Y'a un «fuck» qui s'ennuie en maudit..

September 20, 2008 8:12 AM

Culture en péril - In these Canadian election times and in response to the recent Culture cuts from Conservatives - three of the best Quebec talents in music, theater and humor join forces and hit back hard (lol) with a highly satirical imagining of the replacement program (captioned).
posted by zenzizi (18 comments total)

Awesome. I don't know how much of the video will be understandable to non-Canadians, but still.

Awesome.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 9:03 AM on September 20, 2008

I know a guy who until recently was the senior advisor to the culture and heritage/status of women minister. Prior to this, his experience included life guarding and low level temporary clerical/admin work. The way the Conservatives do things is to have people who have no idea about the issues the ministries deal with take the lead. Then they try to cut the "Status of Women" part completely out of the ministry, and make $50 million in cuts.

He got canned before this story broke, but don't worry. A free lobbyist-funded trip to Israel later, and he's on board at Industry Canada advising Prentice..... about..... something.

When it comes to these Conservatives, the easiest answer for these cuts is quite literally that they didn't think about it too hard and probably had no idea what would happen. Plus, they've got to get that money into their new Alberta-based university/think tank. I'm expecting a lot of insightful results to be produced at that school that will explain once and for all how tar sands are a part of this complete breakfast.
posted by Hoopo at 10:12 AM on September 20, 2008

Note: To get the video in English click on the "up arrow" in the lower right corner and select "CC" for closed captioning.

That video is amazing. Has it been aired on tv? I'm out of the province for this election but that's the best damn thing I've seen in a long time and most of my friends back in Montreal are more concerned about the reduction in artist funding than they are in the battle over who's carbon tax is the best.
posted by furtive at 10:30 AM on September 20, 2008

Hilarious! Thank you for this great post.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 10:57 AM on September 20, 2008

Thanks for that, oui, Suck the Canada./
Brill./
posted by alicesshoe at 11:13 AM on September 20, 2008

That was glorious. I hate to think that right now, my french probably sounds like the board's translator, but that's my problem.

Plus, I love Babelfish. From the "join forces" link:

Thus, the “tites businesses” are connected with a song on the “tits” - a vulgar English word to indicate the centres.

Yeah baby. Show me your centres. I wanna play with your middle all night long.
posted by Lemurrhea at 11:14 AM on September 20, 2008

Phoquing hilarious.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:40 AM on September 20, 2008

oh my goodness that was funny. The video that is.

and then I read the babelfish of the article in la presse. I laughed even harder

zenzizi - thank you for a brilliant fpp
posted by seawallrunner at 12:13 PM on September 20, 2008

Yes, I definitely remember us finding "la phoque" hilarious in 7th-grade french class.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 1:20 PM on September 20, 2008

le phoque


Great video, damn I miss Quebec!
posted by bumpkin at 1:22 PM on September 20, 2008

That was excellent.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:51 PM on September 20, 2008

Its premise that Ottawa is filled with unilingual bureaucrats and implication that uptight anglos are picking on the Quebecois sort of dampened my enthusiasm, but still, funny stuff.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 5:18 PM on September 20, 2008

I thought the premise was that the conservatives are a bunch of monolingual uptight arses. Which is at least, you know, factual.
posted by ~ at 6:02 PM on September 20, 2008 [1 favorite]

The way the Conservatives do things is to have people who have no idea about the issues the ministries deal with take the lead.

It's like they're peeking at the USA's test paper. STOP COPYING US.
posted by louche mustachio at 6:43 PM on September 20, 2008 [1 favorite]

Hilarious.

Alvy, ~ is right: I am in Montreal and have read a lot of blogs today and there not the slightest doubt that this is aimed at the Neo-Cons, not the Anglos. The text is only a (very funny) variation of a well documented incident when a program to promote Canadian bands abroad has been abolished and one of the officials mentioned the band Holy Fuck.

The video is surprisingly well done: well written, well produced, well shot. And well thought of. Rumors abound about the identity of the authors but journalists rounding suspects have only obtained "no comment" so far. It looks like major players have been annoyed.

The whole thing seems to be a miscalculation on the Conservative side. 50 millions is peanuts in the federal budget. The cuts in cultural programs were only a gesture to please Alberta's Conservative base. Private polls seemed to indicate that voters in Québec wouldn't care for the artists. Obviously, some people seem to care and made a powerful move, with humor and talent. This is the best political news of these elections.
posted by bru at 7:59 PM on September 20, 2008 [2 favorites]

I thought the premise was that the conservatives are a bunch of monolingual uptight arses. Which is at least, you know, factual.

Well that sucks, it would be nice to have the option of writing a strongly-worded letter of complaint to the Minister of Heritage in either official language. Still, maybe I could write it in French and hope the Minister of La Francophonie is available to translate.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:24 PM on September 20, 2008

>> Excerpts have been shown all day on top TV news - but not broadcasted in its entirety. Huge viral hit tho.

Also - I think it's hilarious to see old federalist tory survivor turned provincial liberal Quebec Prime John James Charest being pushed to making some nationalist juridiction autonomy requests moves on Harper.
posted by zenzizi at 9:12 PM on September 20, 2008

Still, maybe I could write it in French and hope the Minister of La Francophonie is available to translate.

And I'll further concede that Stephen Harper's french has gotten a lot better in the last four years. When I said "the premise was that the conservatives are a bunch of monolingual uptight arses" I was just clarifying what the joke was in the video. And when I subsequently said it was "at least, you know, factual", I was, you know, joking.

(Although it's 100% true.)
posted by ~ at 10:05 AM on September 21, 2008