This Hour Has 22 Minutes

This Hour Has 22 Minutes (or simply 22 Minutes) is a Canadian television comedy. The show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials. The show features Cathy Jones[?], Colin Mochrie[?], Greg Thomey[?], and Mary Walsh[?]. Rick Mercer[?] is a former cast member.

Their most famous joke was during the Federal election campaign in 2000. The Canadian Alliance proposed a mechanism to call for a national referendum when a certain percentage (4% or roughly 100,000 at the time) of the electorate signed a petition calling for it concerning any subject. Disturbed by the implication of the impact that such a mechanism could have on even trivial matters, the show decided to satirize it. They called on viewers to sign a petition for a referendum to change party leader, Stockwell Day's first name to Doris. The minimum number of signatures as by Alliance's criteria was obtained and as a result of showing the possible misuse of the measure, the platform item was soon quietly dropped by the party.

This Hour Has 22 Minutes is in its tenth season. It is produced by Salter Street Films, and is broadcast on the CBC television network. One of its regular segments with Rick Mercer was turned into an enormously popular one hour feature show titled "Talking to Americans".

This Hour Has 22 Minutes is on CBC at 8:00 PM ET/PT on Tuesday nights.

See also

• Canadian culture
• Royal Canadian Air Farce

External links

• the official website (http://www.22minutes.com)
• 22 Minutes page at Salter Street Films (http://www.salter.com/22minutes/22hour.htm)