Canadians upset at Conan O'Brien

[Cyrus]

There was a sketch whereby Conan claimed he has the ability to guess if a person is Canadian or American so he said there's an American in the studio audience and he will be able to pick him out. The camera started panning the crowd and there was a guy that was shouting obnoxiously, chomping a cigar, drinking a cola with much of it drooling, getting his clothes off and pretty much making a nuisance. Conan pretended he could not make out the token Yank.

No one complained Stateside about that bit. I guess someone is in serious need to lighten up.

[angry young man]

Was your gandpa a slave? You might wanna slave off a few pounds.

is it wrong that I laughed at this? probably not the point. Incidently I'm Irish so 4/5 of Conan's jokes are related to my heritage and I've never thought much about it. Perhaps the question should be why is it not okay to make harmless jokes about black or jewish cultures not why it is okay to make jokes about Quebec.

[MattHatter]

Right that's the question.

I thought it was funny. But it's a fine line they treat on TV about what is acceptable.. who can be joked about and just what can be said.

I can also tell malice from humor so obviously conan was not 'really' offensive at all. He meant no harm or ill will. Anyone who thought ootherwise is obviously on some other page (in a whole other book).

But the reaction by some (canadians) showed just how fuzzy a grey area it is. And how you never quite know when what someone says will for some strange reason be singled out.

You can say things about yourself or your own cultural group and it's ok. OYou cant point it at others.

I guess it all comes down to intent or malice for me...

am I rambling?


Matt

[ThaSaltCracka]

am I rambling?
possibly

Do they have a problem with it because it was an American comedian that said it?

[MattHatter]

There are probably a lot of reasons, historical, current political, etc..

As far as I know it's mostly a political opportunity here because the govt kicked in 1million for tourism/promotion for Toronto and then that dog went and said the word 'separatist'. Crazy... I know.

The FLQ (Front de Liberation de Quebec) were seperatists, they had the country under martial law. Bombings, political kidnappings, murder, you know.. terrorism? Then that referendum in quebec a few years back when it was like 50.25% to 49.75% against splitting canada apart into a couple countries. The long standing feeling that the french have been subjugated under a english dominated federal government.


I think most regular folks didn't even see the show.. lol. Or really care. It's just something to make a big deal out of for political advantages Other than the politicians, we're all to passive to really care.. lol.


And about him bieng american. I was just pointing out that it's ok.. if a french guy from Quebec would have said it.. sure no one probably would have cared. Like a black comedian using the N word, where a white comic has to be much more careful. Again I was just trying to make the general point that it seems that things that would otherwise be considered unacceptable are OK if they come from within the minority instead of outside of it.

What a silly world.

Matt

[ThaSaltCracka]

What a silly world.
indeed, people are way to PC in the world. I love it when people get offended, its good for them, reminds them what they stand for, sparks something in them.
People need to be offended more often.

[ChipWrecked]

People need to be offended more often

I believe the reason people are so quick to get offended these days is because things are going so well for us here in the West. If we were busy trying to put food in our kids' bellies or clothes on their backs, we wouldn't have time or inclination to get upset about silly little nothing things like this.

[GrinningBuddha]

Caveat: I did not see any of Conan's Toronto shows.

There are two different groups being offended here. Apart from those, 99% of Canadians either didn't care about Conan or were summarily amused. Us here in Alberta fall into this group. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The other 1% consist of:

A) Those Torontonians who were upset that the city spent $1 million to bring Conan and crew up here. Rather short-sighted when you consider what a production like this is going to mean for the city's revenues, publicity, and tourism.

B) The French Canadians who were the butt of most of Conan's jokes. I can't speak for them, since most of them are humorless, spoiled sissy-babies who haven't been able to get their own way for years and would rather spit on the rest of Canada than acknowledge it.

If you're going to lump the 99% of us who have a sense of humor in with that 1%, I'll have to ask you to step outside. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[ChipWrecked]

It was the denizens of Montreal who booed during the U.S. national anthem at a Canadiens game a year or so ago. They are truly a bunch of [censored] [censoreds].

Happy to step outside with anybody over that one [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[ThaSaltCracka]

I got your back! Lets go!