who write and perform comedic songs...

write specifically comedic songs.

Nancy White

Nancy White

Nancy White is a Canadian singer-songwriter, whose topical songs were a regular feature on CBC Radio from 1976 to 1994 on the public affairs show Sunday Morning...

is a noted Canadian musical satirist, whose comedic folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

songs about Canadian culture and politics have regularly appeared on CBC Radio

CBC Radio One

CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...

programs. In addition to more serious material on his primary albums, folk musician Geoff Berner

Geoff Berner

Geoff Berner is a Canadian singer-songwriter and accordion player from Vancouver, British Columbia.Due to his insightful humor, politically inflammatory compositions and showmanship, Berner has gained a cult following over the years, especially in Canada and Norway, where he recorded his first...

— who has also run for political office as a candidate of the Rhinoceros Party — frequently releases pointedly satirical songs, such as "Official Theme Song for the 2010 Vancouver / Whistler Olympic Games (The Dead Children Were Worth It!)", as free downloads from his website. Jann Arden

Jann Arden

Jann Arden is a Canadian singer-songwriter.-Life and career:Arden was born and raised near Calgary in Springbank, Alberta and attended Springbank Community High School. Her breakthrough came with her critically acclaimed 1993 debut album Time for Mercy and her first single "I Would Die For You"...

, a singer-songwriter renowned for writing sad love songs, is also paradoxically known as one of Canada's funniest live performers, whose witty, unpretentious stage patter

Patter

Patter is a prepared and practiced speech, that is designed to produce a desired response from its audience. Examples of occupations with a patter might include the: auctioneer, salesperson, dance caller, or comedian....

about herself and her family is as much a part of her relationship with her audience as her music is. Another noted Canadian musical comedian is Mary Lou Fallis

Mary Lou Fallis

Mary Lou Fallis is a Canadian opera singer. She performs both serious opera and comedic shows as the character Primadonna, a satirical take on popular stereotypes of opera divas....

, an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

singer who performs both in classical opera roles and as the comedic character "Primadonna", a touring stage show in which she parodies popular stereotypes of opera diva

Diva

A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....

s. Canadian heavy metal frontman Devin Townsend

Devin Townsend

Devin Garret Townsend is a Canadian musician and record producer. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and has had an extensive career as a solo artist....

is known for using humour in his music. Projects such as Punky Bruster and Ziltoid the Omniscient

Ziltoid the Omniscient

Ziltoid the Omniscient is the tenth studio album by the Canadian metal musician Devin Townsend, released on his own label HevyDevy Records in May 2007 and distributed in America and Europe by InsideOut Music....

are heavily comedy driven, and Devin's heavy metal band, Strapping Young Lad

Strapping Young Lad

Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing...

, use satire and sarcastic tongue in cheek lyrics as well.

Radio

Many of Canada's comedy acts and performers have started out on radio, primarily on the national Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

(CBC) network.

While individual comedy show and segments have been around almost as long as the network, the focus has tended be more on specific shows featuring particular groups of comedians. The real beginnings of Canadian radio comedy began in the late 1930s with the debut of The Happy Gang
The Happy Gang
The Happy Gang was a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio lunchtime variety show that ran from 1937 to 1959. The show began on CRCT, a CBC affiliate in Toronto, moved to the CBC network four months later, and ran for 22 years, totalling nearly 4900 broadcasts.The series also served as the...

, a long-running weekly variety show that was regularly sprinkled with corny jokes in between tunes. It debuted in 1938 and ran until 1959. The Wayne & Shuster show debuted on CBC radio in 1946, their more literate and classy humour regularly appearing on the airwaves well into the early 1960s.
Max Ferguson

Max Ferguson

Max Ferguson, OC is a Canadian radio personality and satirist, best known for his long-running programs Rawhide and The Max Ferguson Show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ....

's long-running shows After Breakfast Breakdown and the Max Ferguson Show featured short satirical skits based on current events, with a variety of characters voiced by Ferguson.

