How far can one go with Jian Ghomeshi?
Canadian comedians have been struggling with that for weeks. Had the allegations of abusive behaviour by the former CBC radio host happened in the U.S., Ghomeshi would likely have been roasted by Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman. Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and John Oliver would no doubt have pounced like ravens on road kill.
Canada, however, does not have a daily late night talk show. Many Canadians looked to This Hour Has 22 Minutes to take a topical swipe at the ongoing scandal.
Meeting those expectations has been a challenge, says 22 Minutes executive producer Peter McBain. The first hurdle was timing. Ghomeshi was fired on a Sunday. 22 Minutes tapes Mondays and airs Tuesdays. There was little room to react that first week beyond a couple of jokes at the anchor desk. Besides, at that point, notes McBain, “nobody really knew what the story was.”
Another hurdle was the sensational nature of the situation, including Ghomeshi’s own detailed account of his sex life on Facebook (the radio personality admitted to a proclivity for rough sex but says it is always consensual). McBain says the earlier hour at which 22 Minutes airs limits how far his cast and writers can take their jabs.
Then, of course, there was Ghomeshi’s lawsuit against the CBC (he’s suing the public broadcaster for $55 million). McBain does not come right out and say the scandal was a hot potato but the network’s head of public affairs, Chuck Thompson, indirectly says it for him. “Given the sensitivity around the very serious subject of violence to women,” Thompson replied via email, “that was not a line they were going to cross.”
22 Minutes was left to be responsive and topical but, given the hour, the subject and the legal issues, say almost nothing.
As always, scripts were vetted by CBC officials in Toronto, including legal experts. “They’re our broadcaster and they approve or not approve the show in the end,” says McBain. Notes were exchanged, but “there was never an issued set of guidelines.”
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Halfway through that second show after the scandal broke, 22 Minutes aired a sketch featuring Cathy Jones as elderly “Mrs. Enid.” She appeared to be spouting off about Ghomeshi, but, as anchor Susan Kent explained in the set up, “our lawyers made a few tweaks.” As Enid mouthed “Ghomeshi,” for example, the name “Stuart McLean” — one of CBC radio’s more wholesome hosts — was clumsily inserted. “We wanted to get at the sense that there wasn’t a lot to say comedically,” says McBain.
Perhaps on CBC, or even television, but the Internet is another matter. Jokes about Ghomeshi started turning up on Twitter minutes after the story first broke.
Twitter, in many ways, has replaced the late night talk show monologue in Canada. Comedians seem freer to speak on-line as individuals, and not just in a jokey way. One of the most prominent voices was stand-up comedienne and Spin Off host Elvira Kurt, who posted her feelings of anger and betrayal as a frequent Q radio guest on Facebook. Another has been Steven Kerzner, the voice and hand behind Ed the Sock. His Facebook rant about Ghomeshi (“he just oozed smug”) passed three million page views within a couple of days and was picked up on mainstream media.
“It’s fair game,” says Kerzner about goofing on sensitive topics. “The idea that every other art form is free to comment on a tragedy is nonsense.” Jokes, he feels are “absolutely as legitimate as an op-ed page or any other activist showing their outrage. This how we show our outrage.”
“We Canadians, we went almost right away to the heart of the issue,” says Howard (Humble) Glassman, celebrating 25 years as half of the radio and now Internet duo “Humble & Fred.” Although Glassman admits he was on the air the next day using “Ghomeshi” as an adverb, “so many people started immediately feeling empathy for his alleged victims that we sort of by-passed the humour thing.”
Mike Bullard, who hosted the nightly Canadian talk show Open Mike and is now heard daily on Toronto radio’s Newstalk 1010, says it’s never too soon to tackle sensitive issues. Bullard says he would have walked out as soon as the story broke clutching a teddy bear, a reference to the “Big Ears Teddy” doll Ghomeshi allegedly turned to the wall during sexual encounters. “I think this guy’s ripe for the taking,” says Bullard, adding that jokes give more power to those who were allegedly victimized.
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Ghomeshi is now the subject of a police investigation as authorities look into complaints of physical or sexual assault by three women. None of the allegations has been proven.
The question of when is it “too soon” was raised again just recently after Chris Rock dared joke about the Boston Marathon bombings on Saturday Night Live. Joking when victims are involved seems to be a leveller. “Satirists and comedians who do topical humour have to be ahead of the curve,” says Don Ferguson, founding member and producer of The Royal Canadian Air Farce, but if you’re too far ahead you lose touch with the audience and they don’t get the joke. In fact, they might turn on you.”
Ferguson says there are no rules about when it’s OK to speak out that he’s ever been able to discern. Over their years on TV and radio, he and his colleagues “agonized” over when to weigh in on things like the Ben Johnson steroid scandal and the death of Princess Diana.
“Audiences expect their satirists and comedians to take the first steps towards healing,” he believes,” and if you’re a TV series they tune in eagerly anticipating how you’re going to handle it, what you’re going to say. Our live studio audience was a surrogate for the larger television audience, and if they didn’t laugh at our attempts, we didn’t put it on the air. This was our modus operandi every week for everything we did throughout our entire career.”
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