Blame Canada

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About

Blame Canada is a catchphrase and memorable song from the 1999 animated movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. The phrase is uttered by the character Sheila Broflovski (Kyle's mother) after she takes offense to an in-show Canadian movie called Terrence and Phillip: Asses of Fire. The scene made a resurgence in memes in 2023 with co-writer Mark Shaiman posting an updated version of the song to comment on the smoke engulfing the East Coast U.S. due to the 2023 Canadian Wildfires.

Origin

The 1999 animated film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was created by Trey Parker & Marc Shaiman.^[1] The movie was released in theaters on June 30th, 1999, and contained a plot point in which Kyle Broflovski's mother, Sheila Broflovski, takes offense to an in-movie Canadian television show called Terrence and Phillip: Asses of Fire. Sheila then begins a campaign to "Blame Canada" for the bad behavior exhibited by children who watched the Canadian show. "Blame Canada" was subsequently nominated for Best Original Song at the 72nd Academy Awards.

The song "Blame Canada" can be accessed via an upload to YouTube by Movieclips,^[2] where it gathered over 7 million views in 11 years (seen below).

Spread

The phrase "Blame Canada" made sporadic appearances in internet memes before 2023, with the Facebook^[6] page Daily Hive Canada posting an image using the phrase on June 27th, 2020, gathering over 7,000 likes in three years (seen below, left). On August 18th, 2022, the Instagram^[7] page @the.shitmobile posted a meme using the quote and an image of Sheila Broflovski, gathering over 3,000 likes in a year (seen below, right).

Canada Wildfire Smoke Resurgence

In June 2023, smoke from the fires in Nova Scotia, Canada drifted across the East Coast of the United States. This led to a spike in interest and memes about "Blame Canada."^[3] For example, numerous Redditors made posts referencing the quote to subreddits such as /r/Philadelphia^[4] and /r/Pittsburgh^[5] in early June.

On June 7th, 2023, the Instagram^[8] page @drgrayfang posted a meme about Canada being responsible for the bad air quality in NYC with a caption that read, "Blame Canada." The post gathered over 40,000 likes in a month (seen below, left). On June 8th, the New York Post notably posted the cover for its June 8th, 2023, edition to Instagram.^[9] The cover featured a yellow-looking New York skyline with the phrase "Blame Canada!" superimposed on it. The post gathered over 4,000 likes in a month (seen below, right).