Re: the last post.

It’s more awkward than you imagined!

Alaska is America's Newfoundland

Alright, let’s break down the players in this story in case you’ve been in a coma for 23 years:

This Hour Has 22 Minutes was a popular CBC news-parody political-satire series. About 10 years ago. Apparently it’s still on! Honestly, have any of you watched 22 Minutes lately? It’s basically a horrible, walking zombie corpse of its former self, telling old, unfunny jokes for lobotomized septuagenarian Newfies. The show hasn’t been fresh, relevant or witty since the days of Rick Mercer, Jean Chretien, and, uh… what else did we Canadians enjoy 10 years ago… listen to B4-4, I guess? Anyways, this was once a cutting-edge show, responsible for the format which inspired later shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Nowadays compared to what Jon Stewart is doing, 22 Minutes is somewhere on the comedy scale between The Ron James Show and History Channel documentaries about the holocaust.

Sarah Palin is a dumb, illiterate redneck from our half-retarded leftward neighbour, Alaska. She’s a bland, uninformed hick who is also, somehow, the most dangerous and potent force in conservative politics in the world’s only major superpower. GOD BLESS AMURIKA USA #1.

Anyways, these two somehow had a chance encounter! Remember when 22 Minutes was edgy, when Rick Mercer got access to both Bush and Gore in the 2000 election and made them both look dumb? When various 22 Minutes characters got access to every sitting Prime Minister from Chretien to today, and made them look like assholes right in front of their faces? Anyways, these days 22 Minutes settles for sending their most tired, played-out character (memo to CBC: character comedy only works when the character is funny, see also: Sagdiyev, Borat) Marg Delahunty, played by 22 Minutes vet Mary Walsh, to mess with Palin.

Without any concrete plan, they basically relied on this formula: 1) Let Marg Delahunty (formerly known as Marg the Warrior Princess, based on the series Xena which ran from 1995 – 2001, which gives you an idea of how fresh this character is) bust into Sarah Palin’s whirlwind book tour which various rednecks and idiots had been camping overnight for. 2) Let Sarah Palin say anything. 3) Comedy.

Well we watched the whole episode (God help us) and here’s what went down!

Marg, dressed in a Palin-esque red pantsuit, basically charged into the book signing in Columbus, Ohio (civic slogan: “Whenever Cleveland and Cincinnati are fully booked, experience Columbus!”) and started shouting. There were probably a lot of funnier things she could’ve shouted given this level of access, but here’s the mildly backhanded thing she went with:

(paraphrasing, because there’s no way I’m pulling 22 Minutes back up on Tivo, fuck that, I’m drunk) “Sarah, we came all the way up [?] from Canada, do you have any words of encouragement for our Conservative government who are trying to dismantle our healthcare system?”

Immediately, about 5 strong-armed goons converged on her and started shoving her outside, BUT: Palin actually responded! Ignoring any media training she may have gotten to “ignore people who are being dragged away by security guards” or “ignore people who MAY be making fun of you”, she went ahead and responded to the CBC cameras.

Palin: (again, paraphrasing) “Well, KEEP THE FAITH, we’re all aiming for the same goals of private enterprise dictating healthcare choices” or something else stupid and bland like that.

Now, Palin might not have known it, but in Canada’s unique brand of wry, unfunny humour (see: rest of CBC lineup), she was being mocked! Y’see, pretty much all Canadians love universal healthcare, so the idea of some halfwit like Sarah Palin encouraging the Tories to dismantle healthcare… well, it’s funny I guess… jeez, I’m not explaining everything to you.

After the shoving-based encounter, Marg hid out in the loading dock of the Columbus Borders bookstore and shouted pretty much the same thing to Palin as she was getting back on her bus, and Palin responded loud and clear with the same basic message, with “Keep the faith” being the core of the message:

Palin (actual quote this time!) “Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit.”

Boy, I hope Jesus lets the Conservative government dismantle Medicare, just like Sarah Palin prays for and no actual Canadians even consider as a possibility!

Anyways, there’s no video online yet (WHAT THE HELL CBC, I PAY YOUR SALARY WITH TAXES) but here’s a news article which probably has slightly more detail than we included! Fair warning: the Canadian Press article is full of lies, such as the second sentence which begins with “Comedian Mary Walsh’s beloved character“, which would have been an accurate observation circa 2003, the last time anything remotely related to This Hour Has 22 Minutes was beloved.

Remember the last time Canadians punk’d Sarah Palin? It was mildly funnier!

[Read: The CP Article]