Talking to Americans
Talking to Americans was a regular feature presented by Rick Mercer on the Canadian political satire show "This Hour Has 22 Minutes", which was later spun off into a one-hour special that aired on April 1, 2001 on CBC Television. The purpose of the skit was to satirize American lack of awareness about Canada, by interviewing Americans on the street and convincing them to agree with ridiculous statements about their northern neighbour. Mercer freely acknowledged that he did not think Americans were collectively stupid; in an interview on "Nightline", Mercer explained that "I'm just looking  for the short answer. Some people hem and haw and they seem to be on to me, and of course we don't include them... About 80 per cent of the people give me the right answer, by which of course, I mean the wrong answer." He also acknowledged that it would be entirely possible to put together a similar feature getting Canadians to agree on camera to strange statements on topics they knew little about, with the primary difference being that Mercer couldn't do it himself as Canadians would recognize him. In his 2021 memoir "Talking to Canadians , Mercer described the segment as having had its genesis in 1998, when he was in Washington, DC to film an unrelated segment for 22 Minutes". While waiting to begin filming, he met a Capitol Hill staffer whose apparent willingness to talk freely about subjects he didn't actually know anything about led to an impromptu filmed interview in which the staffer was asked questions about a fictional presidential summit between Bill Clinton and Ralph Benmergui, and was successfully convinced by Mercer that Canadians were unfamiliar with the concept of alphabetical order. Content. The intent was to satirize perceived American ignorance  of Canada and the rest of the world. Professors at Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, New York University and Stanford University were consistently fooled by absurdities such as the "Saskatchewan seal hunt". The only Americans who were shown outsmarting Mercer were: a university student who spent her time laughing at him (before finally answering), and a small child who pointed out to his mother, who was also tricked, that Canada had provinces, not states. George W. Bush. The most famous segment, aired in 2000, featured Mercer asking then-presidential candidate George W. Bush – who had previously stated that "you can't  stump me on world leaders" – for his reaction to an endorsement by Canadian Prime Minister "Jean Poutine", which was a play on the name of then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (poutine is an order of French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy). Bush said he looked forward to working together with his future counterpart to the north, praising free trade and Canada. That said, Bush never actually used the name of Poutine and only failed to correct Mercer on the name. A few years later, when Bush made his first official visit to Canada, he joked during a speech , "There's a prominent citizen who endorsed me in the 2000 election, and I wanted a chance to finally thank him for that endorsement. I was hoping to meet Jean Poutine." 2001 special. The special was a co-production between Island Edge (Rick Mercer's production company) and Salter Street Films (at the time the producer of "22 Minutes"). It was produced and directed by Geoff D'Eon, who also produced and directed the segments for "22 Minutes". It used both previously broadcast clips from "22 Minutes", and new material shot exclusively for the special. "Talking to Americans" attracted 2.7 million  Canadian viewers, making it the highest-rated special on Canadian television that year. The show received two Gemini Award nominations at the 16th Gemini Awards in 2001, for Best Music or Variety Program or Series and Best Host in a Variety Program or Series. However, Mercer thought it was inappropriate to make fun of American-Canadian relations so soon after the September 11 attacks, and requested that the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television pull the nominations.