Royal Canadian Air Farce (1993– ) User Reviews

Rest in Peace: John Morgan

[randomgenericcodename · 5/10 · 18 March 2008]

I am not interested in the show currently because the only reasonably good new person is Jessica Holmes. The show used to be great before John Morgan retired. Everything went down-hill after that. It seems the original cast just stopped caring. The Tim Horton's scene was never as good and they even got rid of the Chicken Cannon. When John Morgan was on the show I liked it more then the Rick Mercer Report. Nothing was better then "Mike from Canmore". The Royal Canadian Air Farce died with the retirement of John Morgan. For anyone who doesn't think John Morgan was one of the greatest Canadian's on TV:

GET STUFFED!!!!

Absolutely hilarious, a Canadian classic

[VenomX · 5/10 · 6 October 2002]

Royal Canadian Air Farce is a low-budget sketch show that runs on CBC in Canada. The show only has four actors in it, and they do a variety of comedy. Everything from political, social or pop culture satire, they put on a very well performed show.

One thing though: You have to be Canadian to get a lot of the humour. The majority of sketches feature impersonations of Canadian politicians and others simply feature Canadian current events or humour.

This show features one of the best characters I've ever seen on TV: Mike from Canmore. The way he would just pop-out of nowhere, and his appearance would stick him out right away, and then say his famous line "I'm Mike...from Canmore". Moments like that cannot be copied by anything else. Another classic sketch is the Chicken Cannon, where the cast would fire assorted foodstuffs (and on their New Year's Eve special, rubber chickens) out of an air-powered cannon and hit a cardboard cutout of someone who was in the news (like Bill Clinton during their '98 New Years Special).

One of the greatest comedy shows ever created, but you'll only think that way if you understand Canada. Though, ever since John Morgan retired, the show hasn't been the same (I miss Mike from Canmore...). Satire was always one of Canada's gifts, and this show uses it to it's full potential.

9.5/10

Lived Too Long

[astena · 6/10 · 17 July 2015]

This show was amazing when it was the original four members. After the loss of John Morgan, they should have said goodbye. But they just kept bringing in new, young "talent" who weren't even a tenth as funny as the original crew. It used to be fresh and clever political satire, but it quickly degenerated into dumb pop culture and jokes that had no bite or brains. It's the same kind of sadness I feel when you compare the brilliance of early SNL to the train-wreck that it has become now. I used to love Air Farce for the first few seasons that it was on the air, but it should have bowed out gracefully before it was allowed to become such a disappointment.

Horrible Writing

[clevelandrockie · 8 July 2007]

I understand most people hate this show and it is terrible but everyone seems to be blaming the cast. How about the writing? I assume they don't write their own jokes like on most TV shows. The writing is so horrible and stale, they are doing the same jokes they did in 1993 since the first season of Air Farce. This show used to be good but now it's just painfully awful, I feel bad for these people who have to go on TV and read such horrible jokes. But I think if they got new writers the show might still turn around and be funny. I'm not too optimistic about that though. Royal Canadian Air Farce is just sad and disappointing, I like new cast member Alan Park though, he is funny.

Horrible Non-comedy

[emailjohn500 · 1/10 · 17 August 2008]

This show is horrible.

Someone please cancel it.

I know it is already going to be canceled but why give it another season or half season or whatever? Get rid of it now.

It sucks.

It is less funny than any other show I can think of.

Who actually watches this train wreck of a show? The people on it are untalented hacks.

The writing is even worse.

I hate the CBC because of awful shows like this, where are the good shows CBC?

Time to retire

[The_StarWolf · 8/10 · 23 March 2008]

The first several years were very original and truly funny. Unfortunately, when head writer John 'I'm Mike, from Canmore' Morgan retired, the quality dropped sharply. It's often still amusing, but not nearly as much so as when he was on board, and the sort of humour these days often verges on the simply vulgar, something the earlier seasons saw no need to indulge in. Get the early seasons if you can. And, while you're at it, consider looking into the radio series which has (had?) been on the air for over twenty years. This is the sort of thing which makes me wonder why Canada has such a difficult time putting together successful comedy series. The talent is obviously there. For those who think 'SEINFELD' was funny, I recommend an early AIR FARCE End-Of-Year special. In the words of my idol, Slappy Squirrel, "Now that's comedy!".

The W.O.R.S.T.!

[bobsmith6040 · 1/10 · 21 October 2006]

Royal Canadian Air Farce should have retired in the 1950s.

I have never met anybody who says they watch this show, so I'm assuming the only people who do are 100 year old brain dead people who live in old folks homes where the TV has to be set to CBC 24 hours a day because it is the only channel they can get.

Maybe they used to be funny back in the days when families would sit around their radio sets after dinner with grannie and pappy, but they sure aren't now. Take for example their chicken cannon. Every show they put up a picture of a politician who is in the news that week, load up a compressed-air powered 'chicken cannon' and shoot the picture with hilarious 'ammunition', like for example they might put BALONEY in the chicken cannon 'because this guy is full of BALONEY!' They try not to laugh at their own hilarious jokes and shoot the picture. And it's called the chicken cannon because it's got a funny cartoon of a chicken drawn on it! They also do impressions of all the country's big politicians. They actually can't really do impressions though, they just put on different glasses and a wig and then say "hello I'm so-and-so"...

They have Luba Goy who impersonates every female character on the show which is so terrible it's not even funny because she's like 3 feet tall and 400 pounds and 75 years old so watching her pretend to be people half her age is just sad.

The writing is the worst, none of their sketches even make sense. They just come up with lame jokes based on the week's news and then have random characters to talk about it. Like they'll have a news reporter talk about the week's top news even and interview three people, the girl from the mattress commercial, the prime minister and george strombolopoulos... what? wtf? Yeah they also have a cabbie who talks about random news events for no reason at all and his catch phrase is "no vie-sa you pay cash!" and he is on like every week even though it wasn't even funny the first time. "Hey did you know that they are cutting the GST? That's weird, usually politicians want to take MORE money! No VIE-SA you pay cash! And hey how about those Maple Leafs? They lost again this week... they lose so much they shouldn't even bother showing up for the games! No vie-sa you pay cash! And Stephen Harper has no personality, he's like a robot! No vie-sa you pay cash!" One of the new cast members does an impersonation of Stephen Harper that belongs in a grade four play. You see, prime minister Harper doesn't have much of a personality, so they play him like he's a robot! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! No wonder this show is still on the air! And they do a news report based in Newfoundland so they talk about the news but they keep talking about fish too, because people in Newfoundland go fishing a lot! And they wear fisherman's rain slickers, HAHAHAHAHAHHAA!!!!! CBC please put a fork in this stupid show because pretty soon the 100 year olds who watch it because they don't have the ability to change the channel are going to die and then you won't have anybody watching Canada's national channel at all. How can you blame us for watching other channels when you keep crap like Royal Canadian Air Farce on TV for like 20 years? Get with it!!!!!

3.5???

[insane_kidlife · 10/10 · 25 August 2006]

I don't know what's wrong with you people. 3.5? Have you ever actually sat down and watched the show? Air farce is a number of random sketches put together to form a hilarious mixture of satirical humor on Politics, current events, celebrities, and anything else they'd like to throw in for fun.

The people on air farce are great. John Morgan was a loss, I must admit, but Jessica Holms and Craig Lauzin are just as good.

The writing is great, you can relate to it, and it's not too dorky, like some of the other stuff that's on the air now.

All in all, I love the farce, and hope it goes on for many more seasons.

They're Old and Need to Retire!

[jason_coolidge3000 · 1/10 · 26 March 2006]

Who watches Air Farce???????

I don't know if Royal Canadian Air Farce was ever funny. Maybe it was in 1937 when it first went on the radio.

Royal Canadian Air Farce is one of the worst shows I've seen on TV though. They should retire and I wonder why didn't they retire twenty years ago?

Popcultured with Elvira Kurt, Royal Canadian Air Farce, Mike Bullard are my picks for three worst shows of all time made in Canada, they are all so bad!

It's like CBC with Beachcombers it was on for like twenty years! Nobody I know watches Air Farce so why is it still on my TV?

These people are 100 years old and they all should have retired in 1976.

Hilarious if you enjoy satires or dry humor

[nitzguy20 · 10/10 · 22 May 2006]

This show is a Canadian touchstone. It has some of the funniest people in Canada (in my eyes at least) and some wittingly funny bits. True, it has been going downhill slowly ever since John Morgan died in 2004, but it still manages to entertain audiences in Canada and the Northern United States. There are some people who are reading this and thinking : "How can this guy find it funny?" Quite Simply, I am Canadian. I have watched the Air Farce so many times I can recite the sketches off by heart, I give the finger to every driver I pass, and I have eaten more Alberta beef than a person should of my age. And do you know why, because I am Canadian!

Awful Writing

[jennaspivac · 1/10 · 13 August 2009]

From what I am told Royal Canadian Air Farce were obviously legends back in the day. They started out as a live troop that did shows then they had a radio show and put out comedy albums. I have heard my mom's albums (two of them, not sure how many they actually had) and they are dated but I can tell they are pretty funny. Their TV show was supposedly good at first but my only memories of it are of a bad show that just got worse and worse as time went on and the cast got older. The biggest problem with this show was the writing, the jokes never went beyond basic headlines of what was in the news (usually about two weeks too late at least) and then they would do the most basic joke about it that anyone could come up with or they would do a joke about a different subject that is still a basic joke but doesn't belong because it's about a totally different subject! I don't know what they were thinking, or maybe they just all got old and either comedy changed and they didn't or they just kept getting worse, but whether or not you like their performances and impressions their writing was so awful that it didn't really matter. Very very disappointing show that should have been canceled years and years before it was. It's sad really.

This show bites... avoid.... unwatchable... written by squirrels

[folecointernational · 26 October 2007]

This year the air farce has gone way out on the jocular limb, they are breaking barriers, pushing the comedic envelope, they are going live.... well as live as seventy year old comedians can get. The crazy part is, the CBC is somehow making out like this is ground breaking, even earth shattering. Bad news Saturday Night Live did this 33 years ago, that's right people born that year are already middle aged and no doubt sickened by the kind of hackneyed comedy that the AIR FARCE churns out.

I watched about ten minutes of the show this evening and was appalled at how ridiculously, monumentally bad this show is. Luba Goy is still on this show! Good lord, John Candy was making fun of her over twenty years ago on SCTV and she somehow still thinks she is funny. Where do they find the studio audience, drug rehab centres, psychiatric wards, run down seedy bars in Bangkok where you can buy laughers for $2 an hour? Do yourself a favour, avoid this and all air farce merchandise, petition your neighbours and your government to have the show banned, to have the tapes destroyed, the original scripts sealed in underground vaults built is geologically stable areas so that no future generation should have to suffer through this.

Bad

[ronkoyama · 3/10 · 11 January 2014]

This show was bad. I am sorry to say it because everyone on the show always seemed like in real life they would be nice people. I actually used to like it when it first came on and my parents would sometimes watch it if the other channel was something they didn't want to see or was a rerun, and they thought it was a fine show. But I really hated the show and it was mostly because of the lazy, horrible, not funny writing. The kind of jokes you hear people tell each other year after year in the coffee shop. Maybe that's what they were going for but shouldn't a TV show on CBC offer really good and professional writing? I felt bad that these people seemed nice but had to tell such awful jokes and do bad impressions that usually did not even make sense. I think maybe they did their own writing over the years so it's kind of their own fault. The show was on way too long and that is obvious when you look at how bad the show became, they probably just stopped caring. Sadly it was replaced by Ron James which is even older and even worse.

Opinions are just that, opinions.

[Opus62 · 10/10 · 14 August 2006]

Why is it that so many people state their opinion like it is the be all and end all of quality assessments? There is a big difference between "This show/car/toaster sucks" and "I don't like this show/car/toaster" Everybody is free to like or dislike anything they want, but not liking something, be it a movie, car or appliance, does not make it bad. A statement could be made regarding a defective consumer device being bad, but such a case cannot really be made for anything that is purely subjective. Don't like a TV show? Fine, but that does NOT mean that is sucks. That's just as silly as saying "I don't like the color purple, therefore purple sucks".

TV shows and movies are subjective. Just because you don't like one, that does not make it bad. Conversely, if you like a particular show, that does not necessarily make it good. That's the beauty of democracy. Gotta love it.

I find this show somewhat good.

[rlatanville · 5/10 · 30 December 2013]

I don't know why all the negative reviews here. This show was really funny 1st 5 years or so, but all good shows run out of steam, especially when you recycle jokes or scenes. Mike from Canmore scenes what I remember the show. If this show was terrible it would be gone long time ago, but it's been on since 90's and even way before hat on radio. Yeah the show got stale, and I don't watch no more. When I watch it, I found it funny and entertaining. Ever since John Morgan retired and passed way (RIP) it wasn't the same, and Roger Abbott's passing, his skits were truly funny and delivered well. Now the show has new faces, the show moved on. May not be the same as 1993, "but the show must go on." I give it a 5 of 10, which is fair or average. Not terrible as many would say.

One of Canada's Greatest Comedies!

[hpfan1989 · 10/10 · 1 July 2006]

Come on I'm 17 and love the show. They humor is excellent, but it matters at what point of view you have. Its very political and if your for a certain party you might not be very happy at what they are saying. They are constantly poking at the Prime Minister or at Ralph Klein but you have to have a open mind and you'd like the show instantly. Only recommendation I have is don't watch it if your a strong supporter of Quebec or otherwise you would hate the show. The shows is a excellent show meant for people looking for a laugh, and to laugh at things they believe or things that they enjoy being made fun of. So of course watch the Royal Canadian Air Farce and have a good time watching. Its a definite 10 out of 10.

One of The Best In Canadian History!!

[futuramafan1 · 10/10 · 3 January 2008]

I Personally Love This Show.

I Don't Know Why Everyone Hates This Show.

Its CBC's best show since The Red Green Show.

The Humor in Royal Canadian Air Farce is hilarious .

This is one of the best comedy's to ever be around.

I've been watching it since 1998 and after all of those years it still has its humor.

The humor just never gets old after all of those times you watch the TV show.

Just watch this show 1 or maybe 2 times and then you will like it and then you won't be able to quit watching it.

10/10.

Air Farce under mountain of grey dust

[punksmut · 25 January 2008]

Alright, it's been said but I must say it again. This show got old a LONG time ago. I remember telling some teacher in grade nine that I thought it was awful, tired and unfunny (1997?). I believe she disagreed. I could never stand watching Luba Goy or Abbott as they can NOT act, and are so odd in appearance that all you see in their impersonations is them. The political satire never seems to focus on anything beyond the news headline.

Lots of good shows have come from the CBC. This is not one of them. It's safe, middle-class suburban and DULL. This Hour has 22 Minutes, though suffering at times from cast changes, was always funny. Kids in the Hall was funny. Air Farce has always played to a lower denominator. I find it unwatchable as I find SNL unwatchable. I might have enjoyed it briefly when it first came on TV when I was ten, but that didn't last very long. Though my parents seemed to have enjoyed it on the radio back in the day, the radio has the bonus feature of not having to WATCH who's speaking.

Finally, this show reinforces an incorrect view of Canadians. C'mon, no one likes to see stereotypes reinforced in the same way, over and over.

Comedy that past its 'Best Before' date in 1981....

[jsalden · 26 October 2006]

Royal Canadian Air Farce is horribly bad television.

Please don't get me wrong, I know that there was a time when they were apparently comedy icons in Canada and their radio show was listened to by thousands of Canadians from coast to coast and they did popular live shows that my grandparents and their friends honestly enjoyed (yes I said grandparents and I am 40!). I'm sure they deserve appreciation for a job well done, but there comes a time when it's time to hang up the skates and gracefully step aside before it just get embarrassing, and I'm afraid that date may have already passed them by.

I don't find them funny at all. The jokes are terrible and worst of all they keep repeating the same characters and sketches over and over! Air Farce belongs in a museum, not on TV.

Embarrassingly bad!

[misssallyberg · 14 February 2007]

As a Canadian I am ashamed of this show.

I can't believe after so many years it is still on and doing the same lame jokes. I don't dislike them as people I just feel embarrassed for them when I see them on TV doing such pathetic jokes.

Bringing in the new cast member hasn't helped because they are just as bad as the old ones. Jessica Holmes is just as bad as when she was on The Holmes Show on CTV, I don't understand how she got another chance as a TV star. She always did impersonations of Celine Dione and Liza Minelli that were so irritating! But that is the kind of thing Air Farce is about so I'm not that surprised.

I know some people must like Air Farce because it is still on but I honestly don't understand it and don't know anybody who says they do like and watch Air Farce or maybe they just don't want to admit it.

I think the only thing worse than Air Farce are reruns of Air Farce where the topics are so out of date we don't even know what the jokes are referring to anyway.

1/10, I hope it goes away soon.

Comedy for Geriatrics

[bobbymalonetherobot · 8 December 2006]

The jokes on Air Farce probably were never funny but if they ever were it was back in World War Two.

They have a chicken cannon. They put garbage in the cannon and then shoot it at pictures of politicians.

It's like watching half an hour of a nightmare where you're stuck in the audience of a community theatre show at an old folks home where nobody is allowed to walk out.

It's just painful.

They do impersonations where they put on a wig and then say for example "Hi I'm Bob Rae" but then they just use their own voice. That's not an impersonation, it's just a confused senior citizen wearing a wacky wig telling jokes that for some reason they think might be funny to somebody else.

What is CBC thinking? The people writing the jokes for CBC must be world war veterans who think that wacky wigs and puns are the peak of comedy, maybe in ten years they'll start writing the latest craziest kind of comedy, knock knock jokes!

It embarrasses me that this is a major Canadian show

[Started_by · 30 December 2006]

Royal Canadian Air Farce is one of those comedy shows where you tune in, sit there, waiting to laugh... but you don't. The show never gets into anything story-wise by design, because it's a sketch show, so you're left trying to get a cheap laugh out of the (usually political) premises of the sketches. Problem is, they're not good.

According to Wikipedia, the comedy group started off in 1970 as 'The Jest Society', a play on Pierre Trudeau's goal of a 'Just Society'. Kind of a lame title. This tactic of taking a letter and changing it was repeated when the 'Jest Society' changed their name to the Royal Canadian Air Farce. When the current show started in 1993, the crew had Jean Chretien and multiple other targets of Canadian politics to satirize, and ample material in Canadian culture (like those silly Canadian Tire commercials). But even then, the sketches didn't move past a simple caricature of Chretien's accent, or any other one-dimensional premise.

I specifically remember a sketch about the 'War on Christmas' - and the premise being a guy was reading a Christmas story by a fireplace. What's the joke? Every time the word Christmas should come up, he says 'holiday' instead. And the sketch continues like this for about 7 or 8 minutes. Somewhere along the way, somebody should have said, "Guys - don't you think we should do something more? Make something happen? Have at least some kind of a story, at least?" I guess that didn't ever happen. or maybe it did, and they fired the guy who said it.

Sometimes I have relatives from outside Canada ask me what good Canadian TV shows there are, this show (plus the Mike Bullard show) always comes to mind. It makes me sad that this is such a poorly made show, and yet it's financed and probably shot on HDCAM and viewed by millions (funny considering Canada's population is only 33 million, give or take).

I know it's probably schadenfreudenic (I think that's right) for me to take so much pleasure hating this show. Maybe it wasn't always that bad, but it's just not funny at all. Anyway, to sum up: Don't watch it.

Beating a dead horse

[o20230 · 23 September 2003]

One of the worst shows on Canadian television. The jokes are lame, the performers are wooden and untalented. Good political humour (or humour in general) explores unchartered oceans, this one wades in stagnant waste water. I can't believe so many Canadians like this show, it's time to retire it and it's crew.

It boggles my mind how anyone can find this funny...

[Ric17 · 24 November 2004]

I have tried several times to find some amusement in this program, but I cannot. The jokes are not funny and to me at least seem to be written by some of the worst writers in the history of comedy. This is beyond bland humour, and if this is what other Canadians find funny, then we have some serious character issue problems.

It's not smart humour by any means and each time I happen to "flick" by the show (and watch several seconds in the hope I maybe wrong) I ask myself how anyone can find this funny? I really did try giving this a chance but it is well beyond me.

Anyone trying to catch some great Canadian comedy check out "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" or even better yet one of Canada's best new shows in "Corner Gas".

Suffered the SNL fate

[ametaphysicalshark · 2 April 2007]

While the early episodes (in particular the first 3 years) were absolutely hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable, "Air Farce" has been on a downward spiral for about 6 years now. It just isn't funny anymore. All the jokes are recycled and unfunny, and the cast is boring. The writing just isn't good anymore and they haven't introduced a decent character actor since Colin Mochrie as 'Queer Guy for Al Qaeda Guy'. All "Air Farce" does nowadays is rehash old jokes and predictably pick on whoever is in office wherever in Canada by commenting on their physical appearance etc.

For solid, funny social/political commentary, see "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" or "The Rick Mercer Report". Both are still hilarious and feature a lot more talent than "Air Farce". How this show got to 300 episodes is beyond my comprehension.

Letter Grade: F