“Let’s Go Brandon” Banned…[updated]

…in Canada. Via PJ Media, the Canadian government has apparently banned the phrase “Let’s go Brandon” in any government communications. It appears that some Canadian officials have been getting rambunctious in their memos and correspondence; hence the need to prohibit “the uses of colloquialism or sayings with intended double meaning or offense.” But in particular, there must have been an outbreak of “Let’s go Brandon,” and one suspects that this was the sole reason for the memo.

This memo testifies to the remarkable popularity of “Let’s go Brandon.” I am not sure why the phrase, and the circumstances from which it arose, resonate so mightily with people, but for whatever reason, they do–in Canada as well as the U.S., apparently.

The memo raises questions, however. Such as: why do they care? After all, Joe Biden is not the Prime Minister of Canada. On its face, there is nothing offensive about “Let’s go Brandon,” so why are Canadian authorities so anxious to suppress it? (“grounds for immediate dismissal without recourse or labour union representation”) Are leftists in Canada acting out of solidarity with leftists in the U.S.? It seems so.

This, of course, is the sort of contrast we like: a popular uprising driven by humor–a meme–suppressed by censorious pecksniff liberals.

A final comment: when I first wrote about the Talladega race, the crowd’s chant, and NBC sportscaster Kelli Stavast’s quick recovery, some commenters thought I was criticizing her for coming up with “Let’s go Brandon.” On the contrary! My comment at the time was, “That young woman has a bright future in journalism!” No irony was intended, although I admit the reference to journalism, a discredited field, may have created ambiguity.

In fact, I credit Ms. Stavast with quick thinking. There was a pause in her interview with Brandon Somebody, and for some reason the camera panned away from Stavast and Brandon to the crowd, and you could clearly hear the crowd chanting “F*** Joe Biden.” I thought Ms. Stavast made a clever recovery, and it is obvious from the way she laughed that she was well aware of the crowd’s chant and quickly deflected the interview back to its subject, Brandon. Well done.

SCOTT adds this update: The story that “Let’s go Brandon” was banned in Canada is fake news. We regret the error.

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