History Series / MadeInCanada

* CanadaEh: The series' satirical eye occasionally expands beyond Canadian show-business to general Canadian life and culture.
** In "People of the Fish" from Series 5, the main characters trot out various negative Canadian stereotypes to drive away an annoying American producer who wants to move to Canada, including extremely high taxes (which Richard claims have resulted in the government seizing his car), long wait times for even the most basic medical procedures (Veronica claims to have spent all night in the hospital to be treated for a minor cut by a doctor who only spoke French and misunderstood her drug allergy information), and draconian rules governing Canadian content in media produced in Canada (which prompts Richard to suggest [[Series/TheRedGreenShow Steve Smith]] as the lead for their project, as he'll work for money, meaning Canadian dollars).
** Inverted whenever dealing with characters who are American. Often Americans are portrayed as dumb, culture-unaware, and occasionally gun-loving. The Vice President of NBC whom Richard visits in Los Angeles in "Second in Command" from Series 1 is a good example; he thinks he was in Canada when he visited Bangor, Maine (which is two hours' drive from the border) and believes Richard when he tells him that July is Canada's coldest month and the year has six continuous months of daylight and six continuous months of darkness.[[note]] Rick Mercer had many similar conversations with Americans about Canada in his ''Series/ThisHourHas22Minutes'' segment "Talking to Americans".[[/note]]

* AbsenteeActor: Alex Carter as Michael Rushton makes no appearances in Series 5, although the character is at the centre of a subplot in "Bio-Pic" in which Alan orders Victor to campaign for Rushton to receive a maple leaf on the Toronto Walk of Fame, and near the end of the episode, Victor mentions having just been on the phone with him.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: A recurring theme for the Christmas episodes.

** In the first episode, Richard described Alan as being someone who started out building low-income housing and ended up making movies and television for people who lived in low-income housing. The first mention that he'd started out as a sleazy pornographer gone legit was pretty much the latter part of Series 2.
** Series 1 is more darkly satirical, with ongoing plotlines across episodes skewering the practices of the Canadian film and television industries, while Richard broke the fourth wall several times in the middle of the episode. From Series 2 onward, although the satire of the entertainment industry continued, the episodes were more self-contained, and the asides to camera were limited to an introductory spiel from Richard and the concluding "I think that went well"/"This is not good" (not necessarily from Richard).

* HorribleHollywood: [[AC:In Canada!]] The series is filled with actors who are empty-headed, arrogant, violently temperamental, or all of those, writers who slave away for almost no reward, and backstabbing producers whose only interest is getting ahead in the industry, and making a pile of money in the process.

** In "Babes with Blades" from Series 5, Alan suggests to Richard and Victor that they expand Veronica's feminist hockey documentary ''She Aims, She Achieves'' with locker room footage, and he reminisces about an incident from his school days when the boys' locker room was next to the girls' showers and they drilled peepholes in the wall. Richard says he's confusing his life with a scene from ''Film/Porkys''. Alan isn't convinced, so Richard asks him to picture his gym teacher. Alan does so and grins lasciviously... until Richard asks, "Is she Creator/KimCattrall?" Alan quietly concedes that Richard is right.

* CannotTellFictionFromReality: Michael Rushton reveals in the first episode, "Pawn to King Four", that he is struggling to reconcile his identities as actor Michael Rushton and the character of Damacles. The line between fiction and reality becomes progressively fuzzier for him in later episodes, particularly Series 4's "Book of Damacles" when Richard and Veronica tell him that "his" warrior philosophy book (which they ghostwrote on a tequila binge) was written while he was channelling an ancient warrior god (as detailed under AGodAmI).

* IWasYoungAndNeededTheMoney: In the Series 5 episode "Bio-Pic", Alan leans on Victor to use his position on the Toronto Walk of Fame selection committee to get Michael "Damacles" Rushton inducted. The other Pyramid executives are concerned that this will result in a series of films he did as a young actor under an assumed name - implied, though not stated, to be pornographic - will become public knowledge. Sure enough, as soon as he receives his star on the Walk of Fame, his embarrassing early roles are dug up by muckraking reporters.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the first episode, Richard described Alan as being someone who started out building low-income housing and ended up making movies and television for people who lived in low-income housing. The first mention that he'd started out as a sleazy pornographer gone legit was pretty much the latter part of Series 2.