Blame Canada

The song was Nominated for the Academy Award For Best Song , creating controversy because all nominated songs are traditionally performed during the Oscar broadcast, but the song contained the word " Fuck ". Comedian Robin Williams performed the song with Chorus Girls dressed as Mounties who gasped when the word was to be sung (Williams turned around at the crucial moment, and did not actually sing it). Mary Kay Bergman , the voice actress who sang the female parts in the song, was originally supposed to perform, but she committed Suicide weeks before.

There was also some concern about the fact the song referred to well-known Canadian singer Anne Murray as a "bitch", but Murray indicated that she wasn't offended by the tongue-in-cheek lyric. (Murray was even invited to sing the song herself on the Oscar telecast, but had to decline due to a prior commitment.) When asked, the Canadian Consul General (and former Prime Minister ) Kim Campbell noted that she was not offended by the song since it was clearly a silly satirical song not intended to insult her country.

"Blame Canada" has also become an expression used in Canada to describe the American tendency to blame Canada for problems. For example, some Americans believe the Terrorists behind the September 11, 2001 Attacks entered the US from Canada, although it is evident that they did not. Power officials in the State of New York , as well as New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg , initially said the cause of the 2003 North America Blackout was in Canada, but it turned out to be in Ohio . Fox News anchor and journalist Bill O'Reilly has said in the past that Canada's social liberalism played a part in what he termed the " Secular Humanist War On Christmas ".¹

Ironically, the Canadian Oscar telecast in which Robin Williams sang the song included the premiere of the famous I Am Canadian rant commercial, which counters many perceived Canadian stereotypes.

REFERENCES

SEE ALSO

Scapegoat

Moral Panic

Information About

Blame Canada