Mark Critch parodying Donald Trump in a scene from This Hour Has 22 Minutes.22 Minutes
This Hour Has 22 Minutes aired its 700th episode on CBC on Tuesday night.
That’s – let’s see here – roughly 15,400 minutes of satirical news and Canadian comedy sketches from its premiere in 1993 to now.
Among CBC- and CanCon-haters, the longevity of 22 Minutes has been a stick to beat it with.
BBC’s Have I Got News for You has been around since 1990 and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show started in 1996. But when a Canadian format lasts for a long time, it’s a sign of staleness – at least to those struggling with cultural self-hatred.
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I decided to tune in to the 700th episode as if Kim Campbell were still PM – in real time, with commercials, rather than in bits and pieces on social media, as I (and perhaps the bulk of its viewers) tend to do these days.
It was a reminder of the resilience of 22 Minutes on good old-fashioned linear TV. Indeed, it’s a relief to find comedic catharsis about the Canadian news cycle without pulling out your phone.
A few quick takeaways.
22 Minutes isn’t resting on its laurels
The much hyped 700th episode kicked off with longest-serving cast member Mark Critch impersonating long-locked folk-rock singer Alan Doyle. Not long after, Critch was joined by the real Doyle to sing a parody of R.E.M.’s It’s the End of the World as We Know It, which his band Great Big Sea once covered:
That’s right, it all starts in ’93
Same year as Great Big Sea
Hot new show on CBC
Greg, Mary, Cathy, Rick
Talkin’ about politics
Premiers and MPs
Ripe for the mockery
This was accompanied by a montage of original cast members Cathy Jones, Greg Thomey, Rick Mercer (talking to Americans, of course) and Mary Walsh (as ambush interviewer Marg Delahunty, naturally).
The segment also paid split-second tributes to past cast, including Shaun Majumder, Geri Hall and Nathan Fielder, whose Nathan On Your Side sketches later evolved into the Comedy Central show Nathan for You.
But, short song done, 22 Minutes immediately moved on to the news of the week – no more nostalgic stunts. It’s a sign of how confident the writers and producers are in the current as-good-as-the-original cast of Critch, Trent McClellan, Aba Amuquandoh, Stacey McGunnigle and Chris Wilson, all of whom have starred in viral sketches this season.
The Mark Carney satire is sharpening
When Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had his first direct encounter with 22 Minutes in 2024, as correspondent Dan Dillabough attempted one of the show’s signature ambush interviews, the politician didn’t fake a smile like most. Instead, he told Dillabough that after the next election, “You’ll have to earn a living rather than getting it from taxpayers’ money.”
What got less attention is that, since being humbled in that election, Poilievre has made peace with the CBC comedy show – and is coming off as less thin-skinned as a result.
He did a bit this fall at the Press Gallery Dinner with his 22 Minutes impersonator Chris Wilson, who he amusingly called the “Temu version of me,” and later also made a cameo on the show’s New Year’s Eve special.
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Wilson’s popular caricature of Poilievre made a memorable appearance on the 700th episode in a sketch where the Conservative Leader became the latest MP of his party to cross the floor and join the Liberals. The ultimate result, however, was that all the floor-crossers crossed back again to get away from him.
But the more subtle satire came at the end, when blue Liberal Carney, played by frequent guest star Mark McKinney, decided to cross the floor to the Conservatives himself.
Just as Poilievre has finally learned to laugh at himself, 22 Minutes seems to be figuring out how to more provocatively poke at Carney. The sharpest desk bit of the episode saw McGunnigle, in anchor mode, roast the PM for his see-saw statements about the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran: “Uh oh, looks like someone left their thesaurus in Switzerland.”
22 Minutes knows who the true Canadian villains are
It wouldn’t be a proper episode without Critch giving the gears to Donald Trump. He not only pulled out his unparalleled parody of him in a (so-so) State of the Union sketch, but also invited viewers to sign a petition to name the world’s smallest international bridge after the U.S. President, in honour of how he has reinvigorated relations with Canada.
But Trump satire is everywhere. 22 Minutes provides its most indispensable service to Canadians in how it mocks our own homegrown villains: Canadian oligarchs and the three (or five or eight) corporations in a trench coat that make up the country.
@thishourhas22minutes head to change.org/trumpbridge to sign the petition — link in bio! ✍️ #unitedstates #canada #bridges #gordiehowe #22minutes ♬ original sound - This Hour Has 22 Minutes
The show has particularly gone after our airlines, as of late, and its airport terminal set was once again trotted out in the 700th episode. A closing sketch featured WestJet and Air Canada check-in clerks played by McClellan and McGunnigle, competing against each other to depress passengers with their announcements.
The climax: An Air Transat rep played by Wilson came in to show them how it’s really done. Like I said, comedic catharsis. Here’s to the next 15,400 minutes.