Controversy in Quebec

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on January 13th, 2009

Comedian George Braithwaite dropped us a line to let us know that a year-end wrap-up show in Quebec, Bye Bye, has stirred up some controversy (and awakened the busy-bodies that hectored comedian Guy Earle) over some comedy sketches that dared to feature U.S. president-elect Barack Obama (and use the controversial word nègre!), but we’re hard-pressed to figure out exactly what’s going on!

Sorting the entire matter out is devilishly complex, as it involves Canadians, French people (who speak French), black people (who speak English and French!), language, mores and humor. And nationalism. And separatism. And pseudo-judicial agencies that like to stick their noses into everyone’s business. Oh, and a wire communications regulator (in this case, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission) that makes the FCC look like the Howard Stern Fan Club.

Without exactly understanding the details, however, we are prepared to come down on the side of the comedians and writers under fire. (Although we’re somewhat disturbed by the side story that has the producer and hostess of the show greenlighting a sketch on Nathalie Simard. That sounds like a clear conflict of interest to us.)

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