Cherry Bomb
by Roland Barphe, director of media studies at the Polyvalente de St-Tite, founder of l'Organisation Uni du Film Original Québécois (l'OUFOq), and editor of Excressences
What do they know of Canada who do not Don Cherry know?
For non-Canadians I will point out that this Don Cherry is not the one who plays jazz trumpet. He is the Don Cherry who comments on hockey games on his weekly show, Coach's Corner (he is a former coach in the American and National Hockey Leagues, who achieved his greatest success with the Boston Bruins of the Bobby Orr era). The show is a matter of a few minutes between periods of the first game shown by Hockey Night in Canada, but it has been popular for years.
Of the schools of thought about Mr. Cherry, two predominate: the school which thinks he is a crude, neanderthal blowhard who dresses oddly and threatens the moral fabric of Canadian society, and the school which thinks that he is a staunch defender of real Canadian principles who dresses oddly and will restore the moral fabric of Canadian society.
As usual, both these opinions have been arrived at by concentrating on a single characteristic of Mr.Cherry's. On television he does appear as a crude neanderthal blowhard. However, George Plimpton reveals in Open Net that he considers Mr. Cherry good company, so one has to wonder about just how crude and neanderthal Mr. Cherry is off camera.
On television Mr. Cherry also defends certain principles dear to many Canadians and rarely misses a chance to wrap himself in the flag. However, at a televised boxing match he was shown standing for the national anthem with his hat on, so his respect for the great Canadian traditions has its limits.
What the adherents to these two schools of thought forget is that television is not real. Mr. Cherry and his sidekick/stooge, Ron McLean, are clearly playing roles. Coach's Corner is a theatrical performance.
The specific theatrical piece on which Coach's Corner is based is obvious – Punch and Judy. The screen is occupied by the two men, who are seen only from the waist up – just like Punch and Judy. The format of the show is simple. The two men turn toward each other, Mr. McLean opens the conversation tentatively, Mr. Cherry responds angrily in a loud voice, and these exchanges continue – Punch and Judy without the club. The show can be enjoyed quite well as comedy, and in fact that is how many people enjoy it.
Mr. Cherry occasionally adds a postmodern touch by pausing in mid-tirade to evaluate his performance for Mr. McLean. These rather obvious indicators of the theatricality of Coach's Corner have, however, escaped the attention of both his detractors and his admirers.
Coach's Corner, as I have hinted, is about morals. Mr. McLean represents the moral position which dominates the elite positions in Canadian society – advocacy of co-operation and teamwork, especially when co-operation and teamwork consist of doing what well-connected people consider important. Mr. Cherry represents a moral position which is rarely allowed a voice in the Canadian media – advocacy of competition, pugnacity, and refusal to compromise on principle.
Many Canadians, particularly those in positions of influence, of course believe that compromise is the life's blood of Canadian society – do we not have to compromise so that the diverse groups which make up Canadian society all feel accepted and dignified? They are predictably horrified by Mr. Cherry. If, for example, William Houston of the Globe and Mail has not yet blamed Mr. Cherry for the Black Death, the collapse of the British Empire, or the ice storm of 1997, it is probably only because of limitations of space in his column.
Other Canadians are more sophisticated. They find Coach's Corner refreshing not because they share Mr. Cherry's ideas, but because they enjoy the opportunity, rare on Canadian television, to see someone who is not trying to be boring, and who is expressing an opinion which has not been approved in advance by the Governor General and Peter Gzowski.
And some of Mr. Cherry's ideas are good ones. In the debate over the increasing number of head injuries in hockey, he is about the only public commentator to make the point that the injuries are due to players being allowed to play the head rather than the body while checking. The non-violent crowd likes to blame it on inadequate equipment, although the Royal Ontario Museum has an interesting exhibit about how contemporary hockey gear is a highly developed modern form of armour.
In the end, Mr. Cherry succeeds (his show has been on the air since before Moses was in the fire brigade) because he presents himself as an outlet for moral excitement. For the so-called liberal crowd, he is a convenient target for their outrage at the boorish louts who they think make up so much of the lower orders. For the so-called right-wing crowd his tirades about the principles they hold dear allow them to exult in their righteousness and in their principles finally being heard on Canadian television.
I believe that Mr. Cherry not only understands this, but that he has deliberately attempted to function in these two roles. Many people would scoff at the idea of Mr. Cherry being that smart, but then many scoff at the idea that Mel Lastman is smart. Both men have been making very good money off their shtick for decades, without modifying it, but polite opinion considers them to be of subnormal intelligence.
While those Canadians who consider themselves progressives tend to dislike Mr. Cherry, I believe they owe him a debt. Aside from giving them a weekly opportunity to experience a highly gratifying moral orgasm, he did them the favour of not running for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance (he has connections within the Ontario Tories, who furnished one of the candidates for this position). If former coach Cherry is annoying, just imagine what prime minister Cherry would be like.
Cherry Bomb © Coolth, 2000
Click the banner or click here for Coolth
Sports | Cherry Watch | Home