I want to start by telling you a story
this is a story that I covered for CBC
Radio a few years ago and it’s actually
a bit of a seminal story for me I’ll let
you know why in a minute but the story
it’s itself actually happened here in
Calgary my hometown perfect time for an
applause break thank you but it happened
a few years back and some of you might
remember this mmm it was when the
short-lived but highly anticipated
Calgary aquarium closed its doors you
know that the aquarium director had kind
of said well we’ve got to close our
doors they’re simply not attendants
people are not coming
maybe it’s because Alberta’s landlocked
you know maybe there wasn’t that natural
curiosity towards sea life but they had
to close their doors and it left the
aquarium in kind of a very tricky spot
what to do with these fish you know you
can’t just simply release them back into
the wild they’ve lost their natural
instinct so that’s not a possibility you
you can’t transfer them to another
aquarium I mean just trying to transport
some of these large animals would be
very stressful on them or you also run
into the risk of cross tank
contamination so that wasn’t a
possibility so the aquarium director
made a tricky decision that turned out
to be quite controversial and that was
that on a beautiful Saturday afternoon
they were going to invite Calgarians
down to the aquarium and you could go in
and point to any fish in any tank and
they would take that fish and they’d put
it out in the parking lot and grill it
over open coals
you know it was a great opportunity for
Calgarians you know who’d never tried
barbecued sea otter you know or grilled
manatee and the aquarium director
thought you know I mean based on the
success of pancake breakfasts Albertans
love eating in parking lots so at this
point I think it’s fair to say that’s
not a true story and it you know that
it’s possible that some people might
have believed that for a little bit I
mean it’s possible there’s some people
out there literally thinking I wonder
what that tastes like how did I miss
that no no I hope that’s not a
possibility but it’s possible that you
might have believed that for a little
bit right I mean I’m standing in front
of the TEDx sign I’m on a red dot I’ve
got a beautifully pressed shirt there’s
a lot of reasons why you should believe
me but the content of what I said is
ridiculous and mildly illegal
but if you fell for any part of that
story I want you to know that you’re not
alone because when we first broadcast
that comedy story we received hundreds
and hundreds of phone calls from
Canadians concerned that Calgarians were
at an aquarium barbecue this is just a
sample of some of those calls the story
about the Calgary aquarium shutting down
what they’re doing with the animals that
they’re going to eat them I think this
is absolutely outrageous disgusting very
disgust I don’t know how people are
getting away with this they’re gonna
grill up the fish and the sea otters
weird what’s going on here I’m sure this
before I feel the same way I just just
shocking to me and I just hope it’s a
joke
[Music]
it was a joke he got it in the end but I
told you before that that this was a
seminal story and I actually meant that
because that story ran in the second
episode of a satirical comedy show that
I do called this is that and that was
the first indication that we had that
anybody would take our comedy stories as
a real story so in some level of
thinking seven years ago we were making
fake news I mean that was way before
Donald Trump made it popular but I will
tell you this that wasn’t our intention
when we first started working on the
show myself Pat Kelly and Chris Kelly
our idea was just simply to parody the
sound of public radio to parody the
sound of CBC that we wanted to have this
platform to do ridiculous characters to
do outrageous interviews outlandish
documentaries but we didn’t want to make
it too obvious we wanted to sort of
serve it up in a very earnest dry public
radio tone CBC because we thought that
juxtaposition is funny
it’s funny and we wanted to sort of do a
very accurate job of it so we actually
met with a senior producer a radio
producer at CBC and we said you know if
we want to really sound like CBC do you
have any cleaners any insider
information and she said well yeah I
mean you know on our news stories on the
radio we have certain formats that we
put our news into and I was like huh
formats
I thought news isn’t it you just
interview someone they spout off a bunch
of facts then you move on to the next
person they spun off a bunch of facts
that’s
but she was like no no I mean we put our
stories into certain formats and so she
shared with us some of these formats one
of them is called a double ender which
is when a host decides they’re in a
cover story and they want to have two
differing opinions first person comes on
for maybe about a minute maybe they’re
on the phone it’s a monologue the host
interjects has a little perspective and
then the second person comes on they
give a little monologue that’s a double
ender another story is called a freight
train that’s when a host decides that
they want to have a bunch of sound bites
a bunch of different little sound bites
throughout the story like boxcars on a
freight train one after the other after
the other after the other a freight
train another one was called a talk tape
a talk tape is when to house you have
heard this when two hosts are sitting in
studio together and they’re having a
