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Canada, Eh?: Difference between revisions
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== Advertising, Eh? ==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnpVH7kIb_8 My name is Joe, and I! AM! CANADIAN!]
== Anime and Manga, Eh? ==
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* The unlikely setting for Sunshine Temple's [[Fuku Fic]] ''[[The Return (fanfic)|The Return]]''.
* In ''[[XSGCOM]]'' Canada is described - admittedly in jest to simple-minded offworlders - as a [[Death World]]. ‘They say [[Four-Star Badass|[Sharp's]]] homeland is a frozen wasteland where the icy wind would cut you to the bone and where water only ever falls as snow, like it does here upon the mountaintops yonder... ‘It is said the forests there are full of ferocious beasts with huge teeth and claws called bears, and that you must prove yourself worthy by defeating one with a traditional weapon of his tribe they call a hockey stick’
== Film, Eh? ==
* The persistent mentioning that shots need to contain "more Canadian content" by the director in ''[[Windigo]]'' serves to spoof the Canadian obsession with having expressly Canadian movies to maintain their identity.
* Misconceptions of this type form the backbone of [[Michael Moore]]'s satirical film ''[[Canadian Bacon]]''.
{{quote|'''Mountie played by [[Steven Wright]]''': I don't know what you're talkin' aboot.
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* ''[[Strange Brew]]'', the movie that first stereotyped Canadians.
** Most likely the [[Trope Namer]], ''eh?''
* ''[[Rumble in The Bronx]]''. The Bronx apparently has a mountain range. (It was shot in [[Vancouver]], BC.)
* ''[[The Whole Nine Yards]]'' averts this, taking place in Montreal because it was filmed there, but generally lacking in Canadian stereotypes, except for Bruce Willis's rant about how Canadians put mayonnaise on hamburgers.
* ''Taking Lives'' is an American thriller set for no particular reason in Quebec City, which you can tell because everyone speaks French from France and there's an establishing shot of the [[wikipedia:Chateau Frontenac|Château Frontenac]]. Having the Chateau Frontenac in Montreal is the equivalent of showing the Statue of Liberty in Washington.
* In ''[[The President's Analyst]]'', when the titular individual goes on the lam, along with being stalked by the FBI, the CIA and The Phone Company, he runs afoul of the Canadian intelligence service. They are very polite about abducting him and drugging him for classified info.
* Canadian cities are sometimes seen as interchangeable, even by other Canadians. For instance, the movie ''A Problem with Fear'' is set in Calgary's underground subway system. Unfortunately for the film, Calgary does not have and has never had an underground subway system; the film was shot in Montreal, as the French-language ads in the background of many shots will attest. (And to be honest, having French-language ads in a movie supposedly set in Calgary is actually weirder than inventing a subway system.)
* [[David Cronenberg]]'s films are often set in his hometown, [[Toronto]], which he naturally portrays quite realistically. A realistic Montreal crops up occasionally, too. His 1986 remake of ''The Fly'' is shot in the downtown core of Toronto, and several prominent stores are visible during some of the scenes (such as Toronto City Hall, and, when Brundle walks down the street eating a chocolate bar, he passes he most random places.
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'', set in Toronto. For more on this, see the comic book entry.
== Literature, Eh? ==
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* ''How To Be A Canadian,'' by Will and Ian Ferguson, is a novel-length deconstruction, subversion and general send-up of every Canadian stereotype in existence.
* [[The Trolls]] has Aunt Sally both poke fun at and provide true facts about Vancouver. For the record, no one in her stories say 'eh?'.
* After the airliner hijacking at the beginning of [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''Rainbow Six'' is foiled by John Clark and his son-in-law, the plane touches down in Gander, Newfoundland, and the protagonists are met on the tarmac by a "Royal Canadian Air Force" officer. [[Dan Browned|Canada's air forces
* ''Hollywood's Canada'', by Canuck media legend [[Pierre Burton]], thoroughly and hilariously deconstructs Canada's image in American film (hint: most of the flicks mentioned were marketed as 'cool and refreshing' viewing for hot summer days). Contains, among others in the same vein, this wonderful quote from British actor [[Arthur Treacher]]: "I say, you'd have to be a pretty virile bloke to live there, wouldn't you?"▼
▲* ''Hollywood's Canada'', by Canuck media legend Pierre Burton, thoroughly and hilariously deconstructs Canada's image in American film (hint: most of the flicks mentioned were marketed as 'cool and refreshing' viewing for hot summer days). Contains, among others in the same vein, this wonderful quote from British actor Arthur Treacher: "I say, you'd have to be a pretty virile bloke to live there, wouldn't you?"
* ''The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad'' is set in Edmonton, and is notable for having a cast made up largely of black people. Then again, the author is a black Canadian who lives in Edmonton.
* ''[[Peacebreakers]]'' by Canadian-American writer Mindy Mackay both exemplifies and subverts this trope - set in Montreal, the book is aboot a bunch of [[Manipulative Bastard|terrible people]] who take over the country. Although they don't fit friendly Canadian stereotypes, they're all obsessed with hockey, poutine, and saying "eh."
* In ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'', it turns out that ''everyone in Canada'' is secretly a [[I'm a Humanitarian|Laistrygonian]]. They even have bizarre names like "Marrow Sucker", "Skull Eater" and "Joe Bob".
* In ''The Trolls'', Aunt Sally tells her nieces and nephews about her life growing up with their father and the rest of the family on Vancouver Island. A lot of things she mentions, like a violin-playing test that's [[Serious Business]], she claims are normal for life on the island. Early on, she jokes that people in Canada have parties all of the time, but keep it a secret because they feel like they're "ghosts" and that America has a proper culture.
▲== Live Action TV, Eh? ==
* ''[[The Daily Show]]'' covered the Canadian election.
* Two words: Lumberjack Song. Though, seeing as it was from ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' the stereotyping was there for irony, and was also greatly subverted by the whole transvestitism thing.
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* In one episode of ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]'', Little Pete attempts to run away from home by riding a riding mower to Canada. A mountie catches him at the border, hitches the mower to the back of his horse and drags him home that way.
* On ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'', Michael Eddington carries a "lucky Loonie" (one-dollar coin), which would seem to imply Canadian background. He's a lot more hardcore than the national stereotype. [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|SRSLY]]. {{spoiler|He also seems to have a kind of reactionary attitude towards the Federation, much the way some Canadian nationalists and jingoists have towards American influences.}}
* On ''[[Lost]]'' Ethan claims to be from Canada when talking to Hurley, to which Hurley replies "Cool, I love Canada! They've got great... Uhh..." Cue Ethan's good-hearted laugh. Of course,
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'': Robert Llewellyn apparently based his performance as
** Robert Llewellyn later admitted that what he eventually came up with was [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|a ''bad'' Canadian accent]].
* In one episode of ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'', the family discover their granddad's second family who live in Manitoba. Cue funny accents, a very prim-and-proper Canadian grandmother who keeps everything bottled up (as opposed to Malcolm's violent [[Ruritania]]n grandmother), and a family who are essentially them but better and happier. Also, Reese loves it because he can go out shooting small animals.
* Played hilariously straight in ''[[That '70s Show]]'' when the guys travel to Canada to buy beer, and are detained by a couple of Mounties (played by [[SCTV|Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas]]) when Fez misplaces his Green Card.
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* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'': A sketch from early 2011 depicts "Celebrity Scoop", a fictional Canadian entertainment news show based in Winnipeg. The hosts are so nice that they miss the entire point of this kind of show.
{{quote|'''Edna Ledouf''': First up in the gossip world, Celebrity Scoop has received some red-hot photos of Ryan Philippe and Amanda Seyfried canoodling.
'''Thomas''': Yeah, yeah, that's right, you know. But we're not gonna show 'em, you know, 'cause that's private.
* An episode of ''[[Corner Gas]]'' involves an American tourist accidentally arriving in Dog River. One towns person (Hank) instantly goes on the defensive and mocks the American for supposedly believing stereotypes about Canada. The American turns out to be very well versed in Canadian politics, and any stereotypes that do come up turn out to be true (such as Lacy knowing his friend from Toronto).
** In another episode, Oscar is revealed to be American born, though trying to hide it behind a cool facade (mostly saying "jackass!" a lot). Brent senses a potential prank and runs with it, convinces Oscar to act out every possible Canadian stereotype to "convince the CRTC that he really is Canadian," culminating in trying to have him sing the national anthem in public knowing he'll mess it up. {{spoiler|Brent ends up singing the anthem instead due to his mother's interference, and he screws it up entirely as he sings the canadian anthem's lyrics to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner.}}
* One game on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?
* In ''[[JAG]]'', Clayton Webb getting assigned to a station in Canada was considered punishment for leaking classified information, and Harm expresses sympathy that he was getting assigned there, despite Canada's status as a first world country that's culturally a fair bit like the US, speaks the same language, and is a short flight from his home in the DC area.
* In ''[[NCIS]]'', McGee is up at the border working with the Mounties on a joint operation, and when seen in the background they're wearing the scarlet tunics, and obviously traveled on horseback.
* Nadia, From the ''[[Bitchin' Kitchen]]'' DOES finish most of her sentences with "eh", though it's more of an Italian thing than Canadian.
== Music, Eh? ==
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* The semi-satirical, mostly serious folk/rock band of the 90s called Moxy Früvous [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MeQK7JtLpU notably averted the "stereotypes"], despite singing about Canada in a great deal of their songs. It didn't stop them from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-00zjEq9PNs taking a dig at both Spain and Canada on of their most famous songs].
** By the way, that's Jian Ghomeshi with the longest hair (known to much of Canada now as the previous host of the program ''Q'' on CBC Radio).
* [["Weird Al" Yankovic
* [[Rush]] are national heroes in Canada, eh?
** (As much as any one band is - YMMV.)
* "Take Off" by Bob & Doug McKenzie (like, those hosers from ''[[SCTV]]'''s "Great White North", eh?) with guest vocals from Geddy Lee of Rush.<ref>He produced the album.</ref> Ten bucks is ten bucks, eh?
* The Crash Test Dummies (who are from Manitoba) music video for their cover of "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToOisBgOSL4 The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead]" (used in the film "Dumb And Dumber") makes fun of this. It starts with main character Harry walking down a street trying to talk to Canadians: "Bonjour, eh? Oh Canada, eh? Man, I thought Canadians were supposed to be friendly!"
* [[Five Iron Frenzy]]'s "Oh, Canada" mentions lumberjacks, Mounties, [[Misplaced Wildlife|yaks]], lemmings, venison slurpees, milk in bags, and [[William Shatner]].
** they say 'eh' instead of 'what' or 'duh' that's the mighty power of Canada
* The Canadian rock band [[The Tragically Hip]], with their notable hits, such as "Little Bones", "Wheat Kings", "Queen of the Furrows", "Bobcaygeon" (actually named that because it was the only town they could think of to rhyme with "constellation"), "Courage (For Hugh MacLennan)", and "Three Pistols" (which starts with the line "Tom Thomson came paddlin' past"). Popular in Canada, too - their farewell concert ''preempted live Olympic Games coverage.''
* Canadian band [[The Birthday Massacre]] talked about this in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PTq9a8WgYI this fanmail video], where they were asked: 1, do they speak with a Canadian accent, and 2, is saying 'eh' at the end of every sentence a regional thing. They answered that 1, they don't think that they speak with a Canadian accent, but in Canada nobody cares if you have an American accent, whereas in America they've been teased for their accents and saying stuff like 'aboot' for 'about' and 'soary' for 'sorry', and 2, it's not a regional thing but more a polite thing, indicating that it's the other person's turn to talk.
* [[Darkthrone]], with their stirring anthem [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnLxun1gdz8 Canadian Metal]. This song caused some controversy among Canadian metalheads when it was first released, as for some it is hard to tell if it was meant as mockery or a genuine tribute. In interviews from around the same time they clarified that yes, they actually really like a lot of Canadian metal bands, and the lyrics are taken from song titles of classic Canadian metal bands.
* The band [[Great Big Sea]] likes to highlight their Canadian origins - fully half of their songs reference Newfoundland (specifically, St. John's) or other areas in Canada, or else are old British drinking/sailing songs with the lyrics redone to reflect Canadian sensibilities. (Played straight, too - no tongue-in-cheek.)
* Vancouver based folk-rock band [[Spirit of the West]] exemplified the 'soary' ideal in their song "Far Too Canadian". They also celebrated the Canadian-Scot heritage in "The Old Sod", and touched upon canadian life in many other songs.
* [[Jon Lajoie]], who is Canadian, parodies this in his song "WTF Collective 2" with MC Canadian Stereotype:
{{quote|Hello, I'm MC Canadian-Stereotype
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== Newspaper Comics, Eh? ==
* In a story line in ''[[Peanuts]]'', Charlie Brown runs away, but Sally finds him camping out on his pitcher's mound. When she asks him why he didn't go someplace farther from home, such as Canada, he tells her he was afraid of getting hit by a hockey puck.
== Professional Wrestling, Eh? ==
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* ''[[Combat Mission|Combat Mission: Shock Force]]'' features the [[Canucks With Chinooks|Canadian Forces]] as a playable faction in the NATO expansion pack.
* ''[[Champions Online]]'' has a perpetually snowbound zone about half the size of New York City, populated by Native Americans, snow beasts, dinosaurs, aliens and militia members, which is alleged to be Canada. Some players took to calling it "The Small White North".
== Web Comics, Eh? ==
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* Captain Canada! at [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]] in the [[Whateley Universe]] pretty much runs on this trope whenever he tries to psyche himself up to use his powers. The other Canadian students ''hate'' him for this.
* Arkada of the [[Desu Des Brigade]] enjoys playing up his nationality, to the point of [[Memetic Mutation]] where he's claimed for being responsible for holding Narwal population in check by punching out the huge beast to make [[Rule of Funny|peanut butter from their skulls]]
* ''[[Loading Ready Run]]'' does a Canada Day special once per year. Some specials will be in-jokes directed at their countrymen, but others play on Canadian stereotypes for laughs:
** "Canada is Sorry" plays to the perception that Canadians are the most instantly contrite and apologetic beings in the known universe.
** "Canadaman" builds a mythology around a song by [[The Arrogant Worms]]. Graham portrays Canadaman in aboot the most outlandish voice he can muster, eh, and Paul plays his Quebecois archenemy.
* [[Memetic Mutation|In Canada, milk comes in bags.]] (N.B.: True, but only in Eastern Canada (excluding Newfoundland) and not to the exclusion of cartons; milk can be purchased in bags in many places, including some localities stateside.) (Actually, I used to get milk in a bag in BC. I freaked out when I couldn't get it that way after moving to the Prairies. Didn't know what to do with a carton. Seemed so much more wasteful.) (Cartons are recyclable at the bottle depot now!)
* All the hosts of ''[[Video Games Awesome]]'' are Canadians, and so love anything set in said country. Their fanbase, in turn, loves teasing them about it.
* [[Phelous]]. In his early ''[[Mortal Komedy]]'' videos, characters frequently spoke of having to travel to "Oatworld."
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* From ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]'', we find out that {{spoiler|[[Fake American|Bandit Keith]]}} is ironically Canadian.
* Lieutenant Jee from ''[[Avatar: The Abridged Series]]'' has a stereotypical Canadian accent as well.
== Western Animation, Eh? ==
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*** ''Chilly Beach'' does the same, even to the point where the titular town is built on an iceberg.
* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'':
** "I know we don't call as often as we should, and we aren't as well behaved as our goody-two-shoes brother Canada - who by the way has never had a girlfriend... I'm just saying."
** Homer, when asked if the family can visit Canada:
{{quote|"Canada? Why should we leave America to visit America junior?"}}
** This is followed by the Simpsons visiting Toronto. They are seen on a bus with an RCMP officer, a hockey player, and a Sasquatch.
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* One of [[Ricky Sprocket: Showbiz Boy|Ricky Sprocket]]'s friends has a Canadian accent.
* ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'' had some exchange campers from Canada in one episode.
* ''[[My Little Pony:
* In the [[Bobby's World]] episode "Fish Tales", the family travels to Canada, where everyone says "Eh?" constantly. Bobby meets the Mooseheart brothers, two guys who dress like lumberjacks, own a log trailer, and teach him how to be Canadian. (There's not much to it besides liking maple syrup and hockey.)
* In [[The Hub]]'s ''[[Pound Puppies]]'' series, the episode "Homeward Pound" introduced the Royal Canadian Pound Puppies. Extremely good-natured and polite, occasionally self-deprecating, and dressed in red sweaters with a white maple leaf on them.
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* "[[Robin Williams|Canada]] is like [[Unusual Euphemism|having a loft apartment over a great party.]]"
* An old joke is that Canada was originally spelled Cnd. However, Sir John A. MacDonald had an American secretary when Cnd first became a country. He asked her to write up the documents on the new country, and she asked him how is was spelled. The Prime Minister replied "C, eh. N, eh. D, eh."
* Ever heard an angry
* When [[Michael J. Fox]] joined the Screen Actors Guild, the name "Michael Fox" was already taken. He considered using his real middle initial, "A," but he thought it might remind people that he's Canadian (Micheal "Eh?" Fox) so he went with a "J" instead.
* John Garand invented the rifle that bares his name and an icon of the American military in [[World War II]]. He also emigrated from ''Qubec'' as a teenager and had [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKg8pSZDDOU a very thick French Canadian accent] as a result.
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[[Category:Hollywood Atlas]]
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{{#related:Canada}}
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