The Royal Canadian Air Farce
Royal Canadian Air Farce
Air Farce Live, also credited as Air Farce, previously Royal Canadian Air Farce, and Air Farce—Final Flight! for the final season, was a Canadian comedy series starring the comedy troupe The Royal Canadian Air Farce that previously starred in an eponymous radio show on CBC radio from 1973 to 1997...

started as a radio show debuting in 1973 featuring mainly political and some character-based comedy sketches. It ran for 24 years before making a permanent transition to television. It started a tradition of topical and politically satirical radio shows that inspired such programs as Double Exposure
Double Exposure (comedy series)
Double Exposure was a Canadian radio and television comedy series which mocked contemporary Canadian politics. The show starred Linda Cullen and Bob Robertson, and focused primarily on the stars' voice impersonations of Canadian political and cultural figures...

, The Muckraker and What a Week
What A Week
What A Week was a radio comedy show on CBC Radio One that ran for two 13-episode seasons in 2003.This show, like its more immediate predecessor The Muckraker was firmly rooted in the political and topical lampoons that first became a staple on Canadian airwaves with Royal Canadian Air Farce...

.

A zanier, more surreal brand of radio comedy was unveiled in the early 1980s with the debut of The Frantics' Frantic Times radio show, which ran from 1981 to 1986. Its smart and surreal style fostered a new take on Canadian radio comedy that was followed by the likes of successor shows as The Norm
The Norm
The Norm may refer to:* The Norm , by Michael Jantze* The Norm , a former CBC radio show* The Norm, a character in the 1989 film Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds...

and Radio Free Vestibule.

By the 1990s the satirical and zany elements merged into two of the more notable CBC radio comedy shows of the 1990s: The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour
The Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour
The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour was a radio comedy show on CBC Radio One for four seasons, running from 1997 to 2000.The show was set in a fictional café of the same name, in the equally fictional town of Blossom, Alberta. Both Blossom and the café were originally described in Tom King's...

, a show that offered bitingly satirical pieces from a First Nations

First Nations

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

perspective mixed in with general silliness; and Great Eastern, a show set in a fictitious Newfoundland "national" radio station featuring improbable news stories, fictitious archival recordings and unlikely archeological findings played straight.

CBC Radio continues to play an important part in developing comedy performers on radio. Madly Off In All Directions
Madly Off in All Directions
Madly Off in All Directions was a Canadian radio comedy show that aired for several years on CBC Radio One, featuring comedian Lorne Elliott. It formerly aired Sunday afternoons at 1PM , as well as on Saturday evenings on 6:30PM with repeats on Friday mornings at 11 AM...

became a weekly national forum for regional sketch and stand-up comics, a practice that continues in the more recent series The Debaters
The Debaters
The Debaters is a Canadian radio comedy show hosted by Steve Patterson. It airs on CBC Radio One Saturdays at 1:00PM and Wednesdays at 11:30AM ....

.

Laugh Attack

Laugh Attack

Laugh Attack is an XM Satellite Radio channel featuring uncensored comedy from Canada. It was born in November 2005 as part of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's regulations for Canadian content on the XM platform....

, a channel programmed by XM Radio Canada

XM Radio Canada

XM Radio Canada was the operating name of Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. , a Canadian communications and media company, which was incorporated in 2002 to broadcast satellite radio in Canada...

and broadcast by XM Satellite Radio

XM Satellite Radio

XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...

to Canada and the United States, features predominantly Canadian comedy.

Television

Canadian television comedy begins with Wayne and Shuster

Wayne and Shuster

Wayne and Shuster were a Canadian comedy duo formed by Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster. They were active professionally from the early 1940s until the late 1980s....

, a sketch comedy duo who performed as a comedy team during the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and moved their act to radio in 1946 before moving on to television. They became one of Canada's most enduring comedy teams on Canadian television and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

as well: they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....

67 times, a record for any performer. Their Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

sketch, Rinse the Blood off My Toga, with its legendary catchphrase, "I told him, Julie, don't go!", was particularly noted.

