“Talking to Americans”: Canadian Identity, Satire, and the “One-Way Mirror”
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Canadian Identity and Satire 1 “Talking to Americans”: Canadian Identity, Satire, and the “One-Way Mirror” Molly A. McCracken University of Western Ontario Canadian Identity and Satire 2 Abstract The subject of Canadian identity relative to the United States becomes apparent through Rick Mercer’s television special “Talking to Americans.” The notions of national self-consciousness, subjectivity, and imagined communities in relation to Canada’s essence are examined to conclude that Canadians have developed an anxiety about their nation’s insubstantial role in America. This cultural insecurity results in nationalist programming, such as “Talking to Americans,” which satirize others in order to enforce Canadian identity. Canadian Identity and Satire 3 “Talking to Americans”: Canadian Identity, Satire, and the “One-Way Mirror” On Canada Day 2001, 2.7 million Canadians tuned in to watch Rick Mercer’s one-hour special “Talking to Americans” (Hodson, 2009). The CBC program was an extension of Mercer’s brief skits on the long-running news satire “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.” The show’s content is comprised of a sequence of interviews between Mercer and American citizens across the United States, in which he asks them for their opinions on “subjects they knew absolutely nothing about” (Mercer, 2001). Mercer concocts ridiculous scenarios, mainly centered upon Canadian stereotypes, and asks unsuspecting Americans to expand upon these issues for the entertainment of Canadian viewers. The program’s concept was entirely an accident, according to Mercer, as he once joked about a major Canadian issue to an American politician who did not recognize the humour (Hodson, 2009). “Talking to Americans” is a fantastic case to illustrate Canadian satire – a highly valuable component in the construction of the nation’s cultural identity. In order to understand satire’s important role in Canadian culture, the definition of satire must first be understood, as should its historical role in Canadian media. From there, “Talking to Americans” can be deconstructed and examined as a representation of Canada’s necessity to utilize the satirical form in order to distinguish itself from the United States. Satire is, by definition, “the employment, in speaking or writing, of sarcasm, irony, ridicule, etc. in exposing, denouncing, deriding, or ridiculing vice, folly, indecorum, abuses, or evils of any kind” (OED, 2011). Contemporary satirical television, radio, and internet Canadian Identity and Satire 4 entertainment generally poke fun at current events, often political, in order to both draw attention to them and expose flaws. Satire has been very attractive to Canadian viewers since shortly after television entered the nation in the 1950s. Briefly existing for two seasons on CBC between 1964 and 1966, “This Hour Has Seven Days” was the first Canadian television satire program and arguably remains as the “most defiant” and “controversial” television series in Canadian broadcast history (CBC Archives, 2011). “Seven Days” writers continually pushed the envelope for what could be said and displayed on television, mainly in regards to political debate, which appealed to the Canadian viewing public. Though “Seven Days” lasted only two years, it spawned a substantial following of similar programming, notable titles including “The Royal Canadian Air Farce” in 1980 (also a radio show from 1973 to 1997), “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” in 1992, and “The Rick Mercer Report” in 2004 (CBC Archives, 2011). These programs are alike in that they tend to focus on political and popular culture matters involving significant Canadian and International individuals and issues. The extremely popular and contentious “Talking to Americans” special singled out a topic that Canadian comedians seem elated to examine: the nation’s relationship with the United States. Based upon the continuing success that Canadian television satires have had in a US- dominated media market, the Canadian public evidently enjoys this brand of humour. Yet it remains unclear as to why viewers gain distinct pleasure from ridiculing others – such as American citizens. In “Speaking ‘Truth’ to Power? Television Satire, Rick Mercer Report, and the Politics of Place and Space,” Serra Tinic (2009) explains that satire is often “a tactic of resistance for those who sit outside the circles of power,” and that Canada experiences a “national self consciousness” which she defines as “the tendency to define [oneself] by what [one] is not” (p. Canadian Identity and Satire 5 168). Tinic’s theory is undeniably relevant to the dissection of “Talking to Americans,” as the television special is dedicated to ascertaining a clear division between