jawnbc | Brilliant political ad from Québec

Funding for the arts might be a lynchpin issue for our Canadian election. In Québec in particular the issue of funding for the arts often resonates (6 million francophones surrounded by 300 million anglophones, etc). In this ad the singer Michel Rivard appears in front of a funding board. The board reacts a bit negatively to his choice of songs--and words.

This version of the ad should have closed captioning on. If it's not, click through to the actual Youtube page and select CC from the triangle at the bottom right of the page.

Rivard was the lead singer of Beau Dommage, a Québec folk rock group of the '70s. One of their big songs is "the complaint of a a seal in Alaska"

As he sings "somewhere in Alaska there's a seal..." Except the word for seal is phoque. The panel hears "fuck" and freaks out.

Then Rivard tries to expain "no worries, I can sing about a sea lion--it's easy to change a few little things." Except when he says petit the panel hears "tits" and freaks out even more.

You can probably follow the rest.

I hope this ad has a lot of traction in Québec, so people there don't vote for that phoquewit Stephen Harper.