In the summer of 1978, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau received a very strange missive from one of the most brilliant intellectuals in the country, Marshall McLuhan. Specialist in modern communications, author of the famous phrase “the medium is the message”, McLuhan offers an unprecedented remedy to calm the linguistic tensions that undermine Canada, especially since the election, two years earlier, of the Parti Québécois. by Rene Levesque.
“I am writing to you today to suggest a united Canada strategy for survival. Since all jokes are based on an element of claim or irritant, the issue of separatism can generate a great production of funny stories. I believe it to be literally true that if we could assemble and broadcast a continuous stream of comic anecdotes about the relationship between French Canadians and the WASPs [white anglo-saxon protestants], tensions would very quickly be reduced. Humor generates empathy for both the source and the target of the joke. When things get too tense, humor disappears. »
I found this amazing letter in Pierre Trudeau’s archives, which I am going through to feed my next book, Levesque/Trudeau. Their duel/our story. (Appeal to all: I am interested in any testimony, text or anecdote on their personal or political relationship). In his response, Trudeau does not agree with the suggestion of his “dear Marshall”. He notes that the Newfie jokes “did nothing to improve the image of the people of our tenth province”. He concludes that he does not intend to “hire joke writers in the near future”.
What a pity ! I believe we owe it to McLuhan to seriously test his hypothesis. We need representative groups of French and English people who have expressed, in a questionnaire, a negative prejudice towards the other group (say level 5 on a scale of 10). To obtain a reference base, a first group of 12 volunteers would be invited, against payment, to discuss informally. We would retest their level of aversion at the end of their meeting to see if a simple discussion, without humor, would have a calming effect.
A second group would be asked to take turns telling each other jokes not related to their language groups. We would then know if humor, in itself, reduces aversion. In a third group, the French would tell anti-Anglo jokes, and vice versa. In another, it would be the opposite: the Francos and the Anglos would alternately make self-mockery. Members of a final group would read the jokes randomly. We would then have solid points of comparison.
We need jokes. Fortunately, in a pure scientific spirit, I have gathered a certain number of them which I offer free of charge to researchers. Here they are, alternately anti-frog and anti-block.
A Franco-Ontarian child whose family moved to Quebec asks: “What are we right now? “Quebecers,” replies his father. “And before,” continues the child, “what were we?” His father replies: “We haven’t got you anything.” »
A minister from an English-speaking province must resign for accepting a refrigerator from a contractor. Incredulous at the severity of the sanction, a Quebec minister retorted: “Incredible! What could be in the fridge? »
Why is it written We and Off on the light switches? It’s for English people. We Francophones know when the light is on or off.
An English speaker: “I would not be against the idea of being in a relationship with a Quebecer, but I would be too afraid that he would separate. »
A French speaker finds himself too intelligent to have relations with the average citizen. A senior specialist hooks him up to a dulling machine, but warns him that he should only be there for five minutes. Called for an emergency, the specialist returns, distraught, after an hour. He asks his patient: “How do you feel? The patient responds: What’s the matter? »
The other day, a very eloquent young separatist explained to me that an independent Quebec would be more ecological, more pacifist, more social democratic. I said, “It’s interesting what you say, but could you just give me my Big Mac trio?” »
How do you designate a Quebecer who speaks English? A bilingual. And an Albertan who speaks French? A miracle.
A Quebecer and an English Canadian find a magic lamp. The genie offers them to each make a wish. The Quebecer asks him to build around Quebec a well sealed wall 40 feet high. When his turn came, the English Canadian said to the genius: now, pour 39 feet of water into it!
In the months following the 1995 referendum, a Quebecer, an English Canadian and a pretty Swedish woman are in the cabin of a train entering a tunnel. In the darkness, we hear the sound of a kiss, then that of a slap in the face. The Swede thinks: “The Quebecer must have wanted to kiss me, made a mistake and kissed the Canadian, who slapped him. “The Canadian thinks:” The Quebecer must have kissed the Swede, who wanted to slap him, but made a mistake and slapped me. The Quebecer thinks: “I can’t wait for the next tunnel, I’m still going to make a kissing noise with my mouth, and still slap the Canadian. »
I am convinced that thanks to this experimentation, carried out according to the rules of the art, we will finally be able to patent the “McLuhan theorem of ludic appeasement of conflicts”. A posthumous Nobel Peace Prize is, it seems to me, in the pocket.
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