It’s something I started noticing recently in some standup and improv shows in Toronto, not sure if it’s a new trend, or it just more noticeable now. Here are some examples I remember:
- Jokingly asking audience for their social security number. This happened in two different shows
- “I’ve been on dating apps for a presidential term”
- I heard zip code being mentioned in one act
- A performer shouting “fuck ICE”. This was not even part of any joke, just a political statement. While I sympathize, of all the scourges of the US this one is really domestic in nature and I don’t get the point bringing it up in front of a Canadian audience (unless it’s part of your set)
- And not to mention using their units of measurement, which is unfortunately commonplace (thanks a lot Brian Mulroney)
Other than the “fuck ICE” performer who said about themselves that they are Turkish (which I took to mean Turkish-Canadian, but maybe I’m wrong), the others were Canadian-born. In all cases these were young people who I don’t believe do comedy professionally.
I have nothing against American comedy, but this low key pretense that Canada is part of the US irks me.
Americanisms have been creeping into the language for ever.
Both of my parents were veterans and the pronunciation of lef-tennant was drilled into me from a young age. I didn’t know any other word for a chesterfield until I was in school. We wore running shoes and drank pop. Sofa, sneakers, sofa were instant marks of an American books and teachers would comment to point out what the Canadian term was.
That’s all gone now I guess.
We have those same regional dialects in America as well, that’s not an Americanism. Soda vs pop, running shoes vs sneakers. Chesterfield is new to me, I’d just call it a couch, but sofa is also largely used. That’s just regional, more of a west coast/east coast thing.
The examples in the post are definitely more fitting of being called Americanisms.
I know about the American regionalisms.
It feels like those are disappearing as well. “Sneaker” and 'sofa" are media defaults now.
The language maps were always interesting to me. I lived in L.A. for around a decade and all the names for a long sandwich was amazing. Submarine where I grew up. But I know there were lots of others lol.
Edited because autocorrect decided that “feels like” means “feels love me”.
It’s been happening since the revolutionary war, basically. Otherwise we’d sound Australian or South African.
Do kids say sneakers instead of trainers now?
Never heard “running shoes”, but I still hear the term “runners” here and there. Rare that I hear people say “sneakers”, but I’m not a sporty person.