Hosers in History

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from Macleans - author JOHN INTINI

Hoser - The latest in a proud Canadian tradition

HOSER / n. Cdn. slang 1. an idiot; a goof. 2. An uncultivated person, esp. an unintelligent, inarticulate, beer-drinking lout. (Source: Canadian Oxford Dictionary)

The characters of Trailer Park Boys are the latest in a proud Canadian tradition. It could even be argued that many of this country's ostensibly unaffected luminaries are hoserish at the core. Some heroes, and a few heroines -- both fictional and real -- of hoserhood:

STOMPIN' TOM CONNORS The legend who penned Bud the Spud and The Hockey Song proved hosers can be patriotic, and lovable.

PETE AND JOEY from GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD The two sad-sack Cape Bretoners hit Toronto's mean streets, and provided a hoser benchmark, in Don Shebib's 1970 film.

RELIC Nick Adonidas's arch rival on The Beachcombers, played by the late Robert Clothier, was a grumpy log-pilferer.

MEL LASTMAN Not a beer drinker, and smart enough to make millions, but the guffaws are too numerous to mention. Now that he's out of Toronto politics, maybe he can star in his own reality series.

CHARLIE FARQUHARSON Don Herron's country bumpkin was a hokey hoser -- a perfect fit for the American TV series Hee Haw, where he spent nearly two decades.

BOB AND DOUG McKENZIE Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas hit every hoser stereotype while pounding back a few cold ones in SCTV's The Great White North skits and film.

PAMELA ANDERSON Reigning fantasy girl of the dimwit tribe, she's a true hoserette -- a five-time Playboy cover girl who contracted hepatitis, she says, while getting tattooed with her ex, and who reportedly has had breast enhancement, then reduction and then more enhancement.

DAKEY DUNN Mary Walsh's male correspondent character on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Gold chain, hairy chest, cigarette and beer. Need we say more?

RED GREEN Clad in plaid, Steve Smith's enduring character added duct tape to the hoser arsenal.

FELIX HOLTMANN In 1990 the Manitoba pig farmer and MP established a hoser aesthetic: he castigated the National Gallery for buying a work by renowned U.S. artist Barnett Newman. Holtmann argued anyone with two cans of paint and a roller could have made it.

WAYNE AND GARTH Canadian Mike Myers and his American partner-in-inanity, Dana Carvey, brought youthful hoserness to a whole new level of popularity with Wayne's World.

PLUME LATRAVERSE Québécois singer who used to drink a two-four onstage. Vive le hoseur.

BOBBY CLOBBER Dave Broadfoot's dumb-ass hockey player from Royal Canadian Air Farce.

TERRY AND DEAN The duo from Calgary who shotgun a beer in five seconds in the mockumentary Fubar (for the uninitiated, to shot-gun a beer you punch a hole in the can, flip the tab and inhale).

RUTT AND TUKE Canadian moose brothers, inspired by Bob and Doug McKenzie -- and voiced by Moranis and Thomas -- in new Disney flick Brother Bear.

[DevO]

I've got a few to add:

Kim Mitchell - Canada's Biggest Party Animal

Geddy Lee - 5 bucks is 5 bucks

Pigskin Pete - Hamilton TiCats human mascot

c'mon who else?