scripted conversation this sort of
sounds a little stilted like they’re
trying to pass it off as though it’s
very casual they’re just off the cuff
but something’s a little stilted because
it’s scripted and there’s different
sound ups that they play throughout
their conversation that support this
story well first of all when I heard
that and I started listening to radio I
started to kind of pick up on those and
I realized oh my gosh I mean I guess
subconsciously they’ve always been there
and I didn’t really pick up on it maybe
I sort of knew but I didn’t really pick
up on it but what we found is that when
we put our ridiculous stories into those
formats people really believed them like
every episode of the show that we’ve
ever done we receive hundreds of calls
anyone familiar with the show every
single listener feedback is a real
person that’s not us and so what it
tells me is that you know for some
people in trying to determine truth that
maybe form and tone are actually more
important than content which is kind of
weird because you sort of go well if I’m
seeking the truth I would probably do
the digging into the content but
actually maybe for some it’s form and
tone there’s an old saying that’s you
know how do you sell a big lie
you surround it by truth and it makes it
more palatable and so on some level our
ridiculous stories are the big lie and
the truths are that the tone sounds
familiar the form is in a way that I
recognized as something I associate with
being truthful and so somehow they
overlooked the actual story now it
wasn’t just listeners that were falling
for our stories we were pretty floored
to find out that legitimate news
organizations took some of our stories
as true and not just a few organizations
we did a story about a bylaw in Montreal
that all dogs in Montreal were mandated
would be mandated to understand commands
in both official languages
English and French that story was
covered as true by New York magazine
Cesar Milan the dog whisperer also
tweeted out dogs don’t understand
language differently it’s kind of the
point
we did another story about a youth
sports league who in order to address
the negative effects of competition that
a youth soccer league decided to remove
the ball from soccer so much this kind
of kids running around kicking the air
right if someone said they scored I
guess you did if someone said I saved it
I guess you did
everybody wins because nobody knows
what’s happening that story was covered
is true by Fox Sports and by the
Washington Times and many others
Harper’s Magazine has taken one of our
stories and run with it is true the
National Post took one of our stories
and round that is true and I mean the
crazy thing is is you know maybe it’s
because they’re in this quick turnaround
if they find a headline they want to
turn out content something that grabs
attention something that clicks on their
page but truthfully if they wanted to do
any of the due diligence all they would
have to do is find a secondary source on
our story because really we were the
only ones that were reporting that in
Montreal dogs need to be able to
understand both English and French but
that didn’t happen and to their credit
they did retract the story once they
realized it was satire but in some level
the damage had already been done
it seems to me that we’re in this
minefield of information and we kind of
have to navigate this to try to figure
out what’s true what’s not true and
sometimes I you know we think of our
show as as like this booby trap you know
that’s kind of saying hey you can’t
believe everything that you read or see
you engage the critical part of your
mind it’s important it’s important and
it look you know a if you stumbled
across one of our stories and it
explodes the hope is that you get a
laugh our intention is comedy and maybe
you get some perspective but if you step
on another
new story a fake news story a new story
with a very different agenda and it
explodes I mean that has the power to
change elections right to change
millions of lives we have this just a
weird way that we measure when one of
our satirical stories is successful Pat
and Chris and I’m I’ll let you in on our
secret which is that when we have this
fake story a fake issue that we have
created when we get listener response
feedback vehemently arguing both sides
of a fictitious issue we kind of feel
like well we’ve struck a chord somehow
we did this weird story it’s really kind
of an unusual one and we didn’t really
think too much of it it was about a
politician who said that we need to
change the Canadian flag we need to get
rid of the maple leaf on the Canadian
flag I was the politician by the way
because the concern is that in countries
that don’t have maple trees they
wouldn’t recognize what a maple leaf is
and the big danger is that they might
mistake it for a pot leaf we received
hundreds of calls some people saying
finally someone has said it
I have worried about this for years
other people calling in saying I think
it’s great
we should celebrate our progressive laws
someone else called in and said I also
take issue that it’s a maple leaf not
because it looks like a pot leaf but
because a leaf says nothing it’s a leaf
it’s weak we need an image on our flag
that projects strength a bear’s paw or a
cougars tooth and someone else called in
and said has nothing to do with the
image my problems with the color red has
been a long-standing liberal agenda
satire holds up a mirror to our self we