Wayne and Shuster continued to appear on CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

until the late 1980s, with specials that mixed new sketches with their classic material.

La famille Plouffe
La famille Plouffe
La famille Plouffe was a Canadian television drama, more specifically a téléroman, about a Quebec family that first aired in the French-language on Société Radio-Canada in 1953. The show was created to fill a void in francophone television in Canada...

, the first regularly scheduled television drama in Canada, was produced in 1953 by Radio-Canada

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

, in French. The program was broadcast on both English and French networks of CBC TV from 1954 to 1959, (in English as The Plouffe Family). It was a mix of drama, humour and social commentary about a working-class Quebec family in the post-World War II

World War II

era. Another of the CBC's earliest productions was a television adaptation of one of the enduring classics of Canadian humour writing, Stephen Leacock

Stephen Leacock

Stephen Butler Leacock, FRSC was an English-born Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist...

's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a sequence of stories by Stephen Leacock, first published in 1912.It is generally considered to be one of the most enduring classics of Canadian humorous literature....

.

Another pioneer in Canadian television comedy was, oddly, a news series. This Hour Has Seven Days
This Hour Has Seven Days
This Hour Has Seven Days is a controversial CBC Television newsmagazine which ran from 1964 to 1966. The show, inspired by the BBC-TV and NBC-TV satire series That Was The Week That Was, was created by Patrick Watson and Douglas Leiterman as an avenue for a more stimulating and boundary-pushing...

, which debuted in 1964, was primarily meant as a newsmagazine

Newsmagazine

A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...

, but its segments included political satire as well as serious news reports. Later series such as Royal Canadian Air Farce
Royal Canadian Air Farce
Air Farce Live, also credited as Air Farce, previously Royal Canadian Air Farce, and Air Farce—Final Flight! for the final season, was a Canadian comedy series starring the comedy troupe The Royal Canadian Air Farce that previously starred in an eponymous radio show on CBC radio from 1973 to 1997...

, This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials...

and Rick Mercer Report
Rick Mercer Report
Rick Mercer Report is a Canadian television comedy series which airs on CBC Television...

have all drawn on the tradition of political satire established by Seven Days, and have been among Canadian television's most popular comedy series in recent years.

Canadian born Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels

Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...

, who had moved from Toronto to Los Angeles in 1968 to work on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, launched the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

comedy show Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

in 1975. Over the years, several Canadians were part of the SNL cast, including Dan Aykroyd

Dan Aykroyd

Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...

, Martin Short

Martin Short

Martin Hayter Short, CM is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, singer and producer. He is best-known for his comedy work, particularly on the TV programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live...

, and Mike Myers

Mike Myers (actor)

Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...

. Michaels also produced The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...

for Canadian TV in the 1980s.

Many Canadian comedy shows, while not directly about politics per se, have made profound political statements by satirizing society and pop culture. This includes shows such as SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...

, Buzz
Buzz (TV series)
The Buzz was a Canadian comedy television series that aired on The Comedy Network. The show was hosted by Morgan "Mista Mo" Smith and Daryn Jones. The show originally aired in the mid-90's as a community channel show on Rogers Television before finally getting a network deal in 2000...

and CODCO
CODCO
CODCO was a Canadian comedy troupe from Newfoundland, best known for a sketch comedy series which aired on CBC Television from 1987 to 1992....

. CODCO, in particular, was intensely controversial at times for its use of comedy in tackling sensitive subjects; founding member Andy Jones

Andy Jones (comedian)

Andrew Jordan Jones is a Canadian comedian, and a former member of CODCO.Andy Jones was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador...

quit CODCO in protest after the CBC refused to air a sketch that made a very explicit political statement about the Mount Cashel Orphanage

Mount Cashel Orphanage

The Mount Cashel Orphanage is a former Canadian orphanage that was operated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. It was located in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador....

child abuse scandal. The series History Bites
History Bites
History Bites was a television series on the History Television network that ran from 1998-2003. Created by Rick Green, History Bites explored what would be on television if the medium had been around for the last 5,000 years of human history. Typically, a significant historical event was chosen...

was ostensibly a show presenting history in a sketch comedy, but frequently used the historic setting to satirize current political events and social trends.

