At three o’clock in the morning, in a dimly lit Fox News studio, host Greg Gutfeld was yacking around with his fellow-panelists and would-be comedians.
By some happenstance Gutfeld had come across testimony that a Canadian Afghan General had given to the Canadian Senate to the effect that by 2011 his Canadian troops would need a year to recover from their Afghan deployment because of the wear and tear on their equipment and personnel.
Gutfeld suggested to the panel that apparently the Canadian military “wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint some landscapes and run on the beach in gorgeous white capri pants.” Another panelist said he had no idea Canadians were in Afghanistan. Another said this would be a good time for the Americans to invade Canada.
The only thing these comments seemed to have in common was they weren’t very funny.
Nevertheless all hell broke loose. The Canadian government, in the person of Defense Minister Peter McKay, demanded that Fox apologize. In Washington, the State Department issued a statement expressing gratitude for the Canadian presence in Afghanistan.
Canadian bloggers went nuts, most of them excoriating Fox. Kabu said, “The very fact that the program aired so late at night is indicative of the cowardly acts that Fox News continues to perform. Shame on you Rupert Murdoch, Shame.”
Marcel B. wrote: “If it were not for 5,000 Canadian soldiers sacrificed at Dieppe, the U.S. would have taken a terrible toll on D-Day.”
Bowing to an avalanche of criticism, Fox said they were sorry and Gutfeld apologized, sort of: “My apologies to the Canadian military, they could at least beat the Belgians.”
But, hold on here, Whoa.
Does this lame humour deserve to become an international incident?
Is it not kosher to poke fun, lame though it is, at the Canadian military? (When you get right down to it, what the Canadian military, like any other military does –is kill other people - on the face of it absurd. Comedians stock in trade is holding the absurd up to the light. Should the military be exempt?)
Or does blogger Sage have it about right? “Have a sense of humour, it’s not a serious news show. It’s like Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans. Get a grip anyone who make a big deal of this. Lighten up Canadians.”
Should the Canadian military be a taboo subject for comedians? (Remember what Eisenhower said about “the military-industrial” complex.)
Or should we get a grip and lighten up?
What do you think?
Humour is one thing sarcasm is another and stupidity is often a companion to both. Coming on the day 4 of our soldiers died in Afghanistan the timing for such a so-dalled joke was very bad. This being said the military like anything else can be a subject to make «intelligently» light of. The key word here being INTELLIGENTLY.
I disagree (slightly) with Paul – “intelligence” has nothing to do with it.
We all have the right (and ability) not to be offended! Lighten up people – it’s a joke (and I happened to find it funny enough – time to invade Canada! Ha!). Get the pickles out of our asses and enjoy life a little more! Geez…
Sorry to say, this is how a bunch of Americans see Canada and its armed forces — a joke. It is no more correct than Rick Mercer’s view of the folks in the States. And no less.
Good morrow, all!
Americans behave the way they do because:
1) they believe they can get away with it
2) they have little, if any, sense of their own history.
Our friends at Faux Noise should look a little more closely at the White House. See those scorch marks? That’s left over from the time that Canadian troops set fire to the President’s home.
When the Americans were marching through France just after D-Day, hailed as “liberators”, they probably did not see the Canadian troops sitting at the side of the road, recovering from going eye to eye with Uncle Adolph, and making the bastard blink. Canada was in the thick of things while the Yanks dithered and doddled, until Pearl Harbor woke them the shag up.
There were Canadians at Dieppe, there were Canadians at Dunkirk, there were Canadians in the Bulge, taking casualties, facing the enemy, driving him back across the Rhine.
Where do the air forces of the world send their pilots for training? Canada. Who put their troops lives in harms way to keep the Arabs from overwhelming Israel? Canada. Who stood between the Turks and the Greeks on Cyprus? Canada.
You pussies want to invade the Great Cold North? Pack your long johns and stock up your body bags. Like the Swiss colonel told the Nazi general, “I’ll guess we’ll just have to shoot twice.”
Don’t get US started…CTZen
I do agree with CTZ. 1775-1776, 1812 and the Fenian episode in 1829, everytime our US friends got a resounding defeat…but they don’t learn it seems.
“…this would be a good time for the Americans to invade Canada.”
Last time they did that, we launched a counter-offensive and burned the White House to the ground.
It’s humor, people. Feeble humor, to be sure, but it’s still humor.
The more sacred your cow is, the more you need to skewer it!
I have no problems with Americans poking fun at our military. If it came to defend our whole country we would need the help of our Southern neighbor. This is todays reality.
My problem is only with the timing. I feel with the families of the dead soldiers that had to listen to this joke.
Well, how about one of our own, Canadian Alex Trebek, host of Jeopardy, on two occasions slammed the Canadian armed forces. On the first occasion of his spewing forth, the jackass didn’t know that the Air Forces of the world had a contest in the U.S. once every year or so to demonstrate their combat skills. Would you believe that Canada came in first. I’ve always wanted to ask Trebek that if he speaks so poorly of the Canadian Aces, what has he got to say about the defeated U.S. jockies. By-the-bye, during WWII the Canadian 5th Armoured Division was yards from the City of Rome when General Mark Clarke called a halt to the Canadian advance. Clarke who was a known Anglophobe (5th Div at the time was under the British 8th Army Command). Hours later the U.S. columns rolled by the Canadian grunts, parked by the side of the road , and took the honours. Clarke thought he would get the plaudits and the accolades from the 5th Estate world wide. However, something else blew out his candles, and wiped him off the front page and that was some hours later D-Day had begun and the largest type ever used splattered the D-Day News around the World. There’s more. I’ve forgotten the name of the Regiment but it is officially part of their diary. Three Canadian soldiers who were thirsty got the idea that maybe some wench had a quench fixer and maybe she could fix something else too. They sauntered into Rome, bellied up to the bar and whetted and indulged and made their way back to the Regiment sans an eyeballing from the Colonel as everyone knew that it would go down to Regimental lore that the Canadians were the first troops into Rome and they had once again given the finger to the U.S. bully.
Good morrow, Jim!
Can I get a “Hell, Yeah!”
Trebek has American Alzheimer’s…forgets where he came from.
Don’t get me started…CTZen
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Thanks for you kind comment. We indeed hope you will come back and leave other comments.