can see ourselves hopefully we see
ourselves we get some perspective we can
see ourselves in the callers we can see
where they went wrong we can see what it
is that they see in a story that’s on
their chest that they need to get off
their chest but hopefully we see
ourselves a little bit we get a bit of a
laugh we see our biases biases are a
huge one because really it’s biases that
fake news plays on and I know this
because we play on it it’s not by
accident that we set the aquarium story
in Calgary
I’m Albertan I grew up here I know that
outside of Alberta some people might
have a predisposition to a way of
thinking about what Albertans are
generalizations about who albertans are
we’re cowboys renegades the Wild West
the Texans of Canada wouldn’t surprise
me what Albertans are throwing on grills
they love to eat in parking lots but
these biases recognizing these biases is
a big thing especially now because it
seems to me that you know we used to go
out and seek information right if you
wanted to find something out you would
go and get a paper you would turn on the
six o’clock news you would go to an
encyclopedia you would actively do that
now it feels like the information seeks
us out it comes to us it bombards us but
the thing is is that the information
that finds us on our social media feeds
on our telephone a headline that grabs
an update breaking news the information
that finds us is already pre filtered
through our biases and beliefs you know
it’s it’s based on our online footprint
it’s based on our preferences already
our interests our habits things that we
already believe and the trick is that
you know in a way of thinking it’s kind
of like if we’re not careful we can be
inside this bubble and really that’s
what fake news wants it doesn’t want you
to step outside and seek other
information and so inside this bubble
you know yeah it could mean that we are
more likely to fall for a story we could
be more gullible but I think in a larger
context you know the other trap is that
we literally could be trapped in an echo
chamber of our own beliefs and so I
think the challenge is to make sure that
we step outside of our bubble seek other
perspectives some of which really might
not agree with our own engage the
critical part of our mind have a laugh
at ourselves laughing at our biases you
know it’s funny if you kind of have a
bias and you recognize it and you laugh
at it a little bit
somehow that illuminates it that sort of
sets it free just a little bit and I
think that maybe if we all do this if we
look for other perspectives
if we find other points of view that
maybe hopefully for all of us we’ll
simply get a little bit closer to the
truth
Thank You Calgary
[Applause]
this is a story that I covered for CBC
Radio a few years ago and it’s actually
a bit of a seminal story for me I’ll let
you know why in a minute but the story
it’s itself actually happened here in
Calgary my hometown perfect time for an
applause break thank you but it happened
a few years back and some of you might
remember this mmm it was when the
short-lived but highly anticipated
Calgary aquarium closed its doors you
know that the aquarium director had kind
of said well we’ve got to close our
doors they’re simply not attendants
people are not coming
maybe it’s because Alberta’s landlocked
you know maybe there wasn’t that natural
curiosity towards sea life but they had
to close their doors and it left the
aquarium in kind of a very tricky spot
what to do with these fish you know you
can’t just simply release them back into
the wild they’ve lost their natural
instinct so that’s not a possibility you
you can’t transfer them to another
aquarium I mean just trying to transport
some of these large animals would be
very stressful on them or you also run
into the risk of cross tank
contamination so that wasn’t a
possibility so the aquarium director
made a tricky decision that turned out
to be quite controversial and that was
that on a beautiful Saturday afternoon
they were going to invite Calgarians
down to the aquarium and you could go in
and point to any fish in any tank and
they would take that fish and they’d put
it out in the parking lot and grill it
over open coals
you know it was a great opportunity for
Calgarians you know who’d never tried
barbecued sea otter you know or grilled
manatee and the aquarium director
thought you know I mean based on the
success of pancake breakfasts Albertans
love eating in parking lots so at this
point I think it’s fair to say that’s
not a true story and it you know that
it’s possible that some people might
have believed that for a little bit I
mean it’s possible there’s some people
out there literally thinking I wonder
what that tastes like how did I miss
that no no I hope that’s not a
possibility but it’s possible that you
might have believed that for a little
bit right I mean I’m standing in front
of the TEDx sign I’m on a red dot I’ve
got a beautifully pressed shirt there’s
a lot of reasons why you should believe
me but the content of what I said is
ridiculous and mildly illegal
but if you fell for any part of that
story I want you to know that you’re not
alone because when we first broadcast
that comedy story we received hundreds
and hundreds of phone calls from
Canadians concerned that Calgarians were
at an aquarium barbecue this is just a
sample of some of those calls the story
about the Calgary aquarium shutting down
what they’re doing with the animals that
