Splitsider

Posts tagged as canada

Local Guides

Splitsider's Guide to Toronto's Comedy Scene

by | April 30th, 2013

Despite a sketch comedy history that rivals almost any city (SCTV, Kids in the Hall), and being the breeding grounds for a number of amazing standups, Toronto is rarely discussed among the big comedy cities of North America. But while most of the continent may know Toronto best for the shout outs it receives in Drake lyrics, the comedy scene in the city has taken off in recent years. From the birthplace of the Paul F. Tompkins 300, to turning WWE superstar Bret “the Hitman” Heart into an improv all star, to the explosion of original and alternative comedy shows springing up, Toronto has evolved into a phenomenal [...]

Comedy Docs

Diving Deep Into Canadian Comedy in 'Comedy Gold'

by | May 22nd, 2012

It’s no secret that sometimes comedy is taken a bit too seriously. Comedy obsessives love not just the jokes, but the mechanics and emotions of the comedy world. There are a raft of comedy documentaries exploring comedy and comedians, but do they really have anything significant to add to the discussion? This series looks at comedy documentaries and whether they’re interesting, insightful, and possibly even…funny?

Like Why We Laugh, Comedy Gold: The Hilarious Story of Canadian Comedy is an overview of a culture’s comedy. Comedy Gold is a 3-hour Canadian comedy extravaganza, originally aired over two nights on CBC in 2006. It features an incredible breadth of old [...]

journalism

'The Daily Show's Jason Jones Takes on "The Pablo Escobar of Maple Syrup"

by | March 1st, 2013

The Daily Show sent correspondent Jason Jones back to his home country of Canada to dive deep into the nation's sordid maple syrup ring. Needless to say, he barely escapes with his life.

Interviews

Talking to Seann William Scott and Jay Baruchel About their Violent New Hockey Comedy Goon

by | March 30th, 2012

The title of this piece should really be “Watching Other People Talk to Seann William Scott and Jay Baruchel.” Let me explain.

Last month, I was summoned to the swanky Beverly Hills Hilton to attend a press day for the new movie Goon, starring Seann William Scott and Jay Baruchel. Baruchel also wrote the movie with Seth Rogen’s writing partner Evan Goldberg. The PR team promoting Goon set up a string of conference rooms at the hotel for Scott and Baruchel to drop by and record TV and radio spots, plus participate in a roundtable interview with about 15 web and print journalists, including myself.

network drama

The Fourth Season of 'Community' Is Coming to Canadian TV November 9th January 11th Someday

by | October 30th, 2012

Still on hiatus at NBC, it looks like Community will be coming back on the air in Canada before we get new episodes in the States. Canadian TV station Citytv posted that the fourth season of Community will debut on Friday, November 9th. This doesn't exactly bode well for Community's future at NBC, given that the show's audience is a bunch of technology-crazy youngsters who torrent it in large numbers to begin with. If NBC doesn't schedule the new season before November 9th, Community could have a whole new ratings problem on its hands with hardcore fans who have been deprived of their beloved show for six months [...]

O Canada

Wayne & Shuster: Canadian Comedy Cornball Supergods

by | December 6th, 2011

It’s a lazy, trite comedy trope to make fun of Canada, at worst presenting it as an icy, bland, over-polite backwater, and at best, presenting it as a slightly dulled-down America Lite. Yes, they have Mounties and socialism and we share English and team sports and gravy-based foodstuffs, but Canada’s best offering, as far as the greater Splitsider community is concerned, is its plentiful offerings of sketch comedy and sketch comedians. They’ve given us so much: SCTV, The Kids in the Hall, and most everyone from Saturday Night Live ever. (And Will Arnett.) We could project this and assume, then, that if we dig a little deeper into Canadian [...]

-->