It’s a joke. A satire. You’re supposed to be laughing… 

What am I talking about?  

Brocket 99.  An audio tape, made 20 years ago by a Canadian disc jockey, a self-described parody of an Aboriginal radio station located on the Pilkani First Nation in southern Alberta.  It’s all the rage—with thousands of bootleg copies and even more publicity through a recent film and its own official website.

It’s a laugh riot, for sure. Like having a newscaster, calling himself Ernie Scar, affecting an exaggerated Aboriginal accent and making the following “public service” announcement… 

Many Native people will be out this weekend, drinking, yelling, loitering. What are you doing about it? Help us. When you see a drunken Native, put him in the back of your truck and take him out of town. It’s the least you can do… 

You want to hear another side-splitter? 

This is Harley Squirrel Nuts coming to you from Brocket 99 studios….after 18 years of trying the Alberta Liquor Control Board has granted us permission to open up a bar and grill ON the reserve. This means that Elvis Meat Face will be needing a little bit of help from the few of the people that are still awake after the bar closes to hose down the concrete bar, and chain down some more of the tables and chairs… …

You can hear more such incredibly witty, satirical sendups, and nosiree, you don’t have to search for an illegal copy no mo!  

Check your local listings…it could be coming to a theatre near you.  Brocket 99-Rockin’ the Country,  a new documentary by Canadian Nilesh Patel, follows the filmmaker as he criss-crosses the western provinces interviewing dunces and excuse-makers and bigots and moms and new agers and Natives about what they think about this phenom audio tape. 

Patel’s motivation for making the film, he says, was to explore the relationship between Aboriginal and other ethnic groups in Canada. "Not investigative journalism. There is no hero or villian, just a conversation."

So, guess what he found out on his self-described "wild-ride?" That the dunces and excuse-makers and bigots and some of the moms and new agers he interviewed think Brocket 99  is pretty damn funny. 

Okay. That’s socially redeeming and important for us to know, right? 

Patel is receiving hosannas from the sorts of folks who usually dole out hosannas to anybody making a film deemed “provocative” because it tackles the sticky issue of race relations. In this spirit, the 100 minute fête of Ernie Scar’s magnum opus has shown at respectable festivals inc luding the Calgary International Film Festival and theatres in Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. 

Whereas I don’t question Patel’s sincerity, the praise is off the mark thinking his attempted conversation about North American racism is going to enlighten or set anyone free. Without analysis or context, or as he dismissively refers to as "investigative journalism," the documentary breathes new life into the aging invective with an air of respectability for its vile rhetoric.  

Evidence? There are several official websites, scores of others, and even a MySpace profile celebrating all-things-Brocket 99. The fans, with screen names like “Big Dago,” “Jo Mama” and “Edgar Chickeneyes” just can’t get enough.

They post online mimicking Native dialect and telling funnies like “Why are there only two pallbearers at an Indian funeral? Because there are only two handles on a garbage can…”  along with many other hate-spewed guffaws and even an online “Application to be an Indian.” I won’t even go into detail on what that says…

For that reason, I regret Brocket 99-Rockin' the Country  is being shown in public venues throughout Canada. Forget the argument that it creates a “dialogue.”

Come on. Who do you think will go to see this outside of film devotees?

What do you think their reaction will be?

I think we already know.

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No way are we going to inc lude links to Brocket 99  websites, MySpace or other outlets.