Last night on Late Night with Conan O’Brien a lot of jokes were made about French-Canadians, and they were very funny. But some Canadians aren’t happy with the comments made by Triumph the Insult Comic dog. All this week, Late Night has been in Toronto filming shows and cracking jokes (among them a nightly challenge between Seattle’s “Space Needle” and Toronto’s “CN Tower”). What has the Canadian government upset is a skit in which Triumph the Insult Comic dog went to Quebec and proceeded to badger and insult all of the non-English speaking people he came in to contact with. (Canada Condemns 'Racist' Conan O'Brien TV Show) One of my favorite jokes was when Triumph was saying he “only knows a few, common French phrases like ‘I surrender.’” A few jokes about French people are now racist in Canada? What ever happened to the idea of good natured ribbing? One legislator in Canada called the sketch “racist filth,” “utterly vile,” and “vicious hatemongering.” If this is now “racist,” who or what can you poke fun at any more? It seems pretty simple to me, we don’t like the French (or French-Canadians) and they don’t like us. It seems to be a mutual thing. Why then is it not okay to make fun of Quebecers now and then (or “Quebecqueers” as Triumph put it at one point)?
Lighten up Canada. Learn how to take a joke. This is a great example of political correctness running amuck. I can understand taking a joke too far, but this is not an example of it. Making fun of the French is as natural and common as a sunrise. Frankly, a world in which it is not alright to make fun of the French is a world in which I would not like to live.
It was made official today; the University of North Dakota Athletic Department has about as much courage as a Frenchman. While holding a press conference to discuss their Division-II football and basketball schedules for next year, it was revealed that they have officially killed their long storied rivalry with North Dakota State University. Citing NDSU’s move to Division-I as the reason, UND stated that the competition would no longer be on an even playing field, several years down the road that is. I can understand ending the rivalry in two or three years when NDSU gets the number of scholarships up in their football and basketball programs which will attract better players, but for several years to come the games would still be quite competitive. Look for example at the Bison football team’s trip to the University of Montana last fall. No one gave NDSU a chance to stay in the game, but they were able to come back and not only make the game competitive, but win the game over the I-AA powerhouse Grizzlies.
In addition to the Sioux killing this long rivalry with the Bison, another unfortunate thing will happen to UND (unfortunate if you are a Sioux fan that is). As NDSU advances in the ranks of Division-I athletics, the D-II Sioux will find that fewer and fewer people in North Dakota will care about their antics at a lower level of competition. Take for example the state of Nebraska. The University of Nebraska at Omaha has a quality Division-II athletic program, yet no one in that state seems to care about UN-O. All of the attention in Nebraska is centered on the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the Cornhuskers. Even in Omaha, most of the media coverage deals with the Cornhuskers rather than the UN-O Mavericks. When NDSU is playing schools such as Montana, Minnesota, and Missouri, UND will be playing teams like Moorhead, Mankato, and Crookston. A football match up between UND and Minnesota-Crookston on the same weekend that NDSU plays Montana or, years down the road, Minnesota, all of the media will be focused on the quality match up involving NDSU.
Yes, there was going to come a time in which the greatest rivalry in the history of Division-II and one of the best in the nation at any level would come to an end. But UND ending this rivalry years ahead of its natural end is just plain foolish. Perhaps it’s their jealousy over NDSU going Division-I and them staying D-II. Perhaps they want to feel like they got to write the last chapter of the story. Perhaps they just want to keep the Nickel Trophy forever and this is they only way they can do it. Perhaps they are just cowards.
On the plains of North Dakota
Standing there for all to see
Sits an old abandoned outhouse
And they call it ‘UND’
Hail the Bison, Hail the Bison
With their tails up in the air
University, University
Sioux can suck what’s under there