{"id":2617,"date":"2010-03-11T23:57:52","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T03:57:52","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-11-18T12:26:31","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T16:26:31","slug":"canada-land-of-funny-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/canada-land-of-funny-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada: Land of Funny People With Surprisingly Few Funny Bands?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k5YIJ1pZEBc?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nI must ask one of those questions that seems really dumb but may possibly demonstrate the sort of rock insight that&#8217;s characteristic of our special powers as Townspeople:<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<em>Beside <strong>Barenaked Ladies<\/strong>, has Canada produced any <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/title_11\">humor-centric<\/a> bands?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This question came to me as I watched an <em>SCTV<\/em> special on my local public television station, which is in fundraising season. I was thinking about all the great Canadian comedians and cool musical parodies that they have done as part of their act, and then it occurred to me that I couldn&#8217;t think of many Canadian bands that have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/survivor_rodney_anonymous_on_humor_and_m\">humor as a central part of their act<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Am I missing someone obvious? I mean, <strong>Neil Young<\/strong> can be funny, but that&#8217;s not anywhere near his defining musical characteristic. <strong>Rush<\/strong> is very funny, but not intentionally so. Where&#8217;s the Canadian <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/the_real_frank_zappa_book\">Frank Zappa<\/a><\/strong>? The Quebecois <strong>They Might Be Giants<\/strong>? The Saskatchewan <strong>Bonzo Dog Band<\/strong>? With the high percentage of funny people in Canada, is it simply a matter of good taste that their citizens steer clear of entering the world of comedy rock, or is the pull of actual comedy so great that the funniest people up north consider rock &#8216;n roll a minor diversion, as a Canadian hockey fan might consider taking in an occasional <strong>Toronto Blue Jays<\/strong> game?<\/p>\n<p>Or am I not thinking of a dozen Canadian bands that center their act around their sense of humor?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I must ask one of those questions that seems really dumb but may possibly demonstrate the sort of rock insight that&#8217;s characteristic of our special powers as Townspeople:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[121],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}