Last night, on a very high channel, the Royal Canadian Air Farce was on. After watching for a few minutes it became clear that it was a rerun (the Prime Minister being clumsily lampooned was Chretien) but it also became clear that I had no idea how old it was. Subsequent sketches made it clear that it dated to the months preceding the Presidential election of 2000, but the astonishing thing is that the requisite Canadian content was indistinguishable from any other episode of the four years on either side.
The jokes about Dubya's stupidity, the Middle East, and Tony Blair were all clearly dated, and even if the general tropes were the same the particulars were sufficiently different to evoke the rough season in which the episode was filmed. But the Canadian jokes were almost entirely applicable to any period under Chretien's reign, and, if you substituted Martin, to today. Air Canada? Bankrupt, incompetent, on the brink of collapse without more taxpayer's money. The Liberals? Corrupt, openly robbing the taxpayer and laughing about it. The politicians right of the Liberals (alright, I admit, their name changes help to date the show too)? Some good ideas, but too disorganized ever to gain power, and besides, isn't it a bit unCanadian to be conservative? The script never changes.
This is deeply depressing. But at least, perhaps, we can cut the CBC's funding, and they can just rerun all their programming on a 6 week rotation. It would take years for anybody to notice.
Posted by Clio at May 10, 2004 08:35 AM