Odd bit of information about Wayne & Schuster

[james_davis_nicoll]

They were an iconic comedy team for Canadians of a certain age, despite which as far as I can tell [1], only one DVD's worth of the their material has ever been released. It can't be that they are too dated: I've seen TOPPER episodes on DVD.

1: I was looking for the exact wording on "Don't worry. It's just a bunch of crazies who believe in only one
god. They're just this far away from atheism."

Comments

[jennlk]

Not just Canadians. I remember watching them. (OK, so I live close enough to Canada to get CBC, but still.) Ack. I guess that means I'm 'of a certain age'. Sigh.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly, the specials continued into the 1980s and then when one of them died, the other hosted reruns on CBC in the early 1990s. It's at least _arguable_ that a young person could have seen W&S but I don't if the humour would have been funny to them.

[joenotcharles.livejournal.com]

I was about to say, "Hey, I definitely saw them!" and then I recalled that I'm almost 30.

[le-trombone.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'll be 48 in a couple of months. I remember discussing some of the jokes with my grandfather, who emmigrated from "Canader" (a W&S punchline) during the Depression.

Oddly enough, I think I watched more CBC (channel 9 out of Windsor) than he did.

[chromeraven.livejournal.com]

I'm 24, and I definitely remember seeing W&S and finding it hilarious, even back in my horrible teen stage. Mind you, I was somewhat more interested in literature and history than what I'd call the average, even back then, so I may be off the center of the curve.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

I find the reruns funny (whereas, say, SCTV leaves me scratching my head).

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Apparently a lot SCTV was based on CKCO, which happens to be one of the two channels we got when I was a kid.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Wayne and Schuster were one of the weirder choices that the Irish TV network, RTE, imported in the 80s and played at random hours for no discernable reason. Not that I can remember much of their work, but I do remember seeing them.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

In my experience "TV series played for no discernable reason" generally means that it was cheap or if in Canada, that it satisfied CanCon requirements.

[le-trombone.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the reason I heard Anne Murray over and over on CKLW.

[(Anonymous)]

I also have some faint memeories of some of their stuff shown
on German TV (1980 ?). On saturday afternoon, as part of the
childrens program.


Morlok

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

They were really funny when I was ten. Vaudeville is, to 10-year olds.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

"Julie, don't go," I said. "It's the Ides of March. Beware already."

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

Which was understandable only because I had read Asterix comics at age 10.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Which still breaks me up to this day!

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

I had a primary school teacher (in Australia) who was a fanatical Wayne & Schuster devotee. Thanks to him, our class rehashed that sketch for the end-of-year "talent" show...

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Bartender, make me a martinus!

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

If you find that exact wording, post it, please! That is one of the most marvelous takes I've seen yet on Certain Forms of Religion-with-a-capital-R.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, what I have above is the right version.

Did you see the recent "proof" by a literalist that squids aren't really alive?

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/03/god_hates_squid.php

As is pointed out by pharyngula, " human embryos do not develop red blood cells until about the 5th week of development, and therefore the early embryo, by their own definition, is not living."

[j-shelbourne.livejournal.com]

Pity the 5th week is so soon after the first missed menstrual period...just means that, to remain Godly, the abortion has to be immediate upon noticing the dropped punctuation.

Still, it explains why God allows so many spontaneous miscarriages: they aren't alive yet.

On the other hand, there are some centuries of dogma from other Christian religions claiming that the quickening happens upon fertilization, but we can let the two religious groups duke it out.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

As I recall, it's ok to have a priest force your wife to drink a magical potion that will force an abortion and sterilize her if she's been unfaithful, so not _all_ abortion is out, even for literalists.

It is in Numbers V, as I recall.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Although I couldn't verify this, I remember this as a line from Xena. Ares is talking about a bunch of monotheists, and he says "They only believe in one god. They're practically atheists".

[boywhocantsayno.livejournal.com]

only one DVD's worth of the their material has ever been released.

That's better than nothing - but when was it released? If I'd ever seen it on the shelf, I would have snapped it up.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I don't know when it was released on DVD but it's "Wayne and Shuster: 50 Years of Comedy", which uses a show from 1991, I believe.

Wayne and Schuster's Night Before Christmas

[(Anonymous)]

Wayne and Schuster did a very funny version of the Night Before Christmas. I have been looking for a transcript or the audio of this for quite some time. Does anyone have a copy or link to it.
Thanks.