Triumph the Insult Comic Dog angers Canadians

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Canadian politicians over-react to a Conan O'Brien sketch

Personally I find Triumph to be hysterical, and I'm amazed that anyone takes it seriously.

The outrage and public outcry, to me, just makes it more amusing.

 

Unfortunately, I didn’t see the show. It was re-broadcast the following day on a cable station, but they cut that segment out. I did, however, see some highlights.

The response you are seeing I suspect is the obligatory public reaction of the various branches of government, broadcasting, etc. What you have to realise is that, in Canada, there has been a long-standing fight between Quebec separatists, who want Quebec to become a separate nation, and federalists, who want Quebec to stay. The separatists basically feel that they are losing their cultural identity, and that the rest of Canada doesn’t “get” Quebec. In the various referendums in Quebec on whether Quebec should formally try to separate itself from the rest of Canada, the separatist movement has lost, but by a relatively small margin. Currently, the separatist movement doesn’t seem to have a lot of support in Quebec, but that could easily change, and if Quebecois got the feeling that the rest of Canada is treating them badly (mocking them, laughing at them, being disrespectful, etc.), the movement could potentially become stronger. The Conan O’Brian piece could easily add fuel to the separatist fire, and so to nip it in the bud, we have to publicly denounce it.

Personally, the bits that I saw were so ridiculously over the top that I thought they were more insulting to O’Brian’s show than anything else. I didn’t think they were particularly funny, but I didn’t really find them offensive either. Of course, I’m speaking as a non-Quebecois, some of whom might have a different viewpoint.

 

A few things to remember in this situation.

1. Not everyone has heard of Triumph (which is sad!) and knows it's sarcasm
2. Not everyone responds well to American sarcasm
3. Not everyone responds well to Americans, period
4. Not everyone can take a joke
5. Canadians are dorks
6. If number 5 offended you, see 2-4

I saw highlights of the segment. Maybe they went just a wee bit too far, but it was still funny. Over-reacting yes, but I can understand the ruffling of feathers.

 

The only reason that this is an issue to the politicians is that the government shelled out a fair chunk of cash to get the show to film here. Thus, in effect the government paid money to get a tv personality to publically mock another political movement. Given there is a big scandal here right now about government misuse of funds regarding promotion for the anti-Seperatist movement the remarks on Conan O'Brien's show are just seen as one more misuse of public funds.

Also, it was probably blown a little out of proportion due to it being a bit of a hot topic due to Don Cherry's recent troubles due to his anti-Quebecois remarks.

Finally, I would like to point out that the puppet is a blatant rip-off of a Canadian tv character who has said far worse over the years, without anyone taking it seriously. It is solely the government funding that makes this an issue.

 

Wow - didn't realize 2 things: 1, that the Government funded the show; and 2, that Triumph was a ripoff! Do you have any links to the original, JSBB? I'd like to see them.

 

Ah, I thought the idea of a cigar chomping sock puppet sounded familiar. That's right, there is/was one on late night Canadian TV (well, there was when I was there in 1996). If I remember rightly, it was really really unfunny. Or maybe I just didn't get the jokes.

 

Ed the Sock's Homepage

 

The ripoff JSBB was referring to is likely Ed the Sock, from MuchMusic/CityTV, his website is here...

http://www.edthesock.com/main.shtml

As for the shennanigans of a silly puppet dog, yeah people shouldn't be insulted, but a lot of people were insulted. And by accounts they skit went a little too far... A shame really.

South Park is funny, Conan is the American equivalent to Mike Bullard.

 

Well, I guess I don’t need to post a link to Ed the Sock.

Add JSBB is, of course, right about the public funding issue(s). I didn’t state it because:
a) it was in ArtEChoke’s linked story, and more importantly,
b) I forgot to mention it.

It still wouldn’t be an issue without the separatist movement, though.

And Mike Bullard is just an idiot.

Edit: And Canadians aren't Dorks. We're Hosers.

 

There seems to be multiple issues here:

1) People pissed with the Canadian gov't for spending the money on Conan in an effort to bring tourism back to Toronto after the SARS scare

and

2) People branding Conan a 'racist' and 'hate-monger' because of Triumph the Insult Dog.

From my point of view, group 1 makes sense and group 2 are dorks/hosers.

As an aside, how many people have seen the full clip of Triumph going to the Star Wars opening night - priceless.

 

Its unfortunate that some Canadians were offended by the sketch. I don't follow Canadian politics closely, so I don't know how "hot" of an issue the French Canadian separists are.

In case anyone does not know, Canada, like most of Europe states, has state-controlled television. Unfortunate, eh?

 

Back in 1995 they nearly won a province wide referendum voting about whether or not the province should seperate from Canada. The movement has been pretty quiet for the last five years or so and quite frankly we would prefer that it stays that way.

We have some rules concerning things that are not acceptable on television but for the most part the privately owned tv stations can air pretty much whatever they like. I was under the impression that the US television rules are fairly similar. The main Canadian television network is government funded but it is not as if they have a monopoly. In fact, apart from Hockey Night in Canada I don't think anyone actually watches the CBC!

 

I don't think that it's unfortunate. In my country the state controlled-television is far more qualitative than than the privatevely onwed television and from personal experience I can say that the same applies to UK where BBC is far more quilitative than any private television.

 

http://www.nbc.com/nbc/Late_Night_with_Conan_O'Brien/video/triumph.shtml

I'm kinda partial to the Hollywood Squares appearance myself, but yes - the Star Wars premier is awesome.

 

@Laches: I don’t know that anyone is calling Conan a hate-monger; its just that we don’t want the Quebec issue to resurface. And while a lot of Canadians question whether Toronto really was in need of public funds to recover from SARS, that really wasn’t the issue here.

@JSBB:

Well, there’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Air Farce, and Rick Mercer. But these shows all poke fun at the government.

 

no we don't. we have state financed TV channels and private ones and there is a big difference between state financed and government controlled TV stations. and yes there is, ad least in Denmark a difference between state and government.

 

I don't think that the skit was driven by hate, but ignorance. Even Howard Stern had the decency to apologize to the French of Quebec for equating them to French from France and slandering them. Conan should apologize, as he would had he offended the black/gay/Muslim/etc communities in the U.S.

Think about the CBC like you would PBS, except mildly less lame, and without the pledge break... They've modernized and now have commercials.

 

from the article:

*Shrug, close enough.

I saw a Canadian comic talking about this while in the auto shop and his response was: "For a nation that has produced so many great comics, you'd think we'd have a better sense of humor."

 

Please, NEVER take seriously anything said by a member of the NDP or anyone who supports the NDP.

Alexa McDonough may think that she can boost her party's popularity by coming out with outrageous statements like that but the Canadian public certainly does not feel that way.

Sure, I would agree that the material in question was in poor taste but no one in their right mind (which I would say excludes anyone who is a member of the NDP ) would call it hate-mongering.

 

He didn't apologize yet? I though he did...

Couldn't agree more

What?! He was just insulting people for nothing? Why would he do that? It's not because they don't speak english that they should be mistreated.

Of course it will! But not before 2008 as That dorks Jean Charest is at the power for now... He has done so many stupid thing to the province.