There have been a number of, in my opinion, excellent Canadian television shows over the years including the innovative and influential Degrassi trilogy of The Kids of Degrassi Street, (CBC, 1979-1986) Degrassi Junior High (CBC, 1987-1989) and Degrassi High (CBC, 1989-1991), Degrassi before Californication, Anne of Green Gables (CBC, 1985, 1987), Due South (CTV, 1994-1999), Slings and Arrows (The Movie Network/Movie Central 2003-2006), a show turned down by the CBC for perhaps being too much of a satire of a Canadian cultural institution, Stratford, Being Erica (CBC, 2009-2011), the long running Murdoch Mysteries (City, 2008-2012, CBC, 2013-), and the long running Heartland (CBC, 2007-), to name a few. None of them, however, get either the attention they deserve or the props they deserve from the seemingly omnipresent but certainly not omniscient “reactors" on YouTube, whether Canadian or not, whether scholars, who are a vast minority on social media, or not.
There are, as anyone who has browsed YouTube for a period of time knows, a number of Canadians who do music, film, and television “reactions” on that social media site. They, like the English Canadian duo CineBinge, Popcorn in Bed (who is sometimes joined by her sister) and darcie’s watching stuff, both of whom hail from Alberta, the most Americanised of Americanised Canada, the Torontonian shadowcat, or the Canadian francophones Vic, and Verdy, however, largely react to American stuff though Popcorn does occasionally, very occasionally branch out into British stuff. A few, like the Hanier Family and Bars and Barbells do have Canadian content rules and periodically “react” to music by English Canadian bands like Rush, Triumph, and April Wine but not generally to lesser known English Canadian bands such as Great Big Sea, Figgy Duff, The Northern Pikes, Frozen Ghost, lesser known French Canadian bands like The Box and Men Without Hats, or very English Canadian Canadian bands such as The Tragically Hip or Sloan.
There is one Canadian “reactor”, however, an expatriate Canadian actor living in London in the United Kingdom named Megan Ruth who generally “reacts” to British television shows like the innovative and influential Monty Python’s Flying Circus (BBC, 1969-1976), Fawlty Towers (BBC, 1975-1979), Blackadder (BBC, 1983-1999), Inbetweeners (E4, 2008-2010), and The League of Gentlemen (BBC, 1999-2002, 2017), all TV shows worthy or “reactions” and all British TV shows largely ignored by the majority of “reactors” on YouTube in favour of the much more mediocre American programmes that dominate “reaction" videos on YouTube. That makes Ms. Ruth somewhat of an anomaly amongst “reactors” on YouTube.
In many ways Ms. Ruth, CineBinge, Popcorn in Bed, darcie’s watching stuff, Vic, and Verdy are allegories for Canada itself past and present. Ms. Ruth symbolises the English Canada of yore, an English Canada proud to be part of the British Empire, an empire that is more of a memory than a reality these days. CineBinge, Vic, and Verdy symbolise the Canada of today, a Canada that is a client state of Imperial America and in thrall to Californicated American culture. All of them ignore Canadian content generally. Ms. Ruth ignores Canadian television programmes that are similar to the British television shows she does “react” to such as the fascinating Twitch City (CBC, 1998, 2000), the brainchild of Canadian art director Don McKellar. CineBinge ignores the films of the brilliant Canadian artist, Guy Maddin while Vic and Verdy ignore the work of English and French Canadian artists.
Of course, this state of affairs—the strange case of missing Canadian content on YouTube—is not surprising given that “reactors” have made themselves into commodities whose goal it is to make monies off of advertising revenue on YouTube. And the best way to make money off advertising revenue on YouTube is by “reacting" to American stuff given that American Californicated culture is one of the dominant imperial cultures on the planet and the dominant English language culture on the planet. Perhaps the strange case of missing Canadian “reaction” content on YouTube is not so strange after all.
Canadians, by the way, are not the only “reactors” to ignore their own media history in favour of American television and movies. Most of the Brits on YouTube largely ignore great British television and movies like Inspector Morse (ITV, 1987-2000), Lewis (ITV, 2006-2015), Broadchurch (ITV, 2013, 2015, 2017), and Happy Valley (BBC, 2014, 2016, 2023), all of which are all far superior artistically speaking to almost anything and everything on US TV, in favour of American content just as Canadians largely ignore Canadian content and gravitate toward American media. But then like Canada once Imperial Britain is now a client state of the Imperial United States. By the way, the same state of affairs can also be found among Australian and Kiwi “reactors” to television and movies on YouTube, citizens of two other English and British settler societies that are now client states of the US who focus most of their "reactions" on American content.
One last word about Ms. Ruth, I have occasionally imagine that her show must be brought to us by CSIS, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada’s version of MI5, MI6, the CIA, and the FBI. Why? Because she apparently deleted a post of mine noting her exclusive focus on British media and her exclusion of Canadian content. Whether she did delete this comment or not I don’t know. I have no empirical data to verify that she did or didn’t do this. Still I like to imagine that she did. After all, it would make so much sense in the wider world of politically and culturally correct YouTube “reaction” videos.
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