Have CBC’s satire shows lost their edge?
The Ottawa Citizen has taken a length swipe at CBC satirist Rick Mercer.
Fellow Newfoundland comic and former 22 Minutes colleague Mary Walsh suggested to Maclean’s last month that Mercer has stopped being satirical, that he appears to have decided getting people outraged is no longer a smart thing to do in a conservative climate.
Mercer’s departure from that role is a sad spectacle. It is sad because political satire is such a rare and precious thing, especially at a time when there are so few satirists and so much that is satirizable. Satirists on top of their craft — think Juvenal in ancient Rome, think Jon Stewart in the U.S. — do not get cosy with their subjects, do not worry about ruffling political celebrity feathers.
In his prime, Mercer used to ruffle feathers relentlessly. But his Rick Mercer Report is no longer a sharp jab into the pomposity and self-delusion of politicians, having evolved into a celebration of The Star’s camaraderie with the pompous and self-deluded. The boyo with the rant no longer seems interested in keeping the celebs from running away with themselves. In fact, he provides the track and the shoes. Any sharp jabs he’s still capable of are reserved for non-politicians and non-celebrities who criticize him.
You can read the full article here.
What do you think of CBC’s television satire shows like the Rick Mercer Report, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and The Royal Canadian Air Farce. Have they been losing their edge?
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I think, without a doubt, Air Farce has to go – the last few episodes i’ve watched have been downright painful – It was great on radio, good during the early years on TV, but now it’s just sad.
Rick Mercer maybe doesn’t do the jabs he used to – but I still like RMR – its cute, funny, but not hard hitting – but thats okay with me.
22 Minutes still totally rocks – the new generation of the cast has really won me over – I’d say its just as good as it was back in the glory days of Mercer, Walsh, etc. It’s the best satire on TV anywhere.
The RCAF cannot lose its edge as it never had one. It remains embarrassing, parochial garbage.
22 Minutes certainly has lost its edge , and Mercer’s show never quite had one, having positioned itself just a little to the leftfield side of the RCAF’s Tim Horton’s crowd. Compared to leading satirical shows in the US (e.g. The Daily Show or The Colbert Report), these two are thin gruel indeed. You can watch them both and never laugh, let alone learn something.
Air Farce never quite grabbed me but 22 Minutes still makes me laugh. I felt that Rick watered down a lot of his best critiques after moving to the Mercer Report. I have to mostly agree with the article, I’m afraid, as Rick seems more interested in participating and being one of the gang with those he visits than keeping elected officials on their toes.
CBC satire hasdefinitely been a let down in thelast few years, but this biggest disappointment on the network for me has been The Hour. It’s probably the network’s most important opinion program, and it started off with such a punch, but lost momentum quickly. I find that George has become really soft on his guests. It’s as though he’d rather do fluff interviews and not ruffle any feathers, than hit subjects where they need it but have trouble gaining the interviews he seeks. I understand that he doesn’t want to get himself blacklisted as an interviewer, but what good is an interview if you can’t ask the questions that need to be asked.
There was a similar story in the May edition of The Walrus.
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/2007.05-media-the-last-laugh/
I miss political satire on the radio. The random spots on The Current are just that, random. Where can you go these days to get good Canadian satire on the radio? Madly Off In All Directions was good, but lately there have been nothing but re-runs. When you start to hear material that is almost ten years old, you start to wonder if there even is a CBC Comedy department anymore. In this era of growing seriousness, surely there is some space left on the CBC network for radio comedy.
A decade ago, when This Hour Has 22 Minutes had Rick Mercer, Mary Walsh, Greg Thomey and Cathy Jones, that show could stand toe to toe with anything The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report dished out. Even at that time, Royal Canadian Air Farce had some inspired moments that didn’t make that group look embarassing.
Today, CBC’s satirical comedys are all sub par at best. 22 Minutes has its moments, but it’s just a shell of its glory days of 1993-2001. The Rick Mercer Report has been a huge dissapointment since it debut in 2004, the Ottawa Citizen reporter is spot on with her assesment of Mercer. And someone needs to put Air Farce out of its misery.
Given that the average season of these CBC shows run as long as a month’s worth of TDS and TCR, there can be no reason why they cannot be as funny, biting, and fearless as Stewart and Colbert’s shows. We Canadians deserve better from our televised satirists.
Sorry, I have to disagree; I’ve been an RCAF fan ever since I saw “The Jest Society” live in Ottawa, with Luba Goy playing Margaret Trudeau. I find them right on target. Now, could we have an RCAF road trip, please? Rick Mercer’s show seems to have lost its focus, but I still watch it, and 22 Minutes. There are gems buried in those scripts.
I’ve got to agree with the above comments on RCAF.
I cannot understand why this program continues to be on air. It is atrociously bad and not funny in the slightest. It is, quite honestly, one of the most cringe-inducing television programs on television (let alone, the CBC).