Only The Canadians Could Make Spousal Abuse Funny
Domestic violence is no laughing matter. So why do I find myself becoming incontinent while watching these ultra brutal anti-domestic violence PSAs from the Great White North? Am I an asshole? Have I become desensitized to the horrors of the real world? Have I lost my last remaining shred of empathy?
Clearly I have.
Seriously, I thought these were jokes until I read that they had been put out by a Canadian advocacy group called Home Front, whose mission, as best as I can understand it, is to improve upon the work of The Kids in the Hall.
I can clearly envision a mustachioed Scott Thompson sitting at a diner with his two children when suddenly a waitress, played by Mark McKinney in drag, accidentally pours coffee on Thompsons leg. Thompson jumps back from the table, a look of sick rage or painful bowel discomfort crosses his face as he screams You fucking bitch while at the same moment lunging at McKinneys throat. A fracas ensues, which quickly escalates to Thompson pinning McKinney against a table, pouring scalding coffee on his fake bosoms and slapping him. Bloodied, beaten and disheveled, McKinney slides off a tabletop and crumples on the floor. Thompson then dusts himself off, looks at the restaurants gawkers all Canadian Mounties as if to say What? The bitch poured coffee on my Levi’s, and goes back to eating his eggs soaked in maple syrup and chatting with his children about the latest lumberjack competition they saw on TV.
Watch for: A businessman slamming a co-workers head into a boardroom table, pushing her to the ground and then, as a mere afterthought, throwing a stapler at her head. Its a lot funnier than it sounds.
Yes, Im going to hell.
Fantastic blog!
http://www.dynasty-antiques.com
Antiques
I really don’t have the faintest idea.
Stan –
Do they have the Blue Collar Comedy Tour in Canada…?
-ajb
Must … not … throw … stapler.
I do wonder what shows these were played during to get the message to that elusive “wifebeater” demographic.
You know, I’ve decked a few coworkers in my day…but that stapler?
Genius.
-ajb
Now I’ll be thinking about Mark McKinney in drag at random points throughout the afternoon. Eeeesh.
I think they’re funny because you have no idea what the message is until the end. They might even be intended to make you laugh initially, to increase your shame once the punchline kicks in.
PS –
Stapler Fight!!!!
This reminds me of another PSA, this one against marijuana. Perhaps you saw it in the movie theaters a couple years ago. Bunch of guys in a crappy car, getting fast food at the drive-through, hotboxing the car. They show the same scenario and couple of different times and nothing bad happens. At this point I was thinking, “Gee-golly, drugs must not be bad if there are no consequences in a 30 second PSA! Toke it up!”. However, about the 4th/5th time they speed out of the drive-through and the scene cuts to black right before they hit a little girl on a bike. The theater is silent and my friend starts laughing extremely loud. Needless to say I think the message is clear: Little girls shouldn’t ride bikes in front of fast food places! I think that was part of the premise of Super-Size Me, or something…
The ads would be a lot less ridiculous (I grimaced, then laughed one dry, disbelieving, hah?!) if they didn’t feature one-dimensional cartoons of Middlebrow Dad and Know-It-All Office Drone snapping into mock chop-socky. We’ve just met them, and the first thing they do is go completely mental? That’s funny!