Canadians take pride in their sketch comedy. We are good at it and we know it. The tradition stretches back into vaudeville, with companies such as The Marks Brothers and the sensational Eva Tanguay and continues through the First World War soldier-troupe The Dumbells, who were a hit in Canada, Britain and on Broadway. In the 1950s and ’60s, Wayne and Shuster’s literate slapstick helped define comedy on both American and Canadian television. In the 1970s, SCTV’s searing parodies set the standard for sketch.
None of these groups, however, had as long a run or as deep an impact on the Canadian sensibility as the Royal Canadian Air Farce. Over the course of four decades this troupe lampooned our national foibles and was a success on both stage and radio. The Air Farce’s CBC television series, launched in 1992, drew more than one million viewers a week, a huge rating for Canada. The cast, which included Roger Abbott, Don Ferguson, Luba Goy and John Morgan, were topical...
Andrew Clark writes the weekly “Road Sage” humour column for The Globe and Mail. He is the director of the Comedy: Writing and Performance program at Humber College.
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