Barkerburgh

I have not properly expressed my appreciation of the Canadian TV series Corner Gas. I have mentioned it before with appreciation, but I don’t even have a category for it, as I do for both Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who, without which life would mean nearly nothing. But for Corner Gas.

So here it is. Wait, I have to mention Robson Arms too, even though I’ve only seen one episode and it was funny.

Okay, Corner Gas. It takes place in the small town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, which, like the New York City of Friends or the Los Angeles of Blade Runner, is entirely fictional.

It’s make-me-laugh funny, even when I least expect it. They’ll say a line that’s funny, in, say, a scene five minutes into an episode, and I’ll laugh. Then, say, ten minutes later - or even right at the end - they’ll use the line again, out of the blue, out of left field, but still durn funny, and there I am blindsided, larfing again at the same line. Well, really the same joke in a slightly different context.

Now, there’s two kinds of jokes (for this comparison: there are at last official count, eight hundred and thirty seven kinds of joke in English alone - of the living languages, Hindi and Elvish have over a thousand each) . There’s the joke you see coming because of the setup. If you have a clue, the setup is like an answer on Jeopardy. “Aw, jeez, the question’s right there.” If you’re not paying attention, then good comedy, good jokes, depend as much on misdirection as anything fancy by David Copperfield or Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (1805-1871). It sneaks up on you over here, when you’re looking over there. Good comedy - good jokes - are as delightful and manipulative as good magic. Whaddayano.

Corner Gas is as nearly perfect a TV comedy as there’s ever been. And it’s Canadian. And it stars a lot of Canadian stars - well, people who should be stars. Now I enjoy them all, but two of my favourites are the cops; Lorne Cardinal as Davis and Tara Spencer-Nairn as Karen. Not giving too much credit where credit is overdue. It’s an ensemble show, and the cop gags are always funny.

So that brings us to Brent Butt. Yes, il s’appele Brent Butt. He’s the creator and, inspired, plays the lead character of the show, Brent Leroy, who runs the gas station cum corner store that names the series. (See, I avoided the term eponymous, for no good reason.) His delivery is priceless.

Years ago, I remember thinking that the American cable stations were producing really cool stuff, outside the Hayes Code, the Mann Act and the Ten Commandments. This was before you could say ‘boobies’ and ‘underpants’ on Canadian TV.

Now you can, and when you have a nearly perfect situation comedy, you don’t have to. Although they skirt that ‘don’t have to’ sometimes.

Watch it and see.