Canada is Cooking Up New Comedy
Filed under: Comedy, Deals, DIY/Filmmaking
It used to be that Canada was known for its comedy -- from television shows like You Can't Do That On Television and SCTV, to comedy classics like Porky's, the maple leaf was where the laughs were at -- Martin Short, Dan Akroyd, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Leslie Nielson, Catherine O'Hara, Mike Myers, John Candy... Now, not as much, although a new program could change that.The Canadian Press reports that a Telefilm Canada Features Comedy Lab has been established (that merges Telefilm with Just for Laughs and the Canadian Film Centre) to get give original feature comedies in production over the next few years. As they point out -- there is a gap between the comedy Canada is known for, and the number of comedies that get produced. The idea is to get big names from around the world -- Eugene Levy is already signed on -- and have them work with new talent to create commercially successful films that create work in Canada while, of course, showing the funny.
Will Canadian comedy rise again? One can only hope. Considering the number of Canadians who collaborate with Christopher Guest, the optimist in me would hope that he'd come to "mentor" and, say, make another mockumentary... That would be a good way to kick things off. Looking back over what's already come, which comedies do you remember and love? Porky's? Strange Brew? Meatballs?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-27-2009 @ 12:17AM
Adam Wright said...
Trailer Park Boys
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7-26-2009 @ 9:03PM
RTMS said...
You obviously never bothered to watch Corner Gas, which has been a Canadian hit for about 6 seasons and is airing in syndication now in the US. Check out a season DVD and get back to us.
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7-27-2009 @ 12:53AM
PM said...
Corner Gas is terrible. It's basically the Canadian equivalent of Two and a Half Men in terms of its broad, lame attempt at humour. Only Little Mosque On The Prairie is worse.
Canadian television sucks because nobody watches it to begin with, so there's no real money to be made in it, so all the talented comics and writers in Canada head to the US ($$), so the Canadian shows suck and people continue to not watch them. It's an endless cycle.
Last good Canadian-produced scripted (television) comedy was The Newsroom.
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7-27-2009 @ 10:54AM
Furious D said...
The biggest problem with Canadian entertainment, and Canadian comedy in particular is that it's dominated by a very tiny group.
If you read the credits of just about every Canadian TV show and movie made during the past 10 years, and you'll see the same names popping up over, and over again in both the cast and the writing departments. And if you listen to the comedy and drama shows on CBC radio, it's the same people all over again.
That's why everyone with any talent head south as soon as they can. If you're not already in the club, you're never going to get into the club. That's why Canadians are viewed as so funny by Americans, yet Canadians view their homegrown product as stale and dull.
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7-27-2009 @ 2:49PM
Astin said...
"...get original feature comedies in production..."
I think the key word is "feature" here. I don't recall the Corner Gas movie (I do, however, recall the Trailer Park Boys one).
Canada has always had some sort of small-screen comedy production going. Be it sketch like SCTV, Air Farce, or Kids in the Hall, or parody/satire like This Hour has 22 Minutes or The Mercer Report. But as for movies? There's been a lack of broad comedies in the last 20 years. The flops that have shown up didn't help - Brain Candy, Intern Academy, etc..
THAT'S why the stars flock to the US. There just aren't any big Canadian comedy options if you want to be on the big screen outside of the indie realm. The NFB has long been a supporter of big dramas and small comedies. This is a nice change that I hope will yield positive results.
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