Image of the Day: Talking to Americans

Rick Mercer films a segment for Talking to Americans.

The one-hour comedy special, which aired in April 2001, consisted of Mercer interviewing Americans in the street to expose ridiculous degrees of ignorance about Canadian issues.

The special was a spin-off of a segment that had already regularly appeared on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Mercer and his crew headed south to trade quips and quiz unsuspecting Americans at the beach in Miami, the White House in Washington, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the streets of New York City about Canadian politics, culture, current events and public figures. Featuring out-takes and clips from behind-the-scenes, the special relishes in Americans' uncanny ability to go on at great lengths on subjects they know nothing about.

His targets included former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, then Vice President Al Gore, then presidential candidate George W. Bush and numerous professors and students from elite universities, such as Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley and Standford.

The special garnered 2.7 million viewers, making it the highest-rated television special in Canadian history at the time.

Talking to Americans was nominated for a Gemini Award, but in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Mercer declined the nomination, saying that it wasn't the appropriate time to be pointing out the differences between the two countries.

Hear Mercer talk about the special in this exclusive 75th anniversary interview:

Posted on Oct 22, 2011 6:00:00 AM