Comedy Is An Art Form. It’s Time Canada Treated It Like One
Our government recognizes and respects all artists — unless their talent is being funny.
Canadians are known for comedy.
I’ve heard this my entire life, long before I became a comedian (or a Canadian), and these are sentiments expressed around the world every single day. Canada is known for its talented comedians, being the home of SCTV, The Kids in the Hall, and countless famous comedians from Jim Carrey to Russell Peters, one of the most famous comedians in the world.
And yet Canada doesn’t really appreciate them. At least, that is, not until the rest of the world does first.
Sure, Canadians love to laugh and love to see live standup comedy. Every major city (and a few of the smaller ones) has a local comedy club. Canadians also love to watch standup comedy at home, if the popularity of Netflix comedy specials is any kind of barometer.
But even on Netflix Canada, where much American content isn’t even available, there’s very little Canadian standup comedy in its place. If you’re looking for that, Bell’s CRAVE TV has a few comedy specials from comics like K. Trevor Wilson, Graham Chittenden and Debra Digiovanni. The Comedy Network tosses up comedy shows from the annual Just For Laughs Festival (JFL), of course, but the rest of the Canadian broadcasting world pretends that (outside the JFL brand) that standup comedy barely exists.
Leave A Comment