 right|thumb|550px|talking to americans logo, based on the opening of this hour has 22 minutes. this is the five images shown in this order that represents the feature. talking to americans was a regular feature presented by rick mercer on the canadian political satire show this hour has 22 minutes. it was later spun off into a one-hour special that aired on april 1, 2001 on cbc television. it consisted of interviewing americans on the street and convincing them to agree with ridiculous statements, amongst others, about their northern neighbour. it uses clips from 22 minutes and exclusive clips for this special, which was shown to the studio audience of 22 minutes. talking to americans was nominated for a gemini award, but following the 9/11 attacks mercer declined the nomination and decided to stop the show. == content== the intent was to satirize perceived american ignorance of canada and the rest of the world. right|thumb|rick mercer ran the talking to americans interviews *persuading americans to congratulate canada on legalizing vcrs or adopting the 24-hour day (ex-iowa governor tom vilsack was fooled by this one). *various political controversies involving one or more canadian provinces. *discussion of then-prime minister of canada jean chretien, such as claiming that he was canada's first asian prime minister or that he just achieved a rare political feat called a "double double" in which he received support from both sides of the canadian parliament. mercer fooled american tv personalities david hasselhoff and jerry springer into believing that chretien was a small-town mayor who just issued a proclamation to them, while mercer introduced himself as a journalist named "jean chretien" to game show host louie anderson, who failed to note the identity of the then-prime minister. in one of the feature's most famous moments, president-to be george w. bush failed to correct mercer when he falsely referred to chretien as "jean poutine" (see below). *congratulating the canadian government on building a dome over its "national igloo" (apparently a downsized version of the united states capitol made out of ice) to protect it from global warming (one of the interview subjects so fooled was former arkansas governor mike huckabee, whom mercer later stated had asked off-camera if this was a "controversial igloo"). *changing the words in the canadian anthem and asking americans to sing it. *congratulating canada for officially joining north america. *congratulating canada for moving the capital city from kingston, ontario to toronto (the actual capital is ottawa, and then-vice president [
CBC_network_shows CanadaaUnited_States_relations Canadian_comedy_television_series Canadian_identity Canadian_television_specials This_Hour_Has_22_Minutes