(no subject)

[beandelphiki]

Okay, I know I promised a while back I'd write more about Talking to Americans.

For those of you not in the know, it's a Canadian TV show, part of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The host is comedian Rick Mercer. Basically, he flies all over the U.S., talking to the common folk (and some not-so-common folk like President George W. Bush and Jerry Springer) and feeds them these completely bullshit stories about Canada, and gets people to comment on the stories. The whole point, of course, is to flaunt American's ignorance about Canada.

You may be qualified to find this show funny if you know that:


- Canada has a prime minister, not a king
- poutine is a French-Canadian fast-food dish consisting of french fries, gravy and cheese curd, and is NOT our prime minister's last name
- we do not put our senior citizens out on ice floes to die
- Canada does not have an 80% mental handicap rate in it's population
- Canada became a country in 1867 - not just recently
- our country does not have a hockey puck on its flag
- we do not want to change the name of our country "Canada" to "Chicago"
- there are not Arctic seals in the (prairie) province of Saskatchewan
- speaking of which, it IS provinces, not states
- there is no rhino hunting in the (prairie) province of Saskatchewan
- our polar ice cap is not breaking in half and we do not need the U.S. to lend us a tugboat to pull it back together
- yes, we have ocean access
- our parliment building is not an igloo, and it does not look like the one in Arkansas, either
- we do not run on a 20-hour clock
- yes, we all have electricity
- the lyrics to the Canadian national anthem do not go, "O Canada/that big cold place up North..."
- the U.S. does not have rights to the word "dollar"
- we do not have a five-dollar coin (yet)
- if we did, it would be unlikely that it would be a called the "woody"
- we do not vote by putting pieces of various pine woods in boxes
- Ottawa is the capital of Canada, not Toronto
- our prime minister did not announce "Springer Days" as a national summer holiday
- we did not just complete our first trans-Canada railroad (that was a long time ago, ha ha)

That's all I can think of for now. :)

Comments

[smallfries.livejournal.com]

lol i guess i am pretty damn dumb bout Canada ...
have the list i had no idea what you were talking out but these are the ones i found the very educational and funny
Canada has a prime minister, not a king
Canada does not have an 80% mental handicap rate in it's population
Canada became a country in 1867 - not just recently
our country does not have a hockey puck on its flag(LOL)
speaking of which, it IS provinces, not states
our polar ice cap is not breaking in half and we do not need the U.S. to lend us a tugboat to pull it back together
the U.S. does not have rights to the word "dollar"

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, not Toronto

hey i have def got to find a list about what Canadians think about americans ...
thanks for the laugh this morning my lil canadian bro
malik

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

Wait...you said you found these educational and funny. Does that mean you found some educational and some funny? Or they all were both?

Gahh! Don't tell me that if someone told you yesterday that 80% of Canadians are mentally handicapped, you would have believed them?!? *bonk bonk*

Canadians think Americans are...naw, let's not go there. :) Keep in mind we're forced to study American history and American politics as much as we study our own. (And whine about how unfair it is nobody down south gives two shits if we have a prime minister or a king, heh.) Plus we're flooded everyday with American news and culture. So I don't think there's quite the same level of ignorance.

Probably the most annoying misconception Canadians have about Americans is that they're all jerks. But I guess when you're entire country is pretty much ignored, it gets to some people. It's hard to deal with the fact that w/o the U.S, we'd be screwed, but the U.S. wouldn't even notice if we disappeared.

Did you see Men with Brooms?

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

One thing I thought I could explain for you is the comment about the five dollar coins and the "woody" bit.

We have one and two dollar coins. (The two dollar ones are pretty new - they've only been around since '98 or so, I think.) The one-dollar coins are commonly called "loonies" b/c they have a picture of a loon on one side - a bird that used to be plentiful in the Canadian Shield area and the Prairies, but that I think is now endangered. :(

The two-dollar coins are called "toonies" - for no other reason than it combines the words "two" and "loonie."

So the joke is that Rick Mercer was telling some Americans that now we have a five-dollar coin that has a wood look to it, so we're going to call it the "woody."

Then they had a shot of a bunch of people lined up to tell the camera, "Congrats Canada, on getting your first woody!"

Muah ha ha. *dies laughing*

Re:

[smallfries.livejournal.com]

no i thought they were both ...
funny bout the handicap joke
damn that sucks ya'll have to study both historys of us and canada
no i have never seen men with brooms
well it depemds where you are if americans are jerks ....
what part of the states have you been to ??

Re:

[smallfries.livejournal.com]

lmao ... oh that is funny ....
malik

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

Oh, we all whine about studying both, but really, it's a good idea b/c of how much we depend on the U.S. We need to understand how it works.

"Well, it depends where you are if Americans are jerks"

Non, no, I don't think Americans are jerks. I've only stopped in Chicago on a plane layover, and I was only 3, so I don't remember. :) What I was refering to was the misconceptions people have about Americans in general...y'know, like, "Brits are stuck-up and reserved, Canadians are polite, and Americans are loud, rude and inconsiderate jerks..."

So, wassup, big bro?

Re:

[smallfries.livejournal.com]

no i was saving some americans are jerks .. you have to remember i am not your typical american i am a ftm transsexual so i get the cold shoulder all the time .. so r canadians more accepting to minority groups like ourselves ???

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

Hey, I forgot to replt to this...

Are Canadians more accepting of minority groups? Well, that depends on which groups you're talking about.

If you're talking about gays, probably. We have gay scouts; there is something like a 60% rate of approval for gay rights in young people, which pretty much assures good things for the future; the governor general of Canada supports gay marriage, and all transsexual surgery is fully covered up North, or so I hear. Including phalloplasty.

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

Another new word, "replt". I don't like it as much as "yuo," tho.

[windowlessroom.livejournal.com]

*is a stupid american* What exactly does the governor general of canada do?
And huzzah for supporting gay marriages! I think it's really shitty how congress or who ever it is wats to ban gay marriages. *mutters* That has to be breaking some amendment or something. Grrrr.. What right do they have to tell us who we can and can't marry? *smiles nervously and wanders off*

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

The governor general is a mainly ceremonial position. See, Canada used to belong to Britain, like the U.S. But instead of having a big war to fight for autonomy, we all sat down and played nicely. *grin* So Canada got signed away to be it's own country, but as a result, we have British things in our country - that was the agreement. We didn't totally emancipate ourselves from Britain like the U.S. did. So we all sing the Canadian national anthem AND the British one. (God Save the Queen.) And we have a governor general, who represents the (British) monarch in Canada.

She (or he, but right now it's a she) helps the prime minister out a bit, she signs bills into law (but she has no veto power, so that's very ceremonial), she opens and closes Parliment and she entertains foreign leaders. Things like that. She's not really essential, it's the prime minister who really runs the country.

What right do they have to tell us who we can and can't marry?

Does that mean you're gay, or was that a big collective "we"?

Re:

[windowlessroom.livejournal.com]

Danke for the clarification..*smiles*
Nah, I meant we as people in general.