they’re going to eat them I think this
is absolutely outrageous disgusting very
disgust I don’t know how people are
getting away with this they’re gonna
grill up the fish and the sea otters
weird what’s going on here I’m sure this
before I feel the same way I just just
shocking to me and I just hope it’s a
joke
[Music]
it was a joke he got it in the end but I
told you before that that this was a
seminal story and I actually meant that
because that story ran in the second
episode of a satirical comedy show that
I do called this is that and that was
the first indication that we had that
anybody would take our comedy stories as
a real story so in some level of
thinking seven years ago we were making
fake news I mean that was way before
Donald Trump made it popular but I will
tell you this that wasn’t our intention
when we first started working on the
show myself Pat Kelly and Chris Kelly
our idea was just simply to parody the
sound of public radio to parody the
sound of CBC that we wanted to have this
platform to do ridiculous characters to
do outrageous interviews outlandish
documentaries but we didn’t want to make
it too obvious we wanted to sort of
serve it up in a very earnest dry public
radio tone CBC because we thought that
juxtaposition is funny
it’s funny and we wanted to sort of do a
very accurate job of it so we actually
met with a senior producer a radio
producer at CBC and we said you know if
we want to really sound like CBC do you
have any cleaners any insider
information and she said well yeah I
mean you know on our news stories on the
radio we have certain formats that we
put our news into and I was like huh
formats
I thought news isn’t it you just
interview someone they spout off a bunch
of facts then you move on to the next
person they spun off a bunch of facts
that’s
but she was like no no I mean we put our
stories into certain formats and so she
shared with us some of these formats one
of them is called a double ender which
is when a host decides they’re in a
cover story and they want to have two
differing opinions first person comes on
for maybe about a minute maybe they’re
on the phone it’s a monologue the host
interjects has a little perspective and
then the second person comes on they
give a little monologue that’s a double
ender another story is called a freight
train that’s when a host decides that
they want to have a bunch of sound bites
a bunch of different little sound bites
throughout the story like boxcars on a
freight train one after the other after
the other after the other a freight
train another one was called a talk tape
a talk tape is when to house you have
heard this when two hosts are sitting in
studio together and they’re having a
scripted conversation this sort of
sounds a little stilted like they’re
trying to pass it off as though it’s
very casual they’re just off the cuff
but something’s a little stilted because
it’s scripted and there’s different
sound ups that they play throughout
their conversation that support this
story well first of all when I heard
that and I started listening to radio I
started to kind of pick up on those and
I realized oh my gosh I mean I guess
subconsciously they’ve always been there
and I didn’t really pick up on it maybe
I sort of knew but I didn’t really pick
up on it but what we found is that when
we put our ridiculous stories into those
formats people really believed them like
every episode of the show that we’ve
ever done we receive hundreds of calls
anyone familiar with the show every
single listener feedback is a real
person that’s not us and so what it
tells me is that you know for some
people in trying to determine truth that
maybe form and tone are actually more
important than content which is kind of
weird because you sort of go well if I’m
seeking the truth I would probably do
the digging into the content but
actually maybe for some it’s form and
tone there’s an old saying that’s you
know how do you sell a big lie
you surround it by truth and it makes it
more palatable and so on some level our
ridiculous stories are the big lie and
the truths are that the tone sounds
familiar the form is in a way that I
recognized as something I associate with
being truthful and so somehow they
overlooked the actual story now it
wasn’t just listeners that were falling
for our stories we were pretty floored
to find out that legitimate news
organizations took some of our stories
as true and not just a few organizations
we did a story about a bylaw in Montreal
that all dogs in Montreal were mandated
would be mandated to understand commands
in both official languages
English and French that story was
covered as true by New York magazine
Cesar Milan the dog whisperer also
tweeted out dogs don’t understand
language differently it’s kind of the
point
we did another story about a youth
sports league who in order to address
the negative effects of competition that
a youth soccer league decided to remove
the ball from soccer so much this kind
of kids running around kicking the air
right if someone said they scored I
guess you did if someone said I saved it
I guess you did
everybody wins because nobody knows
what’s happening that story was covered
is true by Fox Sports and by the
Washington Times and many others
Harper’s Magazine has taken one of our
stories and run with it is true the
National Post took one of our stories
and round that is true and I mean the
crazy thing is is you know maybe it’s
because they’re in this quick turnaround