Canada and the United States. As Tinic expands further on Canadian citizens’ desires for difference, she argues that “the opposition form of identity that derives from ‘not being American’ has provided Canadians with the most efficacious other with which to overcome regional content and form the national imagined community” (p. 169-170). Canada’s obsession with ‘not being American’ can be examined through the scope of Jacques Lacan’s critical theory of human subjectivity in “The Mirror Phase” (1949). According to Lacan, individuals cannot grasp a sense of self until they can define themselves as separate from their surroundings. This discovery occurs when children see their reflection in mirrors and realize that they are not their mothers (p. 82). For Canada, media outlets such as television, newspapers, and radio can serve as hypothetical mirrors that reiterate to Canadians a sense of national identity and provide distinction from the United States. Canadian citizens constantly look for qualities that set them apart from the rest of the world and for contributions to the concept of an ‘imagined community’ that Tinic mentions. Invented by Benedict Anderson, the term indicates a shared sense of distinctiveness that is “constructed or imagined,” such as a nation’s character, which becomes accepted and natural in society (O’Brien and Szeman, 233, 2010). Mercer’s commentary appeals to the Canadian imagined community by suggesting an inherent ‘Canadian-ness’ – certain qualities and traits that come with being a Canadian and not an American. One of the major components that this construction of Canadian-ness focuses upon is comedy, specifically the ability of Canadians to laugh at themselves. Canadian Identity and Satire 6 Suitably, in “Talking to Americans,” many of Mercer’s questions seem to be put-downs against Canadians. He suggests to Americans that Canada “wants to make ‘beaver balls’ its new national dish” and that the government “places its senior citizens on ice burgs and casts them out to sea” (2001), but Canadians are entertained nonetheless. Researcher Lauren Bendotti (2003) asks Canadian individuals how they feel about the potentially insulting questions and their answers are surprisingly supportive. One respondent alleges that Mercer is engaging in a “typical self-mockery of Canadians” and another claims that “self-depreciation is a very Canadian mode of humour as is understanding that your place in the world is not at the center” (p. 17) These responses suggest that citizens truly feel a sense of Canadian-ness associated with satire in addition to the effects a national self-consciousness. Viewers of “Talking to Americans” are able to form a sense of differentiation from Americans and Mercer’s claims also feed back into what another of Benotti’s interviewees calls “the Canadian underdog mentality” (p. 17). Though the Canadians’ answers make light of Mercer’s jokes, they also acknowledge a sense of “national self-consciousness” that Tinic suggests underscores the country. There is a clear impression that these Canadians, and seemingly the majority of the population, feel that being a Canadian means being second best. After analysing Lacan’s “Mirror Phase” and the essence of natural Canadian-ness, a national concern with self-consciousness becomes apparent. The entire premise of “Talking to Americans” exposes a nationwide lack of self-confidence built upon Canadians’ beliefs that Americans are oblivious to their unique national identity. Canadians are seriously concerned with the fact that they are bombarded with American politics, media, and culture, yet most Canadian contributions are either ignored or Americanized by American mainstream media. Canadian Identity and Satire 7 Canadian nationalist author and poet Margaret Atwood (1982) writes that the Canada-US border is like a “one-way mirror,” a metaphor that coincides directly with Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” (p. 69). Atwood suggests that Canadians are observers of American life and traditions, but when Americans look to Canada they only see a reflection of themselves and do not further examine the country’s history or culture. The invisibility to Americans that Canadian citizens cannot overcome is contributing to their struggle to abandon national insecurity. As Maclean’s journalist Duncan Hood (2009) adds, “[Canadians] mock [Americans] for their uncultured ways, their brash talk and their insularity, but it’s always been the thin laughter of the insecure” (p. 51). Because Canada is unable to compete with the United States’ cultural industry or economy, satirical forms serve as methods of nationalist discourse that aim to instil confidence in Canadian citizens. For Mercer and his team of writers, depicting America as the less informed and less intelligent ‘other,’ can be a potential way to boost Canada’s self-esteem. Unfortunately,