Little mosque on the prairie
CBC doesn’t surprise with this uninspired comedy
BEN POGGEMILLER STAFF
Who do you find more attractive, Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson? I’m going to take a page out of the book of the always-on-the-opposition lawyer from The Simpsons and say that I feel so confident that Little Mosque on the Prairie is a terrible show that I can waste everyone’s time by rating the superhunks. This new show, which premiered on Jan. 9 on CBC, deals with Muslim life in a rural Canadian setting. At least, that’s what they promised.
I was one of two million viewers, according to the Canadian Press, that tuned in for the première. I was tentatively optimistic about a show dealing with Muslim life. My major concern was that it is being aired on CBC, a channel with nothing even remotely watchable aside from Hockey Night in Canada, which they are losing. I give CBC major kudos for attempting to create a meaningful sitcom about an under-represented group of people who are often the butt of many jokes in North America. I was looking forward to a sitcom about a minority that I admit I know very little about.
CBC unfortunately lived up to my low expectations, since Little Mosque is not really about Muslim life. It is about one joke being rammed down our throats for 22 minutes. The bureaucrats at CBC decided they were going to be “edgy, cool and totally with it,” by giving us endless terrorism jokes. If you press your face up against the screen, you can almost see the formula they used to come up with them.
Another fatal flaw of the show is its blatant defiance of stereotypes. It’s almost as if the series writer and director Zarqa Nawaz thought of stereotypes that people typically associate with Muslims, and made it the opposite, which is just as bad. For example, the plot revolves around a hip, progressive young imam from Toronto coming to shake things up at a mosque in a small town. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that it’s completely transparent. When he’s wrongfully detained at the airport, his only response is, “What’s the charge? Flying while Muslim?” It’s cute, but after a barrage of such jokes, the premise wears a little thin. Additionally, virtually everyone with white skin, with the exception of a converted wife of a Muslim, and the local Anglican minister, is a bumbling, ignorant bigot.
Little Mosque on the Prairie shows potential, but only if it becomes more about people who happen to be Muslim than a vessel for “informative humour.” Its unnatural dialogue and one-dimensional characters hinder the flow of what could be a thoughtful yet quirky comedy. I’m willing to give it a chance on the condition that the characters are fleshed out a little and the humour is diversified. It should be comedy first and foremost with a Muslim spin, not vice versa. The most flattering thing I can say about it is that it’s not the worst of CBC’s attempts to be hip (I’m looking at you, George Stroumboulopoulus). You never know, this attempt might not even fail. They get points for trying; just don’t be surprised if I skip it religiously.
