Conan O’Brien impugns the dignity of French-Canadians:
- Ottawa and the province of Ontario paid $760,000 to help O’Brien — who appears on the NBC television network — bring his show to Toronto for a week to boost the city’s profile after a deadly SARS outbreak last year.
But the federal government said O’Brien had gone far too far with the show broadcast on Thursday in which he went to Quebec, a province which has had separatist governments for much of the last 20 years and is a delicate political topic in Canada.
“We want to disassociate ourselves from the comments which were broadcast last night because we do not support them in any way,” junior government minister Mauril Belanger told Parliament.
At one point in the show, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog — a hand puppet that is a regular on the show — said to a Quebecer: “You’re French, you’re obnoxious and you no speekay English.” It told another: “I can smell your crotch from here.”
O’Brien’s team were also shown replacing street signs in the province with those that read “Quebecqueer Street” and “Rue des Pussies.” [Reuters]
I have heard rumors that not every single French-Canadian is smelly, obnoxious and gay, but I can’t confirm either way.