Alanis To Reinforce Canadian Stereotypes With Degrassi Appearance
Friday January 28, 2005 @ 04:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

What is it about Americans and Canadian stereotypes? When Conan OBrien came to Toronto last winter he made sure to exploit every single one of them during his week-long trip. Now our own Alanis Morissette will appear on Degrassi: Next Generation and reinforce several more.

Morissette told the Ottawa Sun that she will make a cameo appearance on the show as a favour to her friend and Dogma director Kevin Smith, who appears on a three episode arc that begins Monday, January 31. For the storyline, Smith and stoner pal Jason Mewes come to Canada to plan a sequel to Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back.

The “Ironic” singer will appear as a school principal who we are supposed to believe is educated, yet wears a Maple Leafs jersey, plaid lumberjacket, full fur hat, and mukluk-style boots. Again, this series airs primarily in the country it will be making fun of.

The show will apparently take shots at everything from our use of the metric system to the way we supposedly pronounce “about” as “aboot.” Youll recall that these jokes were previously beaten into the ground in the South Park movie released in 1999 and Michael Moores decade-old flop Canadian Bacon.

Smith, meanwhile, is a huge fan of the original Degrassi and has been planning to appear on the new series for years. He was originally supposed to play a Hollywood director in the pilot episode of the series, but scheduling conflicts arose and the role went to Canadian actor Don McKellar instead.