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.
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”.