Other shows, such as The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy group formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1988 to 1994 on CBC in Canada, and 1989 to 1995 on CBS and HBO in the United States...

, 4 on the Floor, Bizarre
Bizarre (TV series)
Bizarre is a weekly Canadian sketch comedy series, airing from 1980 to 1985. The show was hosted by John Byner, and produced by CTV at the CFTO Glen-Warren Studios in suburban Toronto for first-run airing in Canada on CTV and in the United States on the Showtime premium cable network.-Synopsis:The...

and Puppets Who Kill
Puppets Who Kill
Puppets Who Kill is a Canadian television comedy programme co-produced by The Comedy Network. It premiered in Canada on the Comedy Network in 2002, and in Australia on The Comedy Channel in 2004....

, revelled in absurdist humour, making household names out of characters such as Chicken Lady

Chicken Lady

The Chicken Lady was a character portrayed by Mark McKinney on the sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall. She is a middle-aged, apartment-dwelling, physically strong, sexually-obsessed freak: the result of mating between a farmer and a hen...

, Mr. Canoehead and Super Dave Osborne

Super Dave Osborne

Super Dave Osborne is a character created and played by comedian Bob Einstein. He is a naive but optimistic stuntman who is frequently injured when his stunts go wrong.-Appearance history:...

.

Other notable sketch series have included Zut!
Zut! (TV series)
Zut! was a Canadian sketch comedy television series which aired Saturday evenings from 1970 to 1971 on CBC Television. It was based loosely on relations between Quebec and the rest of Canada....

, The Gavin Crawford Show
The Gavin Crawford Show
The Gavin Crawford Show was a Canadian sketch comedy series that ran from June 19, 2000 to July 1, 2003 on The Comedy Network.The show starred comedian Gavin Crawford, along with an ensemble cast of supporting performers...

and The Holmes Show
The Holmes Show
The Holmes Show is a Canadian sketch comedy television series that premiered on CTV on September 24, 2002. The 22 episode series stars Jessica Holmes, Roman Danylo and Kurt Smeaton. Filming took place at the CTV studios in June and August 2002. Each scene was shot twice with the second scene...

. Canadian television also frequently showcases stand-up comedians. The popular series Comics, based around one comedian each week, has been the first national television exposure for many of Canada's current comedy stars. Another series, Just for Laughs
Just for Laughs
Just for Laughs is a comedy festival held each July in Montreal, Quebec, founded in 1983. It is the largest international comedy festival in the world.- Information :...

, has for many years presented comedians appearing at the Montreal International Comedy Festival. That series has also spawned the more recent Just For Laughs Gags
Just For Laughs Gags
Just For Laughs Gags is a Canadian silent comedy/hidden camera reality television show that is under the Just For Laughs brand. On December 26, 2002, JFL Gags began airing on CTV and The Comedy Network in Canada...

, a practical joke show similar to Candid Camera
Candid Camera
Candid Camera is a hidden camera/practical joke reality television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...

.

Although several notable Canadian sitcoms have been produced, such as King of Kensington
King of Kensington
King of Kensington was a Canadian television sitcom which aired on CBC Television from 1975 to 1980.The show starred Al Waxman as Larry King, a convenience store owner in Toronto's Kensington Market who was known for helping friends and neighbours solve problems. His multicultural group of friends...

, Hangin' In
Hangin' In
Hangin' In is a Canadian television sitcom which aired on CBC from 1981 to 1987. It also aired briefly in syndication in the United States. Canadian producer Jack Humphrey developed Hangin' In and served as executive producer for the show.-Synopsis:...

, Corner Gas
Corner Gas
Corner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV and The Comedy Network in Canada; it formerly aired on WGN America in the United States....

and Little Mosque on the Prairie
Little Mosque on the Prairie
Little Mosque on the Prairie is a Canadian sitcom on CBC, created by Zarqa Nawaz and produced by WestWind Pictures. It is filmed in Toronto, Ontario and Indian Head, Saskatchewan...

, many other sitcoms, including Material World
Material World (TV series)
Material World was a Canadian television sitcom, which aired on CBC Television from 1990 to 1993. In its first season, the show was a conventional sitcom, shot on videotape with a laugh track, but in subsequent seasons the show adopted a comedy-drama format.The show starred Laura Bruneau as Kitty,...

, Mosquito Lake
Mosquito Lake (TV series)
Mosquito Lake was a short-lived Canadian television sitcom, which aired on CBC Television in the 1989-90 television season. The show, a family sitcom, starred comedian Mike MacDonald as the father of a family spending the summer in a dilapidated cottage on Mosquito Lake. The cast also included Mary...

, Snow Job, Check it Out!
Check it Out!
Check it Out! is a Canadian television sitcom, which aired on CTV from September 1985 to April 1988. The series also aired in the United States in syndication and on the USA Network.-Synopsis:...

, The Trouble with Tracy
The Trouble with Tracy
The Trouble with Tracy was a Canadian television series produced by CTV for the 1970–1971 television season, with intended distribution by the U.S.-based National General Pictures. It is considered by some to be one of the worst situation comedies ever produced.The show was produced as a daily...

Rideau Hall
Rideau Hall (TV series)
Rideau Hall is a Canadian television series broadcast begun in 2002 on CBC Television. It starred Bette MacDonald, Fiona Reid, Jonathan Torrens, Joe Dinicol, and Rejean Cournoyer....

, Excuse My French
Excuse My French (1974 TV series)
Excuse My French was a Canadian television sitcom, which aired on CTV from 1974 to 1976. Produced by CFCF-TV, the series starred Stuart Gillard and Lisa Charbonneau as Peter and Marie-Louise Hutchins, a mixed anglophone-francophone couple living in Montreal.The series, produced in Montreal, was...

and Not My Department
Not My Department
Not My Department was a Canadian television sitcom, which aired on CBC Television in 1987. The show lasted only a single season.The show, based on Charles Gordon's comedic novel The Governor General's Bunny Hop, starred Harry Ditson and Shelley Peterson as ministerial aides in Ottawa...

, have generally fared poorly with critics and audiences. Critic Geoff Pevere

Geoff Pevere

Geoff Pevere is a Canadian and arts and media critic. He is the outgoing film critic for the Toronto Star, and, starting in 2008, will be the paper's book critic. He is also a host of the movie review series Reel to Real on Rogers Television....

has pointed out, however, that American television has produced a lot of bad sitcoms as well. The difference, according to Pevere, is that the economics of television production in Canada mean that whereas an unpopular American sitcom may be cancelled and largely forgotten after just a few weeks, Canadian television networks can rarely afford to lose their investment — meaning that a Canadian sitcom almost always airs every episode that was produced, regardless of its performance in the ratings.

On the other hand, Canadian television comedy fares much better when it breaks the sitcom form, especially with dramedy. Unconventional comedy series such as The Beachcombers
The Beachcombers
The Beachcombers is a Canadian comedy-drama television series that ran from October 1, 1972 to December 12, 1990 and is the longest-running dramatic series ever made for English-language Canadian television...

, Due South
Due South
Due South is a Canadian crime drama series with elements of comedy. The series was created by Paul Haggis, produced by Alliance Communications, and stars Paul Gross, David Marciano, and latterly Callum Keith Rennie...

, Made in Canada
Made in Canada
Made in Canada is a Canadian television situation comedy which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2003. Rick Mercer co-created the program and starred as mercenary TV producer Richard Strong....

, Chilly Beach
Chilly Beach
Chilly Beach is a Canadian animated series, which airs on CBC Television in Canada and The Comedy Channel in Australia. The series is a comedic depiction of life in the fictional Canadian town of Chilly Beach, described by the producers as "a bunch of Canadians doing the stuff that Canadians do,...

, The Newsroom
The Newsroom
The Newsroom is a Canadian television comedy-drama series which ran on CBC Television in the 1996-97, 2003–04 and 2004-05 seasons. A two-hour television movie, Escape from the Newsroom, was broadcast in 2002....

, Primetime Glick, The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show
The Red Green Show is a Canadian television comedy that aired on various channels in Canada, with its ultimate home at CBC Television, and on Public Broadcasting Service stations in the United States, from 1991 until the series finale April 7, 2006 on CBC...

, La Petite Vie
La Petite Vie
La petite vie was first a stage sketch of the comedy duo Ding et Dong, formed by Claude Meunier and Serge Thériault, and later a hit Quebec television sitcom aired by Radio-Canada from 1993 to 1999...

, Seeing Things, Trailer Park Boys
Trailer Park Boys
Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian comedy mockumentary television series created and directed by Mike Clattenburg that focuses on the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, some of whom are ex-convicts, living in the fictional Sunnyvale Trailer Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The...

, Supertown Challenge
Supertown Challenge
Supertown Challenge was a Canadian comedy series, which aired from 1998 to 2000 on The Comedy Network.A spoof of game shows, the show featured contestants competing in a series of challenges for the right to have their hometown declared Canada's "supertown".The show starred Colin Mochrie as host...

, Les Bougon
Les Bougon
Les Bougon - c'est aussi ça la vie! was a Quebec sitcom broadcast by Radio-Canada from 2004 to 2006, written by François Avard and Jean-François Mercier and produced by Fabienne Larouche. The show won three Gémeaux in 2004. The show's first episode aired on January 7, 2004, and the last one aired...

and Twitch City
Twitch City
Twitch City is a Canadian sitcom produced by CBC Television. The series aired as two short runs in 1998 and 2000. The series also aired in the United States on Bravo, and in Australia....

have been much more successful than most of Canada's conventional sitcoms, both in Canada and as international exports.

Canada has a national television channel, The Comedy Network

The Comedy Network

The Comedy Network a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media specializing in comedy programming.The channel operates two time shifted feeds, East and West ....

, devoted to comedy. Its programming includes some of the classic Canadian comedy series noted above, repeats of several hit American and British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

series such as The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

, South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

and Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous
Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom created by Jennifer Saunders, based on an original idea by her and Dawn French, and written by Saunders, who plays the leading character. It also stars Joanna Lumley and Julia Sawalha, along with June Whitfield and Jane Horrocks...

, and original series such as Kevin Spencer
Kevin Spencer
Kevin Spencer may refer to:*Kevin Spencer , a cartoon television series developed by Greg Lawrence*Kevin Spencer , Canadian singer-songwriter...

, Odd Job Jack
Odd Job Jack
Odd Job Jack was a Canadian animated comedy television show featuring Don McKellar, about one man's misadventures in temporary employment. Seen on and produced for the The Comedy Network, a cable specialty channel, and shown on Adult Swim in Latin America, the show is currently finished its...

, The Devil's Advocates, Improv Heaven and Hell and Puppets Who Kill
Puppets Who Kill
Puppets Who Kill is a Canadian television comedy programme co-produced by The Comedy Network. It premiered in Canada on the Comedy Network in 2002, and in Australia on The Comedy Channel in 2004....

.

Rick Mercer

Rick Mercer

began his career in 1990 with a touring one-man show, Show Me the Button, I'll Push It, about Canadian life in the immediate aftermath of the failed Meech Lake Accord

Meech Lake Accord

The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...

. That show was a sellout success; in 1993, he made his television debut as one of the writers and performers on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Mercer's "rants", short op-ed pieces on Canadian politics and culture, quickly became the show's signature segment. When he published a collection of rants in 1998 as Streeters, the book quickly became a bestseller. Mercer left 22 Minutes in 2000 to devote more time to his other series, Made in Canada
Made in Canada
Made in Canada is a Canadian television situation comedy which aired on CBC Television from 1998 to 2003. Rick Mercer co-created the program and starred as mercenary TV producer Richard Strong....

. When that series ended its run, he launched the new Rick Mercer Report
Rick Mercer Report
Rick Mercer Report is a Canadian television comedy series which airs on CBC Television...

.

Tom Green

Tom Green

Michael Thomas "Tom" Green is a Canadian actor, rapper, writer, comedian, talk show host and media personality. Best known for his shock humour brand of comedy, Green found mainstream prominence via his MTV television show The Tom Green Show...

, whose surreal and sometimes grotesque humour on The Tom Green Show
The Tom Green Show
The Tom Green Show is a North American television show that first aired in September 1994 on Rogers Television 22, a community channel in Ottawa, Ontario, until 1996, and was later picked up by The Comedy Network in 1997...

began as a community cable show in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

before becoming a momentary hit on MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

in the same era.

As with many other genres, Canadian television comedy also frequently plays with the topic of Canada's relationship with the United States

Canada-United States relations

Relations between Canada and the United States have spanned more than two centuries. This includes a shared British colonial heritage, warfare during the 1770s and 1812, and the eventual development of one of the most successful international relationships in the modern world...

. Mercer turned another 22 Minutes segment, Talking to Americans
Talking to Americans
Talking to Americans was a regular feature presented by Rick Mercer on the Canadian political satire show This Hour Has 22 Minutes. It was later spun off into a one-hour special that aired on April 1, 2001 on CBC Television....

, into a 2001 television special, which was a ratings smash. In Talking to Americans, Mercer, in his 22 Minutes guise as reporter "J.B. Dixon", visited American cities to ask people on the street for their opinion on a Canadian news story — the joke for Canadians was that the news story was always fabricated, and either inherently ridiculous (e.g. a border dispute between Quebec

Quebec

and Chechnya

Chechnya

The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...

or an annual Toronto polar bear

Polar Bear

The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...

hunt) or blatantly out of context (e.g. wishing Canadians a "Happy Stockwell Day

Stockwell Day

Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...

".)

Another notable show, the sitcom An American in Canada
An American in Canada
An American in Canada is a Canadian television sitcom that aired on CBC.The show starred Rick Roberts as Jake Crewe, an American television news host who was forced, after beating up his station manager, to accept a job in Calgary, Alberta as the host of the lowest-rated morning news program in the...

, reversed that formula, finding comedy in the culture shock

Culture shock

Culture shock is the anxiety, feelings of frustration, alienation and anger that may occur when a person is emplaced in a new culture.One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. Culture shock can be described as consisting of one or more distinct phases...

of an American television reporter taking a job with a Canadian TV station. Tom Green once played with this staple of Canadian comedy as well, during a controversial segment in which he burned a Canadian flag.

Comedy clubs

Notable Canadian comedy clubs and showcases include The Second City

The Second City

The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...

branch in Toronto (originally housed at The Old Fire Hall

The Old Fire Hall

The Old Fire Hall is the name given to the original home of The Second City company in Toronto. It was located at 110 Lombard Street and opened in 1973....

), the Yuk Yuk's

Yuk Yuk's

Yuk Yuk's is a national comedy club chain in Canada, owned by former stand-up comedian Mark Breslin and established in 1977 by Breslin and Joel Axler...

chain, and The ALTdot COMedy Lounge

The ALTdot COMedy Lounge

Toronto's most popular alternative comedy show. It runs every Monday at The Rivoli Toronto's most popular alternative comedy show. It runs every Monday at The Rivoli Toronto's most popular alternative comedy show. It runs every Monday at The Rivoli (where The Kids in the Hall frequently...

The Canadian Comedy Awards

The Canadian Comedy Awards were founded by Tim Progosh

Tim Progosh

Tim Progosh is a Canadian actor and producer/creator of the Canadian Comedy Awards, an annual awards show held since 2000 in Toronto and London, Ontario ....

and Higher Ground Productions in 1999. Over the past eight years they have given out more than 160 awards in three categories - live comedy, film and television.

Literature

Music

Radio

Television

Comedy clubs

The Canadian Comedy Awards

See also