General

Bad satire, meet good satire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTGcqIss7sk&feature=related

A couple of days ago, this guy named Fagstein blew a gasket over the poor state of satire in this here pretty province. He posted a video, itself recently posted by noted metrosexual blogger Patrick Lagacé, of a clip from Rock et Belles Oreilles (it’s an imperfect comparison, but think Royal Canadian Air Farce for French people) making fun of English people. In it, the RBO boys make fun of Pulse News, Montreal’s stalwart English news broadcast, suggesting host Brian Britt et al., and all of English Quebec by extension, are ignorant, French-baiting buffoons. “[I]gnorant, bitter and sad,” was how Fagstein categorized RBO’s effort. It puts “anglo Montrealers in the same boat as anti-French Albertans, franco-incompetent Ontarians and gun-toting southern U.S. rednecks.”

Now, I loves me some Fagstein–his blog is funny, irreverent and freakishly comprehensive. But damn, that clip is over ten years old. Pre-referendum, even. As Fagstein himself points out, Pulse News hasn’t existed for three years. (The clip references Vinnie Damphousse, for chrissakes.) Yes, the English in this province still make a terrific foil for Quebec’s Franco artsy types–-salut, François Rivard, mon p’tit crisse!–-but to use this ancient clip to suggest this is the state of linguistic satire in the province ignores just how far we’ve come in making fun of one another.

As example, I humbly present the above clip of Et Dieu Créa Laflaque. Here, the show pillories the French news media, West Island Anglos, the PQ’s creepy ‘Identity Bill’ and, yes, the pitiful state of Pauline Marois’ English, all in under four minutes. It’s one of the funniest shows on television, and it aims bullets at everyone, English included.

Also, it’s less than 10 years old.

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