if they find a headline they want to
turn out content something that grabs
attention something that clicks on their
page but truthfully if they wanted to do
any of the due diligence all they would
have to do is find a secondary source on
our story because really we were the
only ones that were reporting that in
Montreal dogs need to be able to
understand both English and French but
that didn’t happen and to their credit
they did retract the story once they
realized it was satire but in some level
the damage had already been done
it seems to me that we’re in this
minefield of information and we kind of
have to navigate this to try to figure
out what’s true what’s not true and
sometimes I you know we think of our
show as as like this booby trap you know
that’s kind of saying hey you can’t
believe everything that you read or see
you engage the critical part of your
mind it’s important it’s important and
it look you know a if you stumbled
across one of our stories and it
explodes the hope is that you get a
laugh our intention is comedy and maybe
you get some perspective but if you step
on another
new story a fake news story a new story
with a very different agenda and it
explodes I mean that has the power to
change elections right to change
millions of lives we have this just a
weird way that we measure when one of
our satirical stories is successful Pat
and Chris and I’m I’ll let you in on our
secret which is that when we have this
fake story a fake issue that we have
created when we get listener response
feedback vehemently arguing both sides
of a fictitious issue we kind of feel
like well we’ve struck a chord somehow
we did this weird story it’s really kind
of an unusual one and we didn’t really
think too much of it it was about a
politician who said that we need to
change the Canadian flag we need to get
rid of the maple leaf on the Canadian
flag I was the politician by the way
because the concern is that in countries
that don’t have maple trees they
wouldn’t recognize what a maple leaf is
and the big danger is that they might
mistake it for a pot leaf we received
hundreds of calls some people saying
finally someone has said it
I have worried about this for years
other people calling in saying I think
it’s great
we should celebrate our progressive laws
someone else called in and said I also
take issue that it’s a maple leaf not
because it looks like a pot leaf but
because a leaf says nothing it’s a leaf
it’s weak we need an image on our flag
that projects strength a bear’s paw or a
cougars tooth and someone else called in
and said has nothing to do with the
image my problems with the color red has
been a long-standing liberal agenda
satire holds up a mirror to our self we
can see ourselves hopefully we see
ourselves we get some perspective we can
see ourselves in the callers we can see
where they went wrong we can see what it
is that they see in a story that’s on
their chest that they need to get off
their chest but hopefully we see
ourselves a little bit we get a bit of a
laugh we see our biases biases are a
huge one because really it’s biases that
fake news plays on and I know this
because we play on it it’s not by
accident that we set the aquarium story
in Calgary
I’m Albertan I grew up here I know that
outside of Alberta some people might
have a predisposition to a way of
thinking about what Albertans are
generalizations about who albertans are
we’re cowboys renegades the Wild West
the Texans of Canada wouldn’t surprise
me what Albertans are throwing on grills
they love to eat in parking lots but
these biases recognizing these biases is
a big thing especially now because it
seems to me that you know we used to go
out and seek information right if you
wanted to find something out you would
go and get a paper you would turn on the
six o’clock news you would go to an
encyclopedia you would actively do that
now it feels like the information seeks
us out it comes to us it bombards us but
the thing is is that the information
that finds us on our social media feeds
on our telephone a headline that grabs
an update breaking news the information
that finds us is already pre filtered
through our biases and beliefs you know
it’s it’s based on our online footprint
it’s based on our preferences already
our interests our habits things that we
already believe and the trick is that
you know in a way of thinking it’s kind
of like if we’re not careful we can be
inside this bubble and really that’s
what fake news wants it doesn’t want you
to step outside and seek other
information and so inside this bubble
you know yeah it could mean that we are
more likely to fall for a story we could
be more gullible but I think in a larger
context you know the other trap is that
we literally could be trapped in an echo
chamber of our own beliefs and so I
think the challenge is to make sure that
we step outside of our bubble seek other
perspectives some of which really might
not agree with our own engage the
critical part of our mind have a laugh
at ourselves laughing at our biases you
know it’s funny if you kind of have a
bias and you recognize it and you laugh
at it a little bit
somehow that illuminates it that sort of
sets it free just a little bit and I
think that maybe if we all do this if we
look for other perspectives
if we find other points of view that
maybe hopefully for all of us we’ll
simply get a little bit closer to the
truth
Thank You Calgary
[Applause]
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