For more than two decades, This Hour Has 22 Minutes has mined laughs from all the political missteps, celebrity foibles and salacious scandals that Canada has to offer, but star Shuan Majumder says that one scandal-plagued celeb the show won’t be making light of is Jian Ghomeshi
While Shaun has actually portrayed the fired CBC host on several occasions — including one time when he impersonated Ghomeshi while interviewing Ghomeshi about his book 1982 — he tells CBC News that the satirical comedy show plans to steer clear of the ugly scandal.
“It’s a CBC scandal and we’re on a show on the CBC,”; Shaun explains. “There was a pending lawsuit so we couldn’t really push the boundaries at that time, and now the lawsuit is gone, but there’s a criminal investigation. To be fair, we have written a bunch that will never get made…There are things that are out of our hands, we can only go so far with it.”;
In fact, Shaun admits that not being able to take on the Ghomeshi scandal has made him “genuinely angry,”; he says. “Its challenging because I’m bursting at the seams.”;
Which isn’t to say it doesn’t happen on stage, and Shaun points out that his former CBC co-worker has become fodder for his standup comedy act — even riffing on Ghomeshi for a full 30 minutes during a recent Halifax show. Here’s what Shaun says about Jian Ghomeshi’s infamous Facebook post: “When Rick Mercer took over [hosting duties] for the Giller Prize, it was awkward because Jian Ghomeshi actually won for best fiction for that Facebook post,”; he said with a deadpan stare. “It was very awkward for everybody.”;
Watch Shaun and Jian in funnier times:
