Victor is Mercerless
Not a week goes by without a half-page foto of Officially Annointed Comedian of Canada, Rick Mercer, being thrown out of a plane or some such running in full-color in every newspaper in Canada. And this costs the taxpayer how much? Our friend, Victor, has even found Mercer in his Shark's Fin Soup!
Last night we sat in a Chinese restaurant, surrounded by Chinese
patrons, eating glorious spicy fish while watching Rick Mercer on a
54 inch screen , mercifully with no sound. Surreal .
As virtually the only white person in the place, sitting among a
couple of hundred taxpaying Chinese Canadians who were ignoring the
mugging dork on the TV, I asked myself " Why do we have this guy"? I
also wondered what he is paid, how big is the budget that takes him
around the country and how large is his obscenely bloated CBC staff?
We have an Auditor General, a Governor General but do we need a
Comedian General? Paid for by taxpayers? Didn't syphilitic kings in
ancient times hire a court fool out of the public purse for the same
purpose? Aren't we beyond that?
I realize that I am out of sync with those Canadians who think his
painfully contrived skits, camera-hogging juvenility and gratuitous
anti-Americanism are are uproariously funny. But if he's that good,
why can't he get a sponsor to fund his efforts?
Then again, I am out of sync with all those Canadians who think that
the mere possession of a Newfoundland accent, applied to the most
puerile skits, is high comedy.
8 comments:
David , we can only hope that Mercer isnt being groomed to be the next gov. general. The job application at CBC must ask " are you willing to be the queens Canadian rep?"
13
David , we can only hope that Mercer isnt being groomed to be the next gov. general. The job application at CBC must ask " are you willing to be the queens Canadian rep?"
13
Rick Mercer is not funny.
Well, I have to admit, I do love a Newfoundland accent. I'm a Rick Mercer fan, but not a fan of everything Newfie -- can't abide, for instance, Rex Murphy. I enjoy Rick's corny Canada stuff -- it reminds me a bit of Morningside with Peter Gzowski. And I think Mercer's political rants are quite insightful. So, a room full of Chinese Canadians appeared disinterested in Mercer -- not exactly clear on the relevance of this 'fact'. Victor was the only white in the room, but he's not the only white in Canada, if in fact only white people enjoy Mercer. Interesting take on things nonetheless. And it begs the question, since the diners were apparently ignoring the 'mugging dork', "why the hell did they have the Rick Mercer show on (in a restaurant nonetheless) in the first place?".
Mo.
David
The Rick Mercer report is seen by over 1.1 miilion viewers on Tuesday nights and another 650,000 on the Friday nihbght repeat. That makes the show profitable for the CBC because they can get more advertising revenue than the show costs.
Not unlike David Suzuki, and Ron James, Mr. Mercer is one of the "Chosen" by the Suits at C.B.C.
Whenever their mugs appear on my television, I take the opportunity to change the cat's litter box, defrost the fridge, or realign the slats on my venetian blinds.
I would prefer pouring molten glass down my shirtfront, than endure 2 minutes of such pap.
Give me Louis Black anytime!
Sorry to sit on the fence folks..........
Cheers
Rick Mercer's show and Dragon's Den are the only thing I can stomach on the CBC (besides the Canucks on HNIC).
You ask, "Why do we have this guy?"
Because he's witty, insightful, original, and popular-- all those things that you are not.
1.7 million viewers per week pretty much explains it.
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