A Triumph of Comic Plagiarism 

Feb 21 2004
Counterbias.com
Robert Furs

Some of us watched Conan O’Brien’s weeklong tryst in Canada with keen interest and a sense of patriotic fervor. We giggled innocently as Conan took playful jabs at Canadian culture, using stereotypes that we had all heard before but still endeared our sense of delicate nationalism. And we may have laughed or even nodded in agreement as Conan’s puppet character, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, viciously insulted Quebeckers. Insult is what the name implies, and insult, my friends, is exactly what the puppet did—and triumphantly, at that.

So, some government bigwigs, embodying the liberalism they so keenly represent, lashed out against this cigar-toting plastic puppet’s antics. A friggin’ puppet, which our half-million tax dollars helped bring to Ontario for a week, had committed the worst crime in the entire history of Canada : said insensitive things about Quebeckers.

French-Canadians are easily manipulated by puppets, says PM-wannabe Steven Harper: “You don't start telling people in Quebec they have to speak another language. That's completely unacceptable." Calm down, Steven. It’s only a puppet whose routine revolves around the word “poop”. And it was a joke, at that. Now laugh, Steven. Laugh. Ha. Haha.

Yes, even though freedom of speech is a highly valued democratic ideal, puppets saying mean things about French Canadians must not be tolerated. Just as, say, Mein Kampf was banned from Chapters stores just a few years ago, so should the disgusting demagoguery of insult-bearing puppets spewing insults at Quebeckers. Ban racist puppets, I say! All of them, even the American ones!

And so it goes. But make absolutely no mistake: the worst thing about this melodramatic episode was not what that demonic puppet said, or some politicians’ response, or whether you laughed at it or just found it childish, nor was it the tax dollars wasted, nor the obnoxious crowd, nor the fact that I somehow equated Hitler’s book to a harmless puppet in the previous paragraph. No, the most infuriating aspect of the whole episode is the fact that Triumph is an obvious copy of Canada ’s own Ed the Sock.

The reason people should’ve been angered by Triumph’s display was that our own Canadian creation, Ed the Sock, had had his blunt, bitchy, cigar-smoking persona raped and pillaged by the Conanites. Stephen Kerzner, the man behind Ed since the puppet’s birth in 1987, sent a tape to Conan’s peoples in the mid-nineties, but was denied a job for Ed—and a few months later, Triumph popped up. "People ripping me off", Kerzner bluntly stated. The Sock raged against Triumph: “Don't even talk to me about that piece of crap. Rip-off. It's amazing".

Robert Smigel, known from SNL, is the man behind Triumph. Smigel accused now-defunct Pets.com of stealing the Triumph (and therefore, Ed) idea for their mascot, "a watered-down, less funny, corporatized version of Triumph” (and, therefore, Ed). The Ben Stiller Show had Skank The Sock, but the show was cancelled before Kerzner could justifiably sue. "I've seen these impostors come and go. I've been around more than a decade and I'll still be around when these two latest pretenders are being used to clean windows by squeegee kids", said he.

But Conan thinks otherwise: "I hate to disappoint Ed the Sock, but grumpy puppets have been a mainstay of comedy for a long time. The grouchy puppet is not unlike the depressed clown, it's been a comedy staple for 40 years”. Whether or not Conan is correct, Ed doesn’t “worry about Triumph, because Triumph is a one-note joke." And that, clearly, is something all Canadians can poop on.

So, some advice to those whining about a puppet and pretending to fight for Quebeckers: it’s time to see the forest for the trees. There are more important things to take issue with—such as Canadian cultural products, like Ed the Sock, being stolen and transformed into watered-down American versions like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Insulting, indeed.