After the ignominious results of Thursday's show, Conan O'Brien joked that his show was in Toronto "to make Don Cherry look good." For Americans who don't know who Don Cherry is, a word of explanation: Cherry is a fixture on Hockey Night in Canada whose politics would make George W. Bush look liberal. Cherry frequently makes derogatory remarks about European and French players in the NHL, and his bigotry was the source of a recent controversy. Cherry represents himself as a populist and drapes himself in patriotism, and this, combined with his brief stint as an NHL coach many years ago, seem to protect his status as cult hero and hockey world personality. Still, there's no excuse for his bigotry being protected by the strong ratings of Hockey Night in Canada, and his portion of the show, Coach's Corner.
It's a real shame that Thursday's show included a hateful piece of "comedy" aimed at anti-French sentiments in the United States, because the rest of the week was fairly successful. On Friday, Jim Carrey wed his zany antics with some obscure Canadiana like The Amazing Kreskin and Bonhomme. Carrey probably should have been given both guest spots, rather than put Eric McCormack through the unenviable task of following Carrey. McCormack tried, and he had some prepared material, but following Carrey on one of these shows is an impossible feat. Carrey even returned to "play" (looked more like "hump") the bongos during the closing credits.
A videotaped segment involving Conan working as a mountie at the Niagara Falls border was funny. Once again, I had to wince because they filmed the segment on one of the few days southern Ontario has received heavy snowfall this winter. But, oh well, what can you do.
I have to wonder how the whole thing might have been different if Conan had tried to engage Canadian culture honestly, and not through cliched stereotypes known to American audiences? The stereotypes are funny, sure, but the proceedings felt almost too conservative. There were acts from Western Canada (Nickelback), Eastern Canada (Ron James), and several from Ontario. Noticeably absent was anything from Quebec, except for the idiotic Triumph skit. The icons were all there: the mountie, hockey players fighting, a moose caller, and plenty of snow. Almost makes me want to break out my copy of Strange Brew (but that doesn't require a reason, eh).
I'm almost proud that some new stereotypes of Canada figure the country as socially progressive. O'Brien used several pot jokes and references to gay marriage. I can only hope the country continues to promote progressive politics. Hopefully in ten years O'Brien returns with jokes about corporate accountability and environmental protectionism.
1:53:54 AM 
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