After the U.S. started picking a fight with its northern neighbor, Canadian comic Mike Myers knew just how to hit back.
The “Austin Powers” star talked about how angry President Donald Trump’s attacks on Canada have made him and why he’s been using comedy to make a political statement while speaking to The New York Times in an interview published Saturday.
“Fascism doesn’t like to be ridiculed; it likes to be feared,” said Myers, who has impersonated billionaire White House insider Elon Musk in a handful of recent guest appearances on “Saturday Night Live.”
“Satire is an important tool in the toolbox to say that this is not normal — that the cuts he’s making are not normal,” he added of Musk, the mastermind behind the Trump administration’s audacious cost-cutting initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency.
Myers’ protests haven’t been limited to when he’s in character.
After his first performance as “SNL’s” Musk back in March, the Toronto native and dual U.S. citizen opened up his vest to flash a “Canada is Not for Sale” shirt during the closing credits.
Though Myers said he didn’t originally intend to get political after his sketch wrapped, he remembers getting “angrier and angrier” as he thought about Trump’s calls for Canada to become “the 51st state” and how Musk said the nation was “not a real country.”
“What happened came from my ankles and from my brain and from my heart, and it was not about me — it was about my country,” he told the Times. “I wanted to send a message home to say that I’m with you, you know.”
The “Wayne’s World” star added that being betrayed by Canada’s once-close ally has saddened him and his compatriots more than anything.
“What’s happened has really hurt our feelings,” Myers said. “We love America. We love you guys. We don’t understand what this madness is.”
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