Biography

October 17, 1969 · St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Rick Vincent Mercer

5′ 9½″ (1.77 m)

When I was in grade eight, my school banned the Rubik's Cube. Why? Because some kid was wandering down the hall with his head buried in the Rubik's Cube, went headfirst into a door and split his nose open. The school's rationale was 'Well, we can't have kids walking around with their heads down.' Meanwhile, it was because we wandered around with our heads buried in our Rubik's Cubes that my generation can safely navigate through traffic on foot with our heads down while texting on our Blackberries. You could say it changed our lives.

Remember the Speech from the Throne when, out of the blue, it was announced that Stephen Harper's government would be rewriting the lyrics to 'O Canada'? You just know the Prime Minister was convinced we wouldn't care, that he could what he liked. But we did. The country exploded with people ranting about our national anthem and oh, what a beautiful sound. Turns out nobody, left or right, liked the idea of the Prime Minister sitting around with pencil and paper trying to figure out a way to rhyme the nation's name with his.

I think when shows fail is when it's manufactured. You go out and find some funny people and tell them to read newspapers and make some jokes. That doesn't work. It all has to do with the personality and the perspective because, at the end of the day, it's commentary.

[one view of our political future] Candidates will outdo each other in an attempt to show how gay-positive they are. Young men in MP offices all over Parliament Hill will be ordered to randomly marry each other so candidates can be seen attending their weddings.