Blame Canada
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"Blame Canada" is a song from the film (by Trey Parker & Marc Shaiman), in which the fictional parents of South Park decide to blame Canada for the trouble their children have been getting into since watching the Canadian-made fictional movie Terrance and Phillip: Asses of Fire. The parents refuse to accept that by not preventing their children from watching Terrance and Phillip in the first place, they are themselves to blame for their children's misbehavior. Thus the South Park film satirizes scapegoating, and in an interesting twist, the reactions the creators of South Park expected to receive from the very movie the song was featured in.
The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song, creating controversy because all nominated songs are traditionally performed during the Oscar broadcast, but the song contained the word "fuck". Comedian Robin Williams performed the song with chorus girls who gasped when the word was to be sung (Williams turned around at the crucial moment, and did not actually sing it). Mary Kay Bergman, the voice actress who sang the female parts in the song, was originally supposed to perform, but she committed suicide weeks before.
There was also some concern about the fact the song referred to well-known Canadian singer Anne Murray as a "bitch", but Murray indicated that she wasn't offended by the tongue-in-cheek lyric. (Murray was even invited to sing the song herself on the Oscar telecast, but had to decline due to a prior commitment.) When asked, the Canadian Consul General (and former Prime Minister) Kim Campbell noted that she was not offended by the song since it was clearly a silly satirical song not intended to insult her country.
Ironically, the Canadian Oscar telecast in which Robin Williams sang the song included the premiere of the famous I Am Canadian rant commercial, which counters many perceived Canadian stereotypes.
Lyrics
(spoken)Sheila Broflofski:Parents, our children are out of control. This is what happens when toilet humor is allowed to run rampant.
Sharon Marsh:That's right. Kenny set himself on fire because he saw Terrence and Phillip do it in that dirty movie.
Sheila Broflofski:We must stop dirty language from getting to our children's ears. We must go fight the source of it.
Woman:But what is the source?
Sheila Broflofski:Oh, that's easy.
(sung)
Times have changed
Our kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents
They just want to fart and curse
Should we blame the government?
Or blame society?
Or should we blame the images on TV?
No, blame Canada blame Canada
With all their beady little eyes
And flapping heads so full of lies
Blame Canada blame Canada
We need to form a full assault
It's Canada's fault!
Don't blame me
For my son Stan
He saw the darn cartoon
And now he's off to join the clan
And my boy Eric once
Had my picture on his shelf
But now when I see him he tells me to fuck myself
Well, blame Canada blame Canada
It seems that everything's gone wrong
Since Canada came along
Blame Canada blame Canada
They're not even a real country anyway
My son could've been a doctor or a lawyer rich and true
Instead he burned up like a piggy on the barbecue
Should we blame the matches?
Should we blame the fire?
Or the doctors who allowed him to expire?
Heck no!
Blame Canada blame Canada
With all their hockey hullabaloo
And that bitch Anne Murray too
Blame Canada
Shame on Canada
For...
The smut we must stop
The trash we must bash
The Laughter and fun
Must all be undone
We must blame them and cause a fuss
Before someone thinks of blaming us
Political context
"Blame Canada" has also become an expression used in Canada to describe the American tendency to blame Canada for problems. For example, some Americans believe the terrorists behind the September 11, 2001 attacks entered the US from Canada, although it is evident that they did not . Power officials in the State of New York, as well as New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, initially said the cause of the 2003 North America blackout was in Canada , but it turned out to be in Ohio . Fox News anchor and journalist Bill O'Reilly has said in the past that Canada's social liberalism played a part in what he termed the "secular humanist War on Christmas".References
See also
External Links
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