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February 14, 2004
Quebec
I was going to hold onto this until Monday but this needs to be seen before bandwidth limitations or further censorship prevent you, the Flea-reader, from laughing along. I can only repeat Triumph's question (and this is the indirect link). Tell me, does our national health care cover personality implants? And what is the world coming to when I agree with a Star editorial?
Because, in the end, the reaction to Triumph says more about Canada than America.
And then... This is closer to what I expected from the Star. They even splutter in outrage that Triumph should make fun of Celine Dion. I quite like Celine and I am certain she is tough enough to weather whatever smart remarks a dog puppet might make about her. The real scandal was the craven response of the Toronto establishment to having Conan in town in the first place. Now they cannot understand why he is poking fun at Canada. Have they seen his show? And this is after he let the CN Tower beat the Seattle Space Needle in a mud-wrestling match.
And then... Conservative party leadership candidate Stephen Harper is reported to have weighed in on the same side as the rest of the establishment. How Triumph ever equated "Canada" with "dull" is beyond me.
"This is the place where our country was founded nearly 400 years ago," said Mr. Harper, who is seeking the leadership of the new Conservative party. "We can all make jokes about each other but you don't start telling people in Quebec they have to speak another language."
"That's completely unacceptable."
Unless, that is, they choose to use a language other than French in a place of prominence as a store sign or website. Then telling people which language they must speak is apparently completely acceptable to Mr. Harper. Of course, that is just the law and it is much easier to feign outrage at a rude American dog puppet.
And then... Mike Campbell takes offense on behalf of Maritme Canada, Andrew Coyne tells us what is truly insulting about the whole affair, Debbye Stratigacos offers perspective on what is, after all, a "freaking doggie puppet", the Smug Canadian suggests humour is good for this country and a certain Frozen Montrealer considers the issue with his usual aplomb.
And then... Here is a mirror for the Triumphgate video in case the other link expires (though this second link does not seem to be working well at the moment).
And then... Conan's apology was a "bilingual Triumph." Canada's continuing commitment to obnoxious dullness made it inevitable the apology would be rejected.
TRANSLATOR: "I have never known the touch of a woman and I never will."
Posted by Ghost of a flea at February 14, 2004 02:35 PM
Comments
Somehow that was more rude than I expected (and I think I've seen most or all of Triumph's previous video clips).
Posted by: Michael at February 14, 2004 08:40 PM
The bit that surprised me was the changing of the street signs. I doubt this element would mean much south of the border but it is an enormously resonant image in Canada given the fight over Quebec's language laws.
Posted by: Flea at February 14, 2004 09:33 PM
Thankfully the poodle-sniffing was universal!
Posted by: Solomon at February 14, 2004 10:02 PM
Flea: "The bit that surprised me was the changing of the street signs. I doubt this element would mean much south of the border ..."
Lookit, contrary to your vicious anti-American stereotypes, some of us do sporadically follow this stuff:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/language/
(Also, so as not to spam your comments section, I would like to say here that the Nutrigrain clip was a thing of beauty.)
Posted by: Michael at February 14, 2004 11:00 PM
I forgot to mention we all live in igloos and there is year round skiing!
Posted by: Flea at February 15, 2004 07:51 AM
Cheers for the link, Nick. :-)
Posted by: Paul Jané at February 15, 2004 12:16 PM
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