We don’t know who first invented the wheel. But our claim to this ‘first’ is forever sealed. This is good.
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Canadians often make fun of Americans for being stupid. Then we do whatever Americans do, delayed by a couple of years, you know, when we’ve had time to really understand how bad an idea it is.
It was likely invented by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas for Bob and Doug McKenzie. Maybe it was slang one of them used as a kid, but it never had any widespread use before then.
People thinking Canadians say this is a little bit like if I thought “Schwing!” was an Americanism after watching Wayne’s World. That is, it really was, but it was recognized as a reference to the skit/movie and it’s usage fell off as the cultural phenomenon that spawned it waned from public attention.
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I recently had some credit card fraud. Someone spent 200 dollars at the bar. No, the 10.99 at a diner after and the lyft charge before were valid. Obviously my account was hacked.
That 2-year (or whatever) lag… could the USA-to-Canada vector for transfer of “stupid stuff” (which we really need to define) involve politics? I mean, if the imported stupidity is that noticeable, I’d think it would involve things broadly spread through legislation, regulations, etc., and of a US-type/style that would appear attractive enough for Canadian politicos to emulate, and that driven by the obvious goal to retain/attain political office and/or $$$$$ in spite of the negative effects on the lumpenproles of the North?
You’re right.
I think Canada is a more conservative country than the US. That is, we are more cautious when it comes to trying out new ideas. But we are riding the same big wave as the US in terms of politics.
We elected our “Reagan” (supply side economics) in 1984. We elected our “Bill Clinton” (merger of “centrist” ideas with corportism) in 1993. We elected our “George W Bush” (neo conservative war monger) in 2006. We kept the neo-cons for an extra term so it took us until 2015 to finally elect our “Obama” (platform of big hope, tiny incremental changes in actual policy). We’re definitely moving in a Trump direction now.
Fun fact, Canada’s mortgage rules were changed to be like the US mortgage rules that allowed the NINJA mortgages just before the financial meltdown and then we quickly changed them back and really soaked up the praise about how stable our banking system was. If the crash had taken a couple more years to materialize I’m not so sure Canada would have an international reputation for bank stability.
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Hey! Wait just one hoser second, here:
Heh. Which was Canadian with a quick makeover, like renaming the hockey player coffee-donut shop.
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Well of course it was, that’s where funny people are from.
I mean, I hope that gets done, but I kind of expect in a few years we’ll have our own Trump to put all the laws back in place.
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I and most all of my friends continue to believe that Second City TV was much, much funnier and wittier than Saturday Night Live. Love the one Tex & Edna Boil skit where Tex is replaced with a dog. Genius!
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It’s grotesque how much talent was packed into that show.
I think one could argue that John Candy and Martin Short alone made it the most talented sketch comedy cast of any TV show yet. But then pile on Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin. I mean, the Great White North is probably one of the most iconic SCTV skits and when I think about their cast it takes me a long time even get to Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas.
But it’s hard to compare to SNL in general. SNL has had very good years and very not-so-good years.
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Hey neighbour - I’m in the Gulf Islands. Sadly, they’re here, too. Though IIRC the concentration was somewhat higher in Vancouver. 
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He was able to accomplish what no other entertainer was able to do: A dead-on impersonation of Bob Hope; extremely difficult.
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What’s the difference between life and a SNL sketch?
Life doesn’t go on forever.
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