I’m sad to say I’m a bad Quebecer (or, should I say, a bad québécois). I don’t watch Tout le monde en parle, I rarely flick by the local French-language TV stations unless there’s big local news, and I don’t read La Presse or the Journal de Montréal regularly. As a result, I’m missing out on an entire culture going on around me. I have only vague ideas of these shows, these personalities.
So, as I sit here watching 110% (I know, I know, but hockey’s my thing), I’m discovering, for the first time, the group Rock et Belles Oreilles. For those like me who hadn’t heard of them, they’re a 25-year-old sketch-comedy group whose members include the strangely-bearded Guy A. Lepage.
Their videos, most of which are from their 25th anniversary last year, are all over YouTube. Since I’m a media buff, I’ll highlight some that deal with the local French-language media:
- École de radio-poubelle trash-radio du Québec
- Tout le monde en bave
- Le journal de mourial
- TVA (Michéguénard… àottawa)
I read La Presse almost everyday, along with the Gazette and the Globe. (What I read depends entirely on what is available at my local cafe.) Occasionally I watch the Téléjournal on Radio-Canada.
But why on earth would I watch Tout le monde en parle? I don’t watch whatever the equivalent show is in English. (Is there even an English equivalent?)
I do, however, watch unhealthy amounts of MusiquePlus.
Chris, I’d say that there’s no equivalent to Tout le monde in English for the simple fact that there’s no equivalent star system in English Canada. Talk shows of various kinds have tried and failed because people just weren’t interested in watching Ralph Benmergui (sp?) make small talk with Cynthia Dale, or Mike Bullard kibbitz with Wendel Clark.
And I think the public was right to vote as they did with their eyeballs.
I’m with Chris on the media issues – I read the online versions of La Presse, Le Devoir and what there is of the Journal on Canoë daily, for my blog. But TV is another matter. I don’t have a TV, and rarely have had one as an adult. So I can see how these RBO clips are funny, but I’m often aware the comedy’s lost on me because they’re spoofing some other TV personality. (The same thing would happen if I watched most English-language TV though, whether Canadian, US or UK.)
Incidentally, Rock et Belles Oreilles comes from the French name for Huckleberry Hound, Roquet Belles-Oreilles.