WSFF09 Oh! Canada: Canadian Comedy Shorts program preview

Oh! Canada. My home and not so native land. Oh how you make me laugh and titter. Is it no wonder that one of our chief exports are comedians. We are so selfless when it comes to our comedy that we just have to share it with the rest of the world so we send out these comedy ambassadors in hopes that we can teach the world to laugh. And the depth of our comedic talent is on full display in the Oh! Canada: Canadian Comedy Shorts program playing on Saturday, June 20th at the ROM.

Personally I thought the program started slow but it picked up speed after the first three shorts and really paid off by the end. But comedy is fairly subjective and some of you may enjoy all or some of the program. You won't know unless you buy tickets and check them out for yourself.

The Green Film – Damn you hippies! Stop messing around with our films! It is no coincidence that this short was made at Bridge Studios near the heart of Vancouver, the Canadian Mecca of Hippiedom. But a director gets more than he bargains for as he tries to make the greenest movie possible. Sometimes you cannot sacrifice everything for the sake of art. Lexa Doig, the best thing from sci-fi show Andromeda stars as, well, the star of the film inside the film. Sigh.

Walk the Dog – Viewers will instantly recognize BEING ERICA's Erin Karpluk in this quick short about dudes and the difference between cats and dogs. Amusing at best. Not the strongest of the bunch. meh.

P.M.O – Though Canadian comedians have never been afraid to take shots at our elected officials after watching a series like The Thick of It from England political satire by any other name just has not had the same bite. Until now. Not as vicious as the famed Britcom but this comes pretty darn close to capturing that same spirit.

Robots – The first of two shorts submitted by our famous Second City troupe here in Toronto. Two robots on a factory assembly line experience a breach in protocol and the sparks begin to fly. This short marked a turnaround in the overall program for me. The shorts and the humour began to improve greatly after this one.

Catalog- In the spirit of Douglas Coupland filmmaker Blair Fukurama takes a look at Canadian culture through the pages of Sears catalogues from the 1970s and turns it into a message about isolation in our culture, yesterday and today. We may have escaped the pages of the annual Christmas Wish catalogue but we can never escape ourselves.

Deadspiel – I first saw this short back in October at TADFF and at the time I thought there was nothing more Canadian than making a zombie short film in a curling rink. It is still pretty darned funny and rewarding for fans of zombie and comedy films. A true Canadian Zom-Com!

Heroes – The second short film from the troupe at Second City is even better than the first. This short is much, much funnier with a tighter script and funnier premise. Three employees wish and dream certain death on their manager – and who hasn`t –each time coming up with more devious methods to kill him.

Air Knob – Continuing to add on the funny this short sees two air guitarists battle it out for neighbourhood supremacy. Who will win? The sweet natured folk guy? Or. Metal dude. Attention all groupies, you`re going to want to watch this one; you`ll likely change your mind about which bands you`re seeing the next weekend you`re out on the town. Keep an eye out for the Dramatization. It will explain everything. Funny, and... revealing.

Captain Coulier [Space Explorer] – Nice. I got to watch this Canadian take on space exploration once again. A really, really funny short from Ryerson University here in the T.O. This slacker sci-fi with a true Canadian mentality towards space exploration is very well written. Catch it here or in the Sci-Fi Out There program. Hell, catch it twice!

The Catsitter – A single man leaves his mother and cat in the care of the less than desirable tenant who is living in their basement. While he is on a trip to Northern Ontario to meet the woman he has been chatting up on the internet he starts getting phone calls from this tenant about the pet cat Miffles. Hilarity ensues and I could not imagine a better punch line to end this funny program than the one at the end of this short.