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"Blame Canada" is a satirical song from the 1999 animated film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, written by Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman. The song satirizes scapegoating and parents who fail to control "their children's consumption of popular culture", with the fictional South Park parents, led by Sheila Broflovski (Mary Kay Bergman), blaming the nation for children imitating the Terrance and Phillip film Asses of Fire.

"Blame Canada" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 72nd Academy Awards. Parker and Matt Stone arrived at the ceremony in dresses previously worn by Jennifer Lopez and Gwyneth Paltrow, and later claimed to be under the influence of LSD while on the red carpet.

An 8-bit remix of the song appears in the 2014 game South Park: The Stick of Truth, included as one of the overworld themes for the Canada level. The song appears again in the game's 2017 sequel, South Park: The Fractured but Whole, near the Canadian wall.

Shaiman wrote new lyrics for the song in 2023 reflecting conspiracy theories about the Canadian wildfires that year.

Reception

The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 72nd Academy Awards (1999). This created controversy because all nominated songs are traditionally performed during the Oscar broadcast, but the song contained the word fuck, which the FCC prohibits using in prime time broadcasts. At the awards ceremony, comedian Robin Williams performed the song with a chorus that gasped when the word was to be sung (Williams turned around at the crucial moment and did not actually sing it). He included digs at Margaret Trudeau and Bryan Adams, partially taken from lyrics of Sheila Broflovski's reprise of the song in "La Resistance". He referenced Celine Dion as well. Mary Kay Bergman, the voice actress who sang the female parts in the song, died months before the performance, forcing the organizers to search for a replacement for her and Trey Parker, who did the male voices. Williams introduced the song by speaking with duct tape over his mouth so that his speech resembled that of Kenny McCormick, then tearing it off and finally saying Stan Marsh's trademark line, "Oh my god! They killed Kenny!"

There was also some concern about the fact the song referred to well-known Canadian singer Anne Murray as a "bitch", but Murray indicated that she was not offended by the tongue-in-cheek lyric (Murray was invited to sing the song herself on the Oscar telecast but had to decline due to a prior commitment). When asked, the Canadian Consul General (and former prime minister) Kim Campbell said that she was not offended by the song since it was clearly a silly satirical piece and not intended to insult her country. This is made clear in the final line of the song:

We must blame them and cause a fuss.
Before somebody thinks of blaming us!

Coincidentally, the Canadian Oscar telecast in which Williams sang the song included the premiere of the Molson Canadian "I Am Canadian" rant advertisement, which counters many perceived Canadian stereotypes.

The song lost to Phil Collins' song "You'll Be in My Heart" from Tarzan, which was parodied on an episode of South Park released the following year, "Timmy 2000", as "You'll Be in Me".

See also

• Anti-Canadian sentiment
• Moral panic

References

1. Shehori, Steven. "Video: Robin Williams Sings 'Blame Canada' At The 2000 Oscars". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
2. Swapnil Dhruv Bose (27 December 2021). "When Trey Parker and Matt Stone went to the Oscars on LSD". FarOutMagazine.co.uk.
3. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock (11 September 2008). Taking South Park Seriously. SUNY Press. pp. 61–. ISBN 978-0-7914-7566-9.
4. Shaiman, Marc (June 7, 2023). "BLAME CANADA 2023". Facebook. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
5. Vinay Menon (8 June 2023). "Blame Canada? Why the wildfires are fuelling some … pretty wild conspiracy theories". Toronto Star.

Bibliography

• Johnson-Woods, Toni (2007). Blame Canada. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-1731-2.

v t e South Park (franchise)
Characters	Kids Stan Marsh Kyle Broflovski Eric Cartman Kenny McCormick Butters Stotch Wendy Testaburger Craig Tucker Tolkien Black Jimmy Valmer Adults Randy Marsh Gerald and Sheila Broflovski Liane Cartman Mr. Garrison Mr. Mackey Chef
Production	Cast members Guest stars Awards and nominations 6 Days to Air
Films	The Spirit of Christmas Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Seasons	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
Paramount+ specials	"Post COVID" "The Return of COVID" "The Streaming Wars" "The Streaming Wars Part 2" "Joining the Panderverse" "⁠(Not Suitable for Children)" "The End of Obesity"
Music	Studio albums Chef Aid: The South Park Album Bigger, Longer & Uncut Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics Singles "Chocolate Salty Balls" "Blame Canada" "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld"
Video games	South Park Chef's Luv Shack South Park Rally South Park 10: The Game Let's Go Tower Defense Play! Tenorman's Revenge The Stick of Truth The Fractured but Whole Phone Destroyer Snow Day!
Inspired works	South Park and Philosophy You Know, I Learned Something Today Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating South Park Conservatives Babylon Park Block 13
See also	Controversies Subject matter Python Night – 30 Years of Monty Python Pinball Home video releases Chewbacca defense South Park Republican Casa Bonita
Category

• 1999 songs
• 1999 singles
• South Park songs
• Canada–United States relations in South Park
• Songs written by Marc Shaiman
• Songs about Canada
• Songs written for animated films
• Fiction about racism
• Satirical songs
• Anti-Canadian sentiment
• Fiction about discrimination