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A review by jeremychiasson
Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer
4.0
American TV has always treated Canada with patronizing goodwill and stereotypes, but what choice did Canadian viewers have but to endure yet another igloo and maple syrup joke? Watch low budget Canadian content? We weren't that desperate! My mom would always insist Canadian movies were just as good, better even, as they weren't so "Hollywood". I didn't buy it. It was just another one of those mom lines like: "Cleaning your room can be fun with the right attitude" and "Homemade pizza tastes the same as Pizza Hut."
But then along came--22 Minutes--Funny, fast as a rocket, and unabashedly Canadian. Sure, as a kid I didn't get the Preston Manning jokes, but a few seconds later, a crazy warrior princess would burst into the Prime Minister's office--that I understood! The subversiveness of it all made me giddy! And when Talking to Americans came out in 2001, it changed the nation itself. Don't even try to deny it, we all lost our goddamn minds. Sure it started this somewhat toxic trend of shit-talking Americans, but hey! After Gretzky retired, Canada needed a new national pastime.
"Talking to Canadians" was such a fun read, and it reminded me of how much Rick Mercer and "22 Minutes" meant to me when I was growing up. As an adult I have sort of discounted Rick Mercer as a pale, Canadian imitation of a satirist. He is a milquetoast Jon Stewart, who blunted his comedic rapier in middle age for the sake of pandering TV segments that tugged on the heart strings.
A lot of these misgivings melted away as I read the book. I related way too much to young Rick to dismiss him completely--His terrible grades, his only skill being his ability to talk loudly and quickly into a camera, and most of all--his flair for being a spiteful, conniving pain in the ass.
He tells one story about starting his own school newspaper called "The Competition" just to spite the teachers for kicking him out of the school paper (after he stacked the vote with randos to become editor in chief). The rival paper becomes wildly popular, selling out multiple runs, and gets Mercer in huge trouble with the principal. However, having made his point, he loses all interest and disbands "The Competition" immediately. I've never identified more with a person in a story than I have with Rick in that one.
But then along came--22 Minutes--Funny, fast as a rocket, and unabashedly Canadian. Sure, as a kid I didn't get the Preston Manning jokes, but a few seconds later, a crazy warrior princess would burst into the Prime Minister's office--that I understood! The subversiveness of it all made me giddy! And when Talking to Americans came out in 2001, it changed the nation itself. Don't even try to deny it, we all lost our goddamn minds. Sure it started this somewhat toxic trend of shit-talking Americans, but hey! After Gretzky retired, Canada needed a new national pastime.
"Talking to Canadians" was such a fun read, and it reminded me of how much Rick Mercer and "22 Minutes" meant to me when I was growing up. As an adult I have sort of discounted Rick Mercer as a pale, Canadian imitation of a satirist. He is a milquetoast Jon Stewart, who blunted his comedic rapier in middle age for the sake of pandering TV segments that tugged on the heart strings.
A lot of these misgivings melted away as I read the book. I related way too much to young Rick to dismiss him completely--His terrible grades, his only skill being his ability to talk loudly and quickly into a camera, and most of all--his flair for being a spiteful, conniving pain in the ass.
He tells one story about starting his own school newspaper called "The Competition" just to spite the teachers for kicking him out of the school paper (after he stacked the vote with randos to become editor in chief). The rival paper becomes wildly popular, selling out multiple runs, and gets Mercer in huge trouble with the principal. However, having made his point, he loses all interest and disbands "The Competition" immediately. I've never identified more with a person in a story than I have with Rick in that one.