Take Off, Eh?: White Normativity and the Canadian Hoser

The "hoser" in Canadian television comedies conflates whiteness and Canadian identity, rejecting multiculturalism. Through a discourse analysis of the first seasons of The Red Green Show, Trailer Park Boys, Letterkenny as well as the "Bob and Doug Mackenzie" sketches in season three of SCTV, this paper codifies the practices, language and narratives of the type. The hoser's popularity reinforces an imaginary binary between white, rural, settler Canada and the progressive Canada of urban multiculturalism. The hoser is strategically positioned as a normative form of Canadian identity, and by extension, multiculturalism is left entirely invisible in these outlets of popular culture, without its own codes, practices, language and narratives, silently acting as an empty signifier representing what the hoser is not. The popularity of the hoser contributes to erasing the existence of marginalized communities from rural Canadian memory, and can be used to justify racist and discriminatory politics, policies and practices.