Sunday, December 04, 2005

O Canada

I got Tom Green's book Hollywood Causes Canceron Thursday from the library and finished it early this afternoon.I must admit, I was more interested initially about what happened with Drew Barrymore than how he got his start and how his career progressed. I was a fan of his show since it came out and had my favorite episodes ~ the Plaid House, all the times he woke his parents up at 3am. etc.
I did feel bad for how he lost control of his life, somehow thought that Freddy Got Fingered would do well at the box office (just getting past the title itself is a feat), and especially his bout with testicular cancer.
As you can guess from the title. Tom's not a big fan of Hollywood. But I guess he deals with all the pretentiousness and obnoxious brown-nosing to continue...doing whatever it is he's doing now.* If I were him, I'd realize that hey, I've reached my goals and go teach comedy to kids. But maybe being slightly bitter and writing books is his thing. Maybe I'll buy the next one.

I digress...

The reason I love Tom so much is that he's not afraid to lay it out, I mean say exactly what's on his mind, regardless of who might be offended. For those who don't know, Tom is Canadian and spent the first 25-ish years of his life in Ottawa.

My favorite passage of the book (next to the Granny and the Suitcase story):
"Americans in general have the impression that Canadians are really polite, but they actually aren't. They are just polite to Americans because they are so in awe of them. It's funny to watch people I know in Canada. When there are no Americans around, they like to bag on America in the same way someone from a small town will bag on the big city. It comes from a place of national insecurity. That may be part of the reason so many comedians come from Canada. It's funny to watch the same people who talk down about America change tone when an "actual" American is in their presence. They completely shift gears, so desperately wanting to impress "The American." When you live in a nation that feels it is constantly overlooked, you really try to be on your best behavior when Daddy is in the room."

Interesting.


*I just read in his blog at tomgreen.com that he's getting into rap and plans to move to Nicaragua.

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