Politics & Power Quote by Melissa Auf der Maur

Canadian pop culture insecurity gets flipped into a credential here. By naming SCTV as "the basis for all good North American comedy", Melissa Auf der Maur isn’t making a defensible historical claim so much as declaring an aesthetic home base: a touchstone that’s both proudly regional and quietly insurgent. The intent reads like a way of locating herself - and her taste - in a lineage that rewards craft, character work, and ensemble weirdness over slickness. As a musician who moved through highly visible, often male-coded rock ecosystems, she’s also signaling discernment: I know what funny looks like when it’s built, not merely performed.

The subtext is two-part. First, it’s a Canadian flex disguised as a shrug. "Well, being a Canadian" frames national identity as an explanation, even an inevitability, but it’s really a claim about cultural export: the best American comedy has Canadian DNA, and the north has receipts. Second, "I compare everything to that" admits to a bias and makes it charming. She’s not posing as an omnivore; she’s confessing to a single, high bar, which is how taste becomes personality.

Context matters: SCTV is cult canon, the kind of reference that functions as a shibboleth. Dropping it aligns her with people who prize deep cuts and institutions of comedy that feel handmade and slightly anarchic. It’s fandom as worldview, a reminder that the funniest, most durable art often comes from constraint, community, and a willingness to look a little strange on purpose.