Humor & Life Quote by Mike Myers

Myers is confessing a kind of performer’s heresy: pride isn’t the same as precision. The line is funny because it’s structured like a loyalty oath and then calmly breaks it. He starts with identity - “very proud to be Canadian” - as if to preempt the obvious accusation that changing his approach is a betrayal of roots. Then he swerves into craft: “but I knew I could give more to it.” The subtext is bluntly professional. National identity is real, but in the studio booth it’s also a variable, something you tune until the character lands.

The context matters: Shrek’s voice is one of those rare animation performances that became the movie’s spine, and Myers famously re-recorded the role to shift from a more generic accent to the now-iconic Scottish brogue. So the quote doubles as an origin story for a cultural artifact: the moment when an A-list comedian realizes the safe choice is the wrong choice and bets on specificity. “Canadian” here isn’t just a passport; it’s shorthand for a certain mildness, a North American neutrality. Myers implies that neutrality was leaving comic value on the table.

It’s also a quiet flex. “Give more” suggests extra labor, extra risk, and extra authorship - the performer not as hired voice but as co-creator. Underneath the politeness is a thesis about comedy itself: broadness travels, but the weird, local, sharply flavored details are what people remember.