Rick Mercer's 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. 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 doing the feature.

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.

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).

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