We all thought he was the quintessential New Yorker. But when crooner Michael Buble ripped off his oversized Mountie uniform, revealing a white tuxedo, and burst into song, it became apparent: Mel Brooks has switched citizenship.
No one else could have planned and choreographed such a demented musical number. Half Springtime for Hitler and half Dudley Doright, the number began with Buble belting out The Maple Leaf Forever surrounded by tap dancing girls in low-cut, short-skirted, high-heeled Mountie uniforms -- and soon morphed into a Ziegfeld Follies of Canadian proportions.
Giant inflatable beavers, tap dancing French trappers in canoes, giant inflatable Mounties, life-sized table hockey pieces, and chorus girls dressed as maple leaves strung from the roof... Oh, and a giant Mountie hat, atop a wedding-cake-style stage on which rings of Mountie/chorus girls doing an iffy imitation of the Rockettes, on which the affable Buble finished his anthem.
I'm not making this up.
Say what you want about the many serious political and religious problems in Canada -- the Canadian people certainly don't seem to have any problem laughing at themselves. That's always a good sign. And even if he wasn't involved, Mel Brooks was at the closing ceremonies in spirit -- the same spirit that keeps Jews and Catholics laughing at themselves in his movies. Oh, Canada! Thanks for the laugh.
0 comments:
Post a Comment