This month we take a look at two Canadian Icons - Bob & Doug McKenzie.

Bob & Doug McKenzie first appeared on the classic Canadian television show SCTV in the late 1970s. The characters were created by Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis. The original intent of the skit was to protest government regulations for identifiable Canadian content in domestically produced media programming. Airing first on SCTV as the program “The Great White North”, Bob & Doug became almost instant national heroes. Despite the fact that the two dim witted brothers combined as many negative Canadian stereotypes as possible. The brothers embodied the stereotypical Canadian. Their dialogue was spiced with things like, “Eh?”, “Hoser”, and “Take off!” They guzzled beer, loved donuts and of course ate pounds of back bacon. They became so popular that “The Great White North” remained in the program when the skits were aired in the U.S. version. Thomas and Moranis were eventually made members of the Order of Canada for their contribution to Canadian culture. The New York Times called them the “Cheech and Chong of beer drinkers”, and they’ve been likened to Laurel and Hardy by the Bergen Record.

Bob & Doug McKenzie went on to produce two albums (one of which contains the infamous “The 12 Beers of Christmas” skit). In 1981, on a $5000 budget, Thomas & Moranis went in to Toronto’s Sounds Interchange studio to record “Great White North” the album. The two improvised for hours, getting more drunk as the recording progressed. Moranis insisted that a song be included. “Take Off” (featuring Geddy Lee of Rush) got plenty of radio play, and album sales soared. The album even made the Billboard top ten in The U.S.

1983 saw the completion of their film, “Strange Brew”. The film was an instant cult classic, and rumours of a sequel have floated around the Internet for years. The film featured Bob & Doug and their misadventures with a diabolical brewmaster (played by Oscar winner Max Von Sydow). Trying to score a free case of beer, the brothers put a mouse in a beer bottle and go to the ‘Elsinore Brewery’ to complain. There, they encounter the diabolical Brewmaster, who has developed a plan to rule the world by contaminating Elsinore Beer with a mind controlling chemical. “Do the McKenzie brothers make the world safe for guzzlers? Can Bob drink his way out of a huge vat of beer before he drowns? Okay, hosers, you’ll have to see the movie, eh?”

It’s been more than two decades since Bob & Doug uttered their first “Eh?” In recent years, the brothers have been having something of a revival. Rumours of a “Strange Brew” sequel have been heating up, and countless Bob & Doug websites have appeared all over the Internet. Recently, the McKenzie brothers appeared in a television commercial in the U.S. for Miller Brewing Co. The commercial was so successful, that it aired past its expiration date, and eventually became a series of commercials.

We can only hope that Bob & Doug continue to lampoon Canadians for a long time to come. With that in mind, I’m about to start a round of ‘beer hunter’ with some friends, so I’ll give Bob & Doug the last word.

“Take off eh?”