Oh Canada, I love you!

I believe it all started in 2001, after September 11. While everyone was feeling patriotic and wanting to defend our country, and destroy the enemy, I felt like we were all lied to. Since I can remember the United States has had a conflict with someone or another and our fears were always quelled with a boisterous, pride filled speech about how our country was the safest on this planet and how no one could ever invade us and take our freedom, we would crush them before the invasion hit the news. Well, did we?

Shortly after September 11 I moved to Michigan, a stones throw from the fabled land I wish to be, yet my adoration for Canada didn't start until a few months later. Living in Michigan afforded me not only cable access, which I never had in Indiana, but that cable access afforded me CBC, an obviously Canadian channel. Although I didn't see many shows that I attached to, CBC did give me a daily dose of one of my favorite Canadian shows, The Red Green Show.

I only knew about The Red Green Show from the American PBS networks, which will show good shows and then months later take them off and replace them with a beg-a-thon so you can continue to enjoy the show they were previously showing without issue. But with CBC giving me a daily, instead of bi-monthly, dose of Red Green, I was happy. Not only that but thankfully Comedy Central -back when it was FUNNY- introduced me to five canucks that opened an even deeper love for their country.

Even today I watch Kids in the Hall and admire its gritty, 1990s feel. As decades pass things usually don't shine as brightly as they once did, but in my personal opinion thats not true with Kids in the Hall. The jokes are still as sharp as a tack, the gritty SD presentation of the show transports me to Canada circa 1995, where I probably should have been, and even with Death Comes to Town I still feel that deep, genuine KITH experience.

In February 2004 I moved back to Indiana and lost my privileges of CBC and was once again reduced to PBS for my sometimes -whenever we feel like it- Red Green fix. Long ago Comedy Central had removed anything funny from their schedules and Kids in the Hall was probably first to have been axed. But this gave way to having BBC, which introduced me to Monty Python, another comedy troupe I adore, yet their humor doesn't quite last as long as Kids in the Hall, at least not for me.

I was completely lost without Canadian humor, in fact, living strictly with PBS, I saw the last episode of The Red Green Show 4 years!!!!!! after it originally aired! But in the complete bemusement that was the year 2009 for me, I would be awarded a companion to accompany me through the haze and come out the other side much, much stronger. Like a light from pitch blackness came Trailer Park Boys, again a series that had ended well before I even knew about it, and from episode one I was hooked!

Now I've spoken my piece on Trailer Park Boys here before and I don't need to speak much about how I feel again, I'm merely mentioning it here to cover the fact that it is ingrained deeply within my life as a part of who I am, as are the other two shows I mentioned above. I simply can't explain it, but there is definitely something different about Canada that draws me in, deeper than staying where I am. I wish I could elaborate on it, but it eludes even myself.

I don't even have a TV, apart from using it strictly for video games, so I can't watch anything in particular. When I do I have to watch it online, which are either one of the three shows I mentioned before, or Adult Swim cartoons. There is simply nothing on American Television, cable or otherwise, that interests me in the least.

Without a doubt The Red Green Show, Kids in the Hall and Trailer Park Boys have shaped my sense of humor, my wit and me as a person. I feel as though in a sense I am part Canadian, as I was raised by those shows. Maybe someday I will truly be Canadian, but for now I'm just fine on the outside looking in.