Wednesday, January 10, 2007

They even followed Chuckercanuck's First Law of Film

Originally posted at ChuckerCanuck

What the hell do I know?

I watched an early episode of Will & Grace - the punchline for every joke was that Will or the cooky, flaming friend of Will, was gay. I never watched again but millions of people did for years.

I watched some of the first season of ER - eventually I got bored because I knew before I even watched that night's episode there would be medical emergencies and morons running around screaming, "Stat!" I never watched again but millions of people did for years.

Tonight, I watched the premier of Little Mosque on the Prairie. My expectations, as you know, were low. It had three strikes:

1. It was on the CBC and my Tory-sense tingles whenever something is coming from the CBC.

2. The "sit" part of this sitcom is obnoxious and eye-rolling at the same time; as if concocted by one of Trump's "Apprentice" teams.

3. The zingers contained in the trailers were, if this is even possible, inflammatory groaners: dumb white folks who think all muslims are terrorists and act in the very unfunny sense of the word "hysterical".

About 50% of the entire show is garbage - precisely where the inflammatory groaners that made up the trailer are set. But the series cannot rest on that cheap material no more than a house can rest on a styrofoam foundation. The other 50% of the show focused on the principal characters exclusively --- fellow right wingers who love to froth at everything the CBC does, please forgive me for saying the following, I'm no Garth Turner --- the principal characters have lots of promise and those are good comic actors slotted in the roles. I laughed. I tried not to, but I laughed.

Eliminate the sensational story lines, stop mocking the largely white audience the show seeks to entertain and this show is a hit. Better still, beam the sucker into every household in the middle east and this show could be highly effective propaganda. Now that would trap us Tories: how can we do anything with CBC revenue sources when its making a valued contribution to the war on terrorism?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree. I am very happy to see that the sexy muslim girl on the show has boobs sticking out of her hijab. Not just sloppy old lady boobs, but young, vibrant "grab me" kind of boobs.

Anonymous said...

$10 says Al-Jazeera would sooner run footage of mayhem in Iraq than this show --- it could de-stabilize the whole middle east.

Jeff said...

I watched,it's no Three's Company but it's not bad for Canadian TV so I'll watch again. Certainly rather hooky and hackneyed at times.

I think though that it would be unfair to single-out their making fun of small towners/white folks. I think they made fun of everyone, Muslims too. If such a show is going to work I think they do need to make sure everyone is a target for humour.Equal opportunity mockery, if you will.

Tarkwell Robotico said...

Agreed, Bcer.

My criticism of the jokes against "whitey" aren't political, they are artistic (stop laughing). There was just no believability in it, and to quote the great Alan Alda from the Woody Allen flick, Crimes and Misdemeanors:

If it bends, its funny. If it breaks its not funny.