Ah, the girls. The grilled cheese.

October 22, 2010 6:40 AM

Gordon Pinsent reads Bieber. (slyt)
posted by jimmythefish (29 comments total)

As a clueless American, I'm not sure who this Gordon Pinsent is, but I like him.
posted by ashtabula to opelika at 6:51 AM on October 22, 2010

As a clueless Dutch guy, I'm not sure who this Gordon Pinsent is, but I like him.
posted by DreamerFi at 7:02 AM on October 22, 2010

The great thing about the Rick Mercer show is that there is always a laugh track, so you never need to figure out if he is trying to be funny or not.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:06 AM on October 22, 2010

I really love how all these teen star memoirs and bios all try to reinforce in a hundred ways that the star loves girls. Really just is crazy about girls! Loves 'em. They even got Michael Jackson on the Dating Game in '72.

They're just drop-kicking these kids into a vacuum chamber of blind, histrionic gender conformity before they even know what's what. I'm not saying Justin doesn't like girls, I just think it must do something weird to you to have to announce it constantly, before an audience of gajillions, and to inevitably begin to dread what it would mean if you didn't.
posted by hermitosis at 7:09 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I just think it must do something weird to you to have to announce it constantly

It becomes less weird when you accept that the way to make money in this business is to sell sex to girls just entering puberty, veiling it behind a mask of purity and wholesomeness (cf. Every teen icon ever). Though surely the ad nauseum repetition of the heteronormative narrative always at play here, you're overthinking their motivations.
posted by Room 101 at 7:20 AM on October 22, 2010 [4 favorites]

A bit of context for the non-Canadians: Gordon Pinsent used to host The Late Show (no, not that one) on CBC Radio. Except instead of eating weird things and throwing objects at people, Pinsent talked about the lives of deceased Canadians whom the producers found "interesting."
posted by Menomena at 7:25 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Everything is better with Pinsent.
posted by aramaic at 7:30 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

You may also know him as Hap Shaughnessy on The Red Green Show.
(Non-Canadians got The Red Green Show, didn't they?)
posted by rocket88 at 7:31 AM on October 22, 2010

This is super great.

rocket88: "You may also know him as Hap Shaughnessy on The Red Green Show."

Yes, I do. Even more awesome.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 7:33 AM on October 22, 2010

Menomena: Thank you.

rocket88: Only if we lived close enough to the border to get CBC, I think.
posted by maryr at 7:42 AM on October 22, 2010

Gordon Pinsent? He was in Blackula!
posted by pracowity at 7:43 AM on October 22, 2010

It's been done.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:45 AM on October 22, 2010

A bit of context for the non-Canadians: Gordon Pinsent used to host The Late Show (no, not that one) on CBC Radio. Except instead of eating weird things and throwing objects at people, Pinsent talked about the lives of deceased Canadians whom the producers found "interesting."

While this is accurate, it's a bit like saying that Orson Welles "was known as the voice of Unicron in Transformers: The Movie."
posted by Shepherd at 8:00 AM on October 22, 2010 [10 favorites]

While this is accurate, it's a bit like saying that Orson Welles "was known as the voice of Unicron in Transformers: The Movie."

You must mean overlooking the "we will sell no wine before its time." Got it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:32 AM on October 22, 2010

Haha fair enough Shepherd. I figured the connection was worth mentioning since he's reading memoirs. It's possible the 22 Minutes producers were inspired by the CBC series to make this skit. Okay, fine, maybe a stretch, but it sounded a lot more linky linked in my head.
posted by Menomena at 8:38 AM on October 22, 2010

For those of you who remember Due South, Gordon Pinsent also played (the ghost of) the Mountie's father.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:01 AM on October 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

Gordon Pinsent? He was in Blackula!

8O
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:28 AM on October 22, 2010

This reminds me of the video of Bea Arthur giving a reading from Pamela Anderson's novel. How can a combination that seems so wrong in theory feel so right in practice?
posted by orange swan at 10:42 AM on October 22, 2010

I have worked damn hard to NOT know what the hell a "bieber" is but based on the humor he shows here, this Gordon Pinsent fellow looks like the kind of guy I ought to be more familiar with.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:12 AM on October 22, 2010

I'd rather watch Bieber try to read Buber.
posted by jonmc at 1:36 PM on October 22, 2010

This is far more awesome than I expected. But I must warn the honourable member for Moose Falls of the fate that befell Pierre Berton* barely a month after this skit on the Rick Mercer Report.

* - died peacefully of old age
posted by evilcolonel at 3:38 PM on October 22, 2010

Gordon Pinset is like a Canadian Lorne Greene.
posted by GuyZero at 5:12 PM on October 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

Except he never hot his nipple bitten off by an alligator.

Oh yes. That happened to Lorne Green.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:26 PM on October 22, 2010

They're just drop-kicking these kids into a vacuum chamber of blind, histrionic gender conformity before they even know what's what. I'm not saying Justin doesn't like girls, I just think it must do something weird to you to have to announce it constantly, before an audience of gajillions, and to inevitably begin to dread what it would mean if you didn't.

I dunno, most teenage guys aren't exactly shy about their love of girls.
posted by delmoi at 5:35 PM on October 22, 2010

As a Canadian, I have met Gordon Pinsent, and he is a lovely (and very short) man. And this made me laugh.
posted by Hildegarde at 7:16 PM on October 22, 2010

I know Gordon Pinsent, loved him in Due South and Red Green, but... who's this Bieber guy?

Seriously, my husband just randomly surprised me a few weeks ago with Due South (all of it!) on DVD and made me squee in delight.
posted by booksherpa at 7:25 PM on October 22, 2010

But I must warn the honourable member for Moose Falls of the fate that befell Pierre Berton* barely a month after this skit on the Rick Mercer Report.

But I must warn anyone with even a smidgen of empathy of the fate that befell Pierre Berton barely a minute into this Cuisinart cooking demo on 90 Minutes Live with Peter Gzowski* (which I still think was the true inspiration for this several months later).

* I saw this live. The horror, the horror.
posted by maudlin at 8:10 PM on October 22, 2010

If you really want to love Gordon Pinsent, see Away from Her.
posted by orange swan at 6:12 AM on October 23, 2010

I saw this live. The horror, the horror.

I heard some people watched 90 Minutes Live, but I never thought I'd meet one.
posted by evilcolonel at 8:27 AM on October 23, 2010