Perry's Pen

During a delay in a recent baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the Montreal Expos¹, Ghostbuster Bill Murray made his thoughts known about the Canadian national anthem.

After going through the lineups for both teams, Mr. Murray, an obvious Cubs homer, was asked about hearing two national anthems before enjoying an afternoon filled with peanuts, Cracker Jack® and “The Great American Pastