Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
214,656
edits
m (remove unneccessary quote box template) |
No edit summary |
||
(13 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
[[File:YCDToT_7029.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|''Hi, and welcome to sort of a... musty episode of ''You Can't Do That on Television''. The show that makes modern history every week by continually appalling its viewers.''|'''Christine "Moose" McGlade''', the show's host from 1979 to 1986}}
A Canadian [[Saturday Morning Kids Show]] [[Sketch Comedy]], running from 1979 to 1990, and rerun on and later produced by [[Nickelodeon]]
First introduced at CJOH
Brought [[Covered in Gunge]] to North America. And [[Alanis Morissette]]. No, really. The proof is [https://web.archive.org/web/20140209162712/http://www.ycdtotv.com/cast/index.php?p=morissette here].
Now with its own [[You Can't Do That
{{tropelist}}
* [[Actor Allusion]]: Of a sort. Host Christine McGlade made the mistake of mentioning her real-life nickname Moose to the producers; it was swiftly worked into the show.
* [[Adults Are Useless]]: Adults are usually portrayed as bumbling morons...at their ''best''. The one who isn't--Ross, the stage manager--is despicable for all other sorts of reasons. This was deliberate on the part of creator Roger Price, who hated that adults in kids' shows tended to be reliable, helpful, [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]s and wanted to teach kids that not all adults were like this.
* [[Bankruptcy Barrel]]: Ross and Moose end up wearing these during the episode about theft, when their clothes (and most of the set) have been stolen. Moose's still has water and a rubber duck in it.
* [[Broken Aesop]]: In one scene, Senator Prevert (Les Lye) in one sketch yelled at Alasdair for having been caught smoking cigarettes in school, and then proceeded to light up a cigar in the same sketch.
{{quote|
'''Sen. Prevert''': No, what I said was, smoking is bad for ''your'' health. I never said anything about ''mine''. }}
** There were a couple of these also in the "Addictions" episode from 1982, notably a link set skit where Lisa reprimands Christine for being "addicted" to video games, but then it turns out Lisa has her own "unhealthy" addiction - to soap operas.
* [[Canada, Eh?]]: The show is [[Canadian Series|a Canadian production]]. Other Canadianisms that found their way into the show: going "to university" instead of "to college", and saying "grade ten" instead of "tenth grade." Although the writers did their best to internationalize the show's content by making references to American things such as the Fourth of July, it was little things like those in the script that (even without seeing the words "Ottawa, Canada" in the closing credits) made the show's country of origin obvious.
** "Going to university" isn't a Canadianism. University and college are separate things. Of course somebody going to Carleton College instead of Carton University will say "College" regardless of where they live.
*** More obvious in Season One and in "Whatever Turns You On" (which were never intended to be seen outside of Canada), with a number of jokes about one guy (Marc Bailon) being French, leading to the line "You don't speak Frog, eh?" ("Frog" is an offensive term for a French person [as in "from France" French], but can also be applied to someone from a French-speaking country -- in this case, Quebec.)
**** In another scene, one girl (Cyndi) talked about her first crush being "a frog." Thinking Cyndi was using the offensive slang term, Christine scolded her. It turned out Cyndi was talking about an ACTUAL frog, which she then had to dissect for school, but didn't feel bad about it because she said, "Frogs aren't human." Upon hearing this, Marc came up and announced (referring to the Quebecois separatist movement), "Any more of that, and we WILL separate!"
* [[Catch Phrase]]: And how. Some of the more repeated ones:
{{quote|
"What do you think's ''in'' the burgers?" "Duh... I heard that!"
"She's got a point." "Don't encourage her."
"Where do they find them, and why do they keep sending them to me?"
"Sometimes it's so easy, I'm ashamed of myself."
"Wait a minute! Stop the execution!" (and if successful) "That's one sneaky kid."
Kid to Nasti: "But you can't do this, this is torture!" Nasti: "I know!"
"Ten bucks. Each."
"Roll the closing credits!"
"That means... this is [[Just the Introduction
* [[Couch Gag]]: Before the opening, there was a graphic announcing that a regularly-scheduled show parody (i.e., ''Mr. Rogers: Neighborhood Pusher'', ''George Bush Shoots The Wrong Quayle'', ''The Cosby Kids Get Put Up For Adoption'', etc) will not be seen tonight and will be replaced by an episode of ''You Can't Do That On Television''.
** At the end, an announcer (played by Les Lye) would do a theme-relevant [[Brought to You
* [[Covered in Gunge]]: Green slime, usually.
* [[Edited for Syndication]]: Two episodes on the American Nickelodeon version had parts cut:
Line 43:
** To top it off, Nickelodeon's airing of the "Enemies and Paranoia" episode in 2004 (as an "Old School Pick") was cut short and replaced with other programming. Why? Because the episode had a lot of jokes about Ronald Reagan as President of the United States and [[Too Soon|the episode just happened to air shortly after Ronald Reagan's death made the news]].
* [[Greasy Spoon]]: Barth's.
* [[I Ate What?]]: Most of the Barth sketches.
* [[I Can't Believe
* [[Ironic Name]]: The teacher character Mr. [[Schindler's List|Schindler]] is modeled on [[Adolf Hitler]].
* [[Jackass Genie]]: "My work here is done." Happened on at least three occasions:
** "Not-So-Fair Show" (1982), with the "Unfairy Godmother" (played by Les Lye)
{{quote|
'''Unfairy Godmother''': Thinner! And so you shall be! ''(transforms Christine into a can of paint thinner)'' }}
** "TV Commercials" (1986), Doug Ptolemy as the "Jiffy Genie"
{{quote|
'''Jiffy Genie''': In a flash, ma'am. ''(waves his arms, and Mrs. Prevert's entire oven disappears. Mrs. Prevert wails and begins to sob loudly)''
'''Announcer''': Yes, with Jiffy Genie, you'll never have oven grease again.
'''Jiffy Genie''': ''(to camera)'' You'll never have an oven, period. }}
** "Fitness" (1989) - Amyas Godfrey as the "Fitness Genie" grants Rekha her wish of being "lighter" by making her glow. He also gives Rekha the chance to lose more weight by making her fatter, so she ''can'' lose "more weight."
* [[The Jimmy Hart Version]]: The [[Theme Tune]] is a sendup of "The William Tell Overture".
* [[Just the Introduction
* [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]]: A DVD release
** In general, the series is plagued with [[Missing Episode]]s for various reasons – many of which stem from the show's historical status as a purely-local programme created at [[CTV Television Network|CTV]] member station CJOH-TV in Ottawa in 1979. Almost nothing remains of the first season, a local production which often aired live.
** Making matters worse, the CJOH studio [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/fire-destroys-ctv-ottawa-newsroom-1.937489 was gutted by fire] in the wee hours Sunday 7 Feb 2010; the station never returned to 1500 Merivale Road and the building was eventually demolished. In addition to local news archives, the master tapes of many of the episodes were destroyed.
* [[Lethal Chef]]: Barth, unabashedly. Yet for some reason the kids keep eating at his diner.
{{quote|
* [[Literal Genie]]: See Jackass Genie above.
* [[Loads and Loads of Roles]]: Les Lye played all the adult male characters (including the disgusting and possibly drunken diner chef, Barth), sporting enough distinct looks that this fact wasn't immediately obvious.
* [[Missing Episode]]: Two episodes of the show were banned:▼
** In America, the episode called "Adoption" was banned due to fears that adopted children would find some of the sketches offensive (despite a very clear warning at the beginning stating that the jokes weren't meant to hurt anyone). In Canada, this episode was allowed to air, but the part where Lance Prevert tries to give his adopted kid back to the agency, only to learn that "adoption is for life," had Lance's line "Damn bureaucrat!" muted out.▼
** In Canada, the episode called "Divorce" was banned, but some Canadian viewers who remember seeing the episode on YTV beg to differ.▼
▲*** Fortunately, there's always fan-tapes of those, save for the 1979 season.
* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Christine "Moose" McGlade. She was much older than the other kids and always seemed to be wearing aerobics leotards, working out and getting wet when she said "water".
* [[No Fourth Wall]]: The show knows it's a show and the characters constantly interact with the "director". An episode about divorce had the show being interrupted because the director and his wife split up and she took half of the show.
* [[The Not
▲** In America, the episode called "Adoption" was banned due to fears that adopted children would find some of the sketches offensive (despite a very clear warning at the beginning stating that the jokes weren't meant to hurt anyone). In Canada, this episode was allowed to air, but the part where Lance Prevert tries to give his adopted kid back to the agency, only to learn that "adoption is for life," had Lance's line "Damn bureaucrat!" muted out.
▲** In Canada, the episode called "Divorce" was banned, but some Canadian viewers who remember seeing the episode on YTV beg to differ.
* [[Only Sane Man|Only Sane Kid]]: Moose, in a capacity similar to that of Kermit The Frog on the [[The Muppet Show]].
* [[Panty Shot]]: Christine in a host segment where she's in a tennis outfit and suffers a broken leg. Of course, the dress has a pretty short skirt to begin with.
** In an earlier episode, Christine also had her skirt "blown up" Marilyn Monroe-style, though it didn't expose anything more than the pantyhose she was wearing.
* [[Pie in
* [[Sadist Teacher]]: A recurring character was a school principal that looked and acted like ''Hitler''.
* [[The Scottish Trope]]: "I don't know!"
** And "water" (or "wet").
** In the "Enemies and Paranoia" episode, the word "Free".
* [[Self
* [[Shot At Dawn]]: A regular sketch involved one of the kids about to be shot by one. They often (but not always) escaped execution by tricking the commandant. The commandant also appeared in a recurring sketch with the kid [[Locked in
* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: The entire cast over time, and especially when they replaced ''everyone'' for the 1989 and 1990 seasons.)
* [[Vomit Discretion Shot]]: Whoever figures out what (or who) is in the burger in Barth's diner always chucks. Sometimes into buckets typically provided by said Barth. How else do you think he gets his "Special Sauce"?
* [[Who Even Needs a Brain?]]: A sketch had a mother getting far too enthusiastic about cleaning out her child's ears, and cleaning out everything between them as well. It had no noticeable effect on the child.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Canadian Series]]
[[Category:Sketch Comedy]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Series]]
|