Sorry, We're Funny

The definitive history of the world’s most polite revolution: how Canadian comics took over the comedy world.

“Canada is chock-full of broadcasting talent but hasn’t a comedian worth his salt.”

Those were the words of the first Canadian Radio Commissioner echoing a near universal sentiment throughout most of the twentieth century: Canadians simply weren’t that funny. They were too deferential, too serious, too Canadian to be funny. And yet, behind their polite exterior, Canadians were pioneering modern comedy.

In the US, they built the first Hollywood studios, produced the first comedy films and trained scores of burgeoning comedy directors, writers and actors. “You can hardly move about Hollywood and Manhattan without bumping into Canadians,” wrote Variety in the 1960s, so ubiquitous were their presence in writers’ rooms, studios and TV boardrooms. It wasn’t that Canada’s comedy diaspora preferred working in the US to Canada—far from it—rather that the lack of opportunity and appreciation in their home country gave them little choice. 

Yet, Canadian comics kept dreaming of a comedy scene they could call their very own. From Vancouver to St. John’s, they began building the country’s comedy infrastructure, independently, one revue, comedy troupe and late-night sketch show at a time. Pushing back against cultural conservatism, media control and national modesty, they were inventing a new kind of comedy—sly, smart and subversive, character-driven and absurdist, and quietly revolutionary. It was distinctly Canadian comedy, homegrown and unfiltered, and it was about to take the comedy world by storm.

Weaving together more than a century of Canadian comedy, Sorry, We’re Funny is the story of how—against all odds—Canada finally discovered its comedic voice.