Worthwhile Canadian Initiative

I haven't seen the show so I won't join in the mockery, but I'm wondering if fans of the 1/2 Hour News Hour recognize that the title joke is stolen from the Canadian news satire show This Hour Has 22 Minutes?

2/24/07 1:48PM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

I did see the Fox show. I wonder if it'll last long enough for the people at This Hour Has 22 Minutes to mock them on the air for the obvious crib.

Posted by: JS on February 24, 2007 02:18 PM

props for the kinsley allusion in the header.

Posted by: Conor Clarke on February 24, 2007 02:27 PM

I used to watch the Rick Mercer version of This Hour when I got Canadian channels on my cable system, but The Half-Hour Comedy Hour was what I assumed it was ripping off.

Posted by: Aaron S. Veenstra on February 24, 2007 02:35 PM

Since I love nothing more than talking about Canadian media, I have to point out that "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" was itself a satirical allusion to an old CBC weekly news show, "This Hour has Seven Days." That was back in the day, when a news show was a bunch of balding white guys chain-smoking, and asking high-level pols questions that were actually hard, and then asking follow-ups when the pols tried to dodge.

Posted by: Scott E. on February 24, 2007 02:42 PM

Right -- 22 Minutes's title is a reference not only to This Hour has Seven Days but also to the old flagship CBS nightly news program, The National, which famously used to show 22 straight minutes of news without commercial interruption starting at 10 p.m., before seguing (after an ad break) into The Journal, hosted for many years by Barbara Frum, sister of noted wingnut import David Frum.

Posted by: Ryan on February 24, 2007 02:49 PM

Does no one remember MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour?

Posted by: Dan on February 24, 2007 03:13 PM

Whoops... I mean, other than Aaron S. Veenstra?

Posted by: Dan on February 24, 2007 03:15 PM

A long time ago, when the BBC had only two tv channels, one night a week it had the Nine O'Clock news on BBC1 competing with Not The Nine O'Clock News on BBC2.

Posted by: ndm on February 24, 2007 03:26 PM

Barbara Frum is actually to blame for David Frum, since she's his mother, not sister.

Posted by: 3pointshooter on February 24, 2007 03:51 PM

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember there was a Smothers Brothers show (or a spin off?) back in the seventies called the Half Hour Comedy Hour. Anyone else old enough to remember?

Posted by: Terry on February 24, 2007 04:01 PM

The 1/2 hour news hour has fans?

Posted by: Freddie on February 24, 2007 04:04 PM

Clearly if we're all just patient and let it Build An Audience it will one day be as successful as Air America because there are no formats conservatives or liberals can't excel at.

Posted by: Linus on February 24, 2007 04:48 PM

I grew up watching The National and The Journal, back in the Knowelton Nash/Barbara Frum days. That was some gooood news-watchin'

Posted by: Scott E. on February 24, 2007 05:27 PM

Would the fans of the 1/2 Hour News Hour recognize Canada on a map?

Posted by: JMo on February 24, 2007 05:33 PM

I figured that it's been a running joke for awhile; see, e.g., "Yo momma's so stupid, that it takes her an hour to cook minute rice."

Posted by: anonymous on February 24, 2007 05:55 PM

Another Canadian chiming in here: I've read somewhere (Mordecai Richler?) that "worthwhile Canadian initiative" originally comes from an informal competion among London _Times_ reporters, back in the 1950s. The goal? to come up with the most boring possible headline. The winner? "Small Earthquake in Asia; Not Many Killed." The runner-up? The phrase in question....

Posted by: nick on February 24, 2007 10:35 PM

the title joke is stolen from the Canadian news satire show

It's not theft, it's homage: you know how much conservatives love Canada.

Posted by: RSA on February 25, 2007 10:15 AM

Kinsley doesn't get priority for this one. But I believe he was the one who named "Canada: Our Troubled Neighbor (sic.) to the North" as the article more people want to write than read.

Posted by: Pithlord on February 25, 2007 06:50 PM

I do indeed remember the half hour comedy hour on MTV, circa 1989. As Gilbert Godfried would ask, "If it's half ours.... who owns the other half?"

Posted by: landis on February 26, 2007 12:16 AM

Barbara Frum is actually to blame for David Frum, since she's his mother, not sister.

Oops -- dumb error by me. Thanks 3pointshooter.

Posted by: Ryan on February 26, 2007 08:25 AM

The Fox News "comedy" program may be an indirect rip-off of "This Hour has 22 Minutes," but it's a direct rip-off of The Half-Hour Comedy Hour.

I mean, direct. Blatant. They should get sued.

This is a comedy show, and they can't even think of a new name? The layers of lameness are boggling.

Posted by: Slippery Pete on February 26, 2007 09:42 AM

It's not a rip-off; it's just a fairly obvious type of joke to make, so a lot of people make it. As the many examples here illustrate. In the greeting card industry, we called something like that "have sim" (i.e., we already have something similar on file).

Posted by: Cowboy Dave on February 26, 2007 12:35 PM

Apparently the female 'anchor' of the Fox show is Canadian, and has actually been on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Posted by: Jon H on February 26, 2007 02:05 PM

"In the greeting card industry..." After that lead-in, I could barely keep reading what for the gravitas. But seriously, what's next? First Conservapedia, the conservative Wikipedia, then this, the conservative Daily Show; next we'll see the conservative Bill Clinton!? Oh, hi there, Rudy, didn't notice you there behind all that shining charisma and exemplary heroism...

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