Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Sep 14th 2009, 8:32 pm
#46
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Depends, are you counting all those now based in the US with lucrative movie contracts, gnerally mistaken for americans...
Arent there at least ten is you add together the past and present casts of 22minutes and AirFarce.
Now, Im not defending those shows as particulary funny, but there certainly plenty of people in the business to chose from, ranging from Red Green, through Ron James, Rick Mercer, Mike Myers, Jim Carrie, Russel Peters, Dan Ackroyd and John Candy etc etc to Wayne and Shuster if you are of a certain generation
Arent there at least ten is you add together the past and present casts of 22minutes and AirFarce.
Now, Im not defending those shows as particulary funny, but there certainly plenty of people in the business to chose from, ranging from Red Green, through Ron James, Rick Mercer, Mike Myers, Jim Carrie, Russel Peters, Dan Ackroyd and John Candy etc etc to Wayne and Shuster if you are of a certain generation
Face it, the funniest Canadians on TV are terence and philip.
Sep 14th 2009, 8:36 pm
#47
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
John Candy in "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" and "Uncle Buck" .... real funny movies from the late, great JC!!!
Sep 14th 2009, 8:37 pm
#48
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Do Canadians find British humour funny?
Sep 14th 2009, 8:40 pm
#49
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
My wife (Canadian) finds most of 'straight' British humour funny, but once you delve into the sarcastic satire, I think it's hard for any Canadian to know if it's humour or insult (slam or pompous cheek!) to some degree.
Sep 14th 2009, 8:43 pm
#50
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Now, Im not defending those shows as particulary funny, but there certainly plenty of people in the business to chose from, ranging from Red Green, through Ron James, Colin Mochre, Rick Mercer, Mike Myers, Jim Carrie, Russel Peters, Dan Ackroyd and John Candy etc etc to Wayne and Shuster if you are of a certain generation
What is the name of that comedian who is of indian background but grew up in Newfoundland..he is quite funny.
Sep 14th 2009, 8:53 pm
#51
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Besides, Wikipedia has a much longer list of Canadian comedians...there was a link to it the last time Canadian comedians came up here.
If people want to believe that all Canadians have no sense of humour, then that's their loss. Frankly I would rather take my chances being trapped in a lift with ANY canadian (including politicians!) over Roy Chubby Brown...
Last edited by iaink; Sep 14th 2009 at 8:59 pm.
Sep 14th 2009, 8:55 pm
#52
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
I was in general agreement with you at times on your list until you got to the last two who I find/found not very funny at all....Canadian cornball humour at its best/worst.
What is the name of that comedian who is of indian background but grew up in Newfoundland..he is quite funny.
What is the name of that comedian who is of indian background but grew up in Newfoundland..he is quite funny.
Sep 14th 2009, 8:56 pm
#53
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Sep 14th 2009, 8:58 pm
#54
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Sep 14th 2009, 9:15 pm
#55
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
No, Im just pointing out the idiocy of trying to rank and compare these things, and your statement implying that there are hardly ten "funny" Canadians to rank.
Besides, Wikipedia has a much longer list of Canadian comedians...there was a link to it the last time Canadian comedians came up here.
If people want to believe that all Canadians have no sense of humour, then that's their loss. Frankly I would rather take my chances being trapped in a lift with ANY canadian (including politicians!) over Roy Chubby Brown...
Besides, Wikipedia has a much longer list of Canadian comedians...there was a link to it the last time Canadian comedians came up here.
If people want to believe that all Canadians have no sense of humour, then that's their loss. Frankly I would rather take my chances being trapped in a lift with ANY canadian (including politicians!) over Roy Chubby Brown...
Despite my sneering, I'm actually sure there must be very funny Canadian comedians out there, maybe even one or two funny TV shows that are actually worth watching. However, for sheer breadth and depth, UK comedy from the 70's till the present day is just not possible to beat. No other country, not Canada, not America, or anywhere else comes even close to matching it. Pretty much everyone on BE knows this, it's not even worth debating.
Sep 14th 2009, 9:31 pm
#56
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Sep 14th 2009, 9:39 pm
#57
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Something I've noticed is that Canadians are useless at laughing at themselves - no sense of the self deprecating type of humour that Brits take for granted and are very good at.
Something like "The Office" would never have come out of Canada - Canadians are way too thin skinned to portray themselves in that kind of light.
Something like "The Office" would never have come out of Canada - Canadians are way too thin skinned to portray themselves in that kind of light.
Sep 14th 2009, 10:27 pm
#58
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Despite my sneering, I'm actually sure there must be very funny Canadian comedians out there, maybe even one or two funny TV shows that are actually worth watching. However, for sheer breadth and depth, UK comedy from the 70's till the present day is just not possible to beat. No other country, not Canada, not America, or anywhere else comes even close to matching it. Pretty much everyone on BE knows this, it's not even worth debating.
Sep 14th 2009, 11:01 pm
#59
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Despite my sneering, I'm actually sure there must be very funny Canadian comedians out there, maybe even one or two funny TV shows that are actually worth watching. However, for sheer breadth and depth, UK comedy from the 70's till the present day is just not possible to beat. No other country, not Canada, not America, or anywhere else comes even close to matching it. Pretty much everyone on BE knows this, it's not even worth debating.
Was Monty Python a 70s show? I think it started in the 60s. Yes, this was innovative and sometimes very funny, but not always so. Other than that there is nothing of the 70s that stands out in my memory apart from Faulty Towers. In the 80s and 90s mainstream TV comedy was various successors to the Morecome and Wise show, and the awful twee "family" sitcoms that make it to the low budget channels over here: May to September, There's no place like home, Waiting for God and so on.
Sure, there was some very funny and innovative stuff going on in BBC2 land as well. The Young Ones still makes me laugh, as does Absolutely Fabulous. The first series of 'allo 'allo (it started on BBC2 after the watershed) was also good. They bastardized it for prime time BBC1. I enjoyed some of the sketch based shows but Harry Enfield is the only one that comes to mind now. Despite myself, I laughed a lot at the first three series of Only Fools and Horses.
I liked Have I got News for You (I still think Paul Merton is one of the funniest comedians I have seen) and They Think it's All Over.
In 30 years, that is about it, and there was an awful lot of dross to get through for these gems.
Comedy is derived from culture. I don't think the "let's all laugh at the lower classes" (which is 90% of British comedy) works very well in North America. We get all the references and the North Americans don't. Similarly, we don't "get" a lot of North American comedy. The Simpsons aside, I've not found any TV shows that make me laugh much.
However, there is a lot of good stand up comedy.
Last edited by JonboyE; Sep 14th 2009 at 11:21 pm. Reason: How could I forget Fawlty Towers?
Sep 14th 2009, 11:04 pm
#60
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Re: Canadians' Sense of Humour?
Family Guy is pretty good. Its interesting that Americans seem to only be able to laugh at themselves when its in cartoon form.