Gobsmacked

I would be speechless, but then I wouldn't get to blog about this, would I?

During the Stanley Cup playoffs and finals (Game 5 tonight! It's almost over!), CBC has been running ads for upcoming programs. One of the ads features a comedian from "This Hour Has 22 Minutes," Canada's version of Saturday Night Live or Mad TV or one of those comedy things. This comedian is sitting in the locker room decked out in hockey stuff, doing a "promo" for "an upcoming CBC show." Wink, wink.

This "upcoming show" is called "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?" It features women from all across the country (world?) competing to be cast as Maria in a production of The Sound of Music. The promo piece shows them pushing each around on a mountainside. The ad includes the line, "It's what you like best about hockey, if what you like is women singing."

Ha ha. Get it? It's Broadway, which is un-hip; it's The Sound of Music, which is much-beloved family entertainment without slapstick or bodily fluids, so doubly unhip.

The idea is mildly amusing. In the vacuum left by American Idol, I've just watched several episodes of "So You Think You Can Dance" and Canadian Idol is gearing up to fill the hockey void. Those shows are also mildly amusing, so this new fake show fits right in. It may not be the MOST amusing idea for a fake reality show, but it's not bad.

Guess what? Hard though it is to type this, the show is also NOT FAKE, though apparently the women don't push each other around physically. See for yourself, here. Andrew Lloyd Webber, the man whose own face was the inspiration for his hit show "Cats," is involved somehow.

Well, there really is little to say after that. Except this looks like a really really good summer to spend time outside, enjoying the summer evenings.