Not The King

As a stand-up comedy aficionado of sorts, I feel well qualified to wonder who in the heck decided Mike MacDonald was the “King of Canadian Comedy”. That’s like calling The Air Farce our funniest show, which it ain’t. If MacDonald was funny at one time, he has been eclipsed by dozens of other comics. A few names spring immediately to mind in no particular order: Shaun Majumder, Rick Mercer, Glen Foster, Brent Butt, Judy Croon, Elvira Kurt, Russell Peters…. all are funnier than the so-called King.

I’m embarrassed when they call MacDonald the King and the “only Canadian comic invited back to Just For Laughs every year!” Well, sure, he lives in LA, he’s a 50-something paunchy dude with a unibrow who still thinks bits about fighting over the TV remote are funny, so he’s probably begging for the work! When I saw him at Just For Laughs a few years ago, I was trying to keep an open mind but he didn’t make me crack a smile. Bland, boring and stale. That’s not a Canadian King of comedy, to me.