What is with the Anti-American sentiment?

I'm from the US and I've always looked at it as your basic self-deprecating Canadian joke. For example, James Pendrick claiming that Toronto will be the home of the film industry, or the space industry, etc. And we all know that's not true.


http://currentscene.wordpress.com

I have to agree with Julie-30.

I, too, thought it was just a running joke on the US:
1) Murdoch invents something,
2) Crabtree comes up with a grandiose scheme to market it as a new toy or game,
3) Murdoch shuts him down,
4) So the idea lies fallow until someone else thinks of it independently.


I'm N8v, gay, and a computer nerd;
I've survived growing up gay in the 1960s, the Viet Nam War, losing my love of 37 years, and two Darrin's on "Bewitched". (Thank you, Sofia.)

If I wore a hat it would be off to you -- and I sincerely hope you're a lot younger than I am. Gay kids who are black or Hispanic or native (or any combination) have it hard enough today. In the 1960s, it could have got you killed.

It's very difficult to respond to a vague question like this. This is like the review that someone wrote who didn't give any specifics. I have these suggestions:

1) the show's writers want to do something historical, but they don't have the history in Canada to draw from. So, they have a gang of female thieves (that happened in London, U.K., not Canada) or sort-of show how buffalo wings were invented, and use a Canadian character to make it relatable to the show.

2) they want to show a famous historical figure, and the best way to display their personality is to have them arrested and interrogated. It's flattery, not "anti-American." That, and arresting a famous person is funny. It's not personal against Americans - they accosted the Italian inventor Marconi as well.

3) like another commenter said, some are self-deprecating jokes.

4) Canada's relationship with the U.S. is like an uneasy friendship, perhaps between siblings. We sympathize with your problems and we're thankful you're there to make up for the things we can't have due to our climate or small population base. Canadians and Americans live, work, and have moved across the border, so they share family and friends, and in some cases a friendly history like between Halifax and Boston.

However, Canadians are sometimes reminded that not all Americans have our interests in mind, because of the past or present. There's a popular Canadian band that named themselves after an American government's plan to steal land from Canada (54-40, after "fifty four forty or fight"). Canada exists as a single country because people were watching the American Civil War with concern and dealing with the Fenian raids (Irish who invaded Canada from the U.S. because they wanted Irish independence), and deciding they'd be safer if the little colonies joined into one big one. There have always been a lot more Americans than Canadians, and they have a much bigger military now. Our former Prime Minister once said, "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt" (Pierre Trudeau).

Is this an example of "anti-American sentiment"? Alan Clegg telling Murdoch "we're God's country and we'll keep our own counsel?" That's something I completely believe many Americans would say at the time, and something they say now in modern words. Try going on an American message board like Huffington Post, tell them you're Canadian and comment on American politics, and see how often you're told to mind your own business (not Youtube or reddit - they're younger and sympathetic).

If any of this uneasiness comes across in Murdoch Mysteries, it's not mean-spirited towards all Americans. It's just something Canadians need to be aware of for our survival, that many Americans aren't aware of because they've never needed to be.

I can see what you mean, but I see it from a different angle. I come from a smallish European country and we have a fictitious inventor as well, and he's extremely popular. He invented the lightbulb, dynamite and bikini.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXuWSH-U_-o

IMO for small countries with industry/technology (I mean, "small" as in having influential neighbours, not necessarily small in size or number of inhabitants), it's the way to deal with the lack of impact our countries had on the world history:

we create a fictitious impact on history because we resent the fact that we haven't given the world as much as other countries. But at the same time we are aware of our resentment and so we make fun of it by overdoing it, or making it ridiculous ("lightbulb, dynamite and bikini"). And by dealing with it in this way, we actually create something original that constitutes our identity.

That's why, for the large part, Americans come across as evildoers who take Canadian inventions from them - not because the show's authors hate the U.S., but simply because many of the inventions of that time were American and the show strives to maintain some level of historical accuracy.

With our fictitious inventor, it's exactly like that: he didn't get the credit for inventing dynamite because Alfred Nobel invented it at the same time as him but made it to the Patent Office before him. But that doesn't mean our inventor's creators hate Sweden (Nobel was Swedish).

That's why I'm such a huge fan of Murdoch Mysteries - in a way, it's soooo familiar 😀

[deleted]

I don't think it's anti-American, as much as it is pure fiction. American TV shows do similar, but not as much as they do on Murdoch Mysteries. But I don't think the Producers actually believe the public believes their fiction -- I think its all to create an interesting, fictional TV show. :)

because everyone knows Marty McFly (a Canadian) invented Rock and Roll, eh bud-day?

http://www.cantechletter.com/2013/03/argo-f-yourself-a-history-of-americans-taking-credit-for-canadian-innovations0302/

http://mentalfloss.com/article/51467/19-things-you-might-not-know-were-invented-canada