This Hour Has 22 Superheroes: Prepare to meet Canadian Superheroes!
(No…not Alpha Flight. Or Captain Canuck. And Wolverine is older than Canada so he doesn’t count no matter how much Canadian beer he drinks.)
In the first episode of Super Team Canada in the face of grave world ending danger someone shouts: “Who can save us?”
Classic Saturday Morning Cartoons, right?
To which the humble Canadian Prime Minister responds: “Well for years there have been rumours about some Canadian superheroes…if they do exist…”
Turns out they do exist.
According to the press release from Crave Super Team Canada: “follows six lesser known and underrated Canadian superheroes, tasked with saving the world from giant evil robots, an unemployed octopus, and a seriously needy hardware store clerk.”
Think: Avengers meets SCTV only with…Canadian Superheroes. But this isn’t the Poutine Routine. (Though duh: one of them is called Poutine. And yes he’s a French-Canadian crime-fighter.)
This charismatic cartoon is voiced by Will Arnett, Cobie Smulders and Kevin McDonald. (Kevin voices the PM, Smulders is Niagara Falls an Aquaman type and Arnett is Breakaway a hockey styled Batman whose missing teeth and brain cells in equal amounts.)
Eh…SCTV might not have been a “super” cool comparison. It’s like SCTV… if SCTV reluctantly and accidentally saved the Universe. (Sarcasm is a super power!)
More from Crave: “This campy 10-part, half-hour comedy is Crave’s first-ever original animated series and is created by Emmy®-winning brothers Robert Cohen and Joel H. Cohen. New episodes debut on subsequent Fridays.”
You’d think Joel H. Cohen would be enough but Super Team Canada doesn’t work, eh? At least for the first two episodes the streamer sent me.
On March 22 right before the recent Canadian election Mark Carney released a weird Mike Myers video slash commercial. It was bizarre to fall back on Canada is synonymous with hockey…that’s been a restrictive stereotype with limited appeal.
Most of us (especially immigrants or offspring of immigrants) were only mercifully set free by the (Canadian) emphasis on multiculturalism. (And beautiful pop culture. I’m grateful for pop culture. Even if most of it flows in from America.)
Like I’m totally cool with Mike Myers not living here. Canada could never offer anything close to SNL. (Founded in large part by Lorne Michaels who not only left Toronto but also left the CBC. Again…citizenship is secondary to the size of an impressive creative opportunity.)
Impressively, Mike Myers made the right call. Much like Jim Carrey and Martin Short. You hadda get out of Canada in that era. (Probably still do. Sullivan’s Crossing isn’t exactly setting the world on fire.)
(As wacky as the Canadian political ad was, it wasn’t exactly a fresh political issue. It’s all old hat. The Myers-Carney commercial is no different than George Clooney, who hosted a Biden fundraiser. Or Zachary Levi supporting Trump etc. It’s all exactly like celebrities and sports teams. Kevin Hart cheers Philly but lives in LA. And even though I felt the hockey bit was screwy, the political ad seemed to resonate. I get it: lots of Canadians still like hockey. However, equally true is lots don’t.)
It’s all annoying. We’re trapped in this irrational overreact to President’s Trump. (Good Gravy: It’s gonna be a long and dumb 4 years.) Truthfully, you can’t Second Cup pop culture. Which now…Super Team Canada is burdened with doing. (It was created at least two years ago but it’s released now. TV viewers are lazy and will carelessly jam it into this current context. If Donald Trump wasn’t President it wouldn’t have half its marketing mojo. (Nor would Crave which keeps running “Proudly Canadian” commercials even though most Canadians just wanna watch House of The Dragon.))
“#BuyCanadian” may function at the grocery store but it cannot be applied to pop culture. Can you imagine how dumb that would be? Don’t read Captain America rather read Captain Canuck. Hell, no. No political movement of any kind is worth that type of pop culture sacrifice.
(Honestly…if Canada wants to create an authentic and impressive separation from America it’ll truly be via UBI. I ain’t interested in the Canada-51st State narrative noise; especially online. UBI would be genuine unification. And preferable to most of this of this flawed and fully phony Canadian solidarity…revoking Musk’s citizenship, loudly cancelling U.S. vacations and disparaging Wayne Gretzky. That’s all we can come up: huffing and puffing and claiming I’m not going to Florida this year? Really? Just worthless. Canada simply needs to nut up; just do UBI already. All this flirting is a waste of time. Don’t talk about it, be about it.)
Also? I’ve no idea what Elbows Up really means. I don’t care either.
When myopia becomes synonymous with solidarity we’re doomed. Every single time, without fail. And that’s my legit concern.
Take away the fumbling solidarity of this current political overreach and honestly…yeah Super Team Canada doesn’t work. It’s the same tired references as the Myers-Carney ad. The Canadian inferiority complex is boring…I’m not willing to sign up for that. The sorry refreain. Most of it fails to create witty comedy friction. Rather check out the cultural comedy product in Conan O’Brien Must Go.
Culture is funny when you accurately point out what we all do here is absurd.
Super Team Canada struggles because it strives to be a reflection for Canadian viewers. It wants to be accepted…which ironically is a core element of the Canadian identity. Can nice guys finish first this one time?
Thing is…I don’t want a mirror…rather give me comedy. Where are the jokes? Mock the culture. Don’t just remix a Canadian collective shorthand.
In a recent interview Cobie Smulders says: “You’d still enjoy watching (Super Team Canada) if you didn’t grow up in Canada, but I think if you grew up in Canada, you would really love it.”
I dunno that’s true. See for yourself…
The 2-episode premiere is streaming on Crave. #SetTheVCR this long weekend.
Sammy Verdict: Cards on the table? White people are gonna dig this show. For the rest of us…it is what it is. I’d rather rewatch the Heritage Minute with Superman.
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
