The CBC hit This Hour Has 22 Minutes is doubling down ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. election. The double-length episode of the political comedy show, This Hour Has 22 Minutes Has 44 Minutes: A U.S. Election Special, will bring a Canadian take on the race between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump (premiering Monday, Nov. 4 at 8:00 p.m./8:30 p.m. NT on CBC and CBC Gem).
As executive producer Peter McBain shared, conversations about this special started early in the year, with comedy news correspondents, including Dan Dillabough, starting their travels across the U.S. in June.
“I reached out to Michael Donovan, who’s the exec on the show, back in February, and started to think, ‘Oh boy, this is going to be a giant story and I hope that 22 Minutes has a special planned for it,'” McBain told Yahoo Canada. “Luckily, between Michael and CBC, all of these ideas came together.”
“Dan had been doing field pieces with the show and we thought, what a perfect thing to do and take Dan to a bunch of places in the U.S. and really tell this story. So the first time we went out with the camera was in early June, but before that we were prepping and getting ready and following along, and what a rollercoaster of a ride it’s been.”
The show’s in-studio cast includes Aba Amuquandoh, Stacey McGunnigle, Trent McClellan, Chris Wilson, and Mark Critch. While Dillabough, Clare Belford, and Abdullah Usman were on the road in the U.S. for their coverage for the special.
Some of Dillabough’s work included interviewing people outside Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York and going to going to a JD Vance rally in Michigan.
“We’re all such huge U.S. politics junkies and normally we kind of stick to our lane with the Canadian stuff, so it’s such a great opportunity to really dig into all the stuff that we’re always nerding out about,” Dillabough said. “Being on the ground and [meeting] people, especially visiting these battleground states where you really feel the weight of this election manifesting itself really acutely. You see the lawn signs everywhere, you see every other ad on TV is for a political candidate, the energy is a lot more charged than what you would get even with a Canadian election.”
“Myself and the other correspondents, we really fanned out. I went to five different cities, I know Peter’s been to even more than that, … it’s a lot of just talking to people on the ground, digging into a lot of the bigger, broader issues that are at stake. A lot of stuff that we planned and a lot of stuff that we stumbled on that was very kind of weird and spontaneous. We hit up some rallies, we talked to activists and politicians, and I think it’ll be a fun mix the jokes that people might expect from the show and hopefully some enlightening breakdowns of the issues.”
A particular “thrill” for Dillabough so far on This Hour Has 22 Minutes was spending time with famed filmmaker Michael Moore. Dillabough, a dual American-Canadian citizen, brought Moore his ballot to fill out, and they spoke about the importance of Americans abroad voting in this election.
“We’ve been really digging into the role that Americans abroad, and particularly Americans living in Canada, are going to play as a consequential block of swing voters,” Dillabough said. “And Michael Moore obviously has been thinking about this stuff very intensely, and was very generous with his time with us and really walked us through the stakes, the role that Americans broad are going to play,”
“And I got the chance to fill out my own ballot with him, which, for a political junkie who grew up on those Michael Moore documentaries, is something I never could have fathomed in my wildest dreams.”
‘One side is definitely a little easier to make fun of’
With any political comedy programming, much of the entertainment comes from that balance of written jokes and just leaning into the comedy, or absurdity, of actual scenarios.
“We tried to be equal opportunity in making fun of people, but one side is definitely a little easier to make fun of, which I think you’ll see in the show,” McBain shared. “We definitely have a saying at 22 Minutes that if the joke is coming down the comedy train track, sometimes you’ve just got to step out of the way.”
“One of the things with Trump is the things that he says are outrageous and horrible in some ways, but in other ways ridiculous. I mean, the sharks from earlier in the year and stuff like that, you just have to kind of figure out a way to comment upon it and make sure that you’re adding something to it. But other times you’ve just got to step aside and let that Trump train come through. What is really interesting in that circumstance is things that Democrats think are funny are things that Republicans take seriously, and the reverse. … So you really do have to figure out who you’re talking to and what the right approach is, and … how to get a laugh out of them.”
But a constant with This Hour Has 22 Minutes is that the show will always have it’s signature and unique Canadian perspective, not just commenting on the upcoming election, but speaking specifically to the Canadian fascination with American politics.
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot, because truth is it’s a foreign country and just because we have access to all American pop culture and TV channels and music doesn’t mean we’re Americans. It doesn’t mean we’ve grown up in in those cities and towns,” McBain said. “And they certainly don’t know our own references. You can stand on a street corner and talk to 20 people and not one of them is going to be The Tragically Hip are.”
“But that’s something that can really help with the comedic perspective, because you’re looking for things that people might not think of and might not connect together in order to create a punchline. … So for us, I think it is a unique perspective that we’re going to bring to this entire election. … I have this little picture in my mind of the two of us standing over a fence, like looking into the neighbour’s yard, and then running away and laughing about what we’re seeing over there, because that’s essentially what we’re doing.”
Looking ahead beyond election day, the team behind This Hour Has 22 Minutes can’t help but start thinking about what they’ll do for the show once the result is confirmed.
“It’s hard not to think about,” McBain said. “We’re trying to line up where we should be and who we should talk to, and it’s going to be a complicated time.”
“Especially for political nerds like we are, this is fascinating, and it’s also not just the presidential election, … all 435 congressional seats are up for grabs, a third of the Senate, thousands of city councillors and state senators. … There’s lots of other stories to follow as well.”
“I can’t turn it off at this point,” Dillabough added. “The only thing you can predict is that it will be completely unpredictable.”
“So we’re always kind of keeping an eye on where a strange thing might be happening.”