The triumphant return of Rick Mercer

I love the idea of Ricky the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television comedian. But here's a man whose hype has outstripped his talent. I started calculating his show's smile-per-minute ratio, and it just didn't warrant my time. Failed satire and social commentary make for hideous television, and my accounting method is not mean nor shallow: It's eminently practical.

But I was bored and turned on the telly last night, and Mercer's baaaack! His "Monday Report" was funny and snarky and made me a fan all over again. Insufferable loud-mouth Paul Cellucci, the outgoing American ambassador to Canada, was saluted ("Don't let the door hit you on the ass"). British Columbia's premier (unsuccessfully) tried to sell university tuition increases to a (supposedly) cold-calling skeptical student. And a fake government of Canada ad offered a pamphlet on how to talk to your children about airline bankruptcies.

It wasn't all perfect. Mercer still does lousy stand-up. His machine gun delivery of one-liners ("The Front Page" and the opening monologue) rarely delivers. (Older viewers will see the high groaner quotient as a tip of the hat to old style Canuck comedy, nostalgically evoking the bad jokes of the CBC's iconic Wayne and Shuster duo.) Mercer's true talent is improvising with others, where his quick mind shines.

His insistence on traveling about the country, on visiting the far north, hanging out in university pubs or (like last night), spending time on a Coast Guard ship, adds immeasurably to our understanding of our own country. His is an inquisitive nationalism that acknowledges Canada as a whole.

Mercer's gay, of course, but is offended about being asked. He won't actually deny his relationship with longtime executive producer Gerald Lund. But that's as far as he'll go, mumbling to reporters that knowing too much about his private life will keep viewers from appreciating his jokes. Funny, I know about his private life and last night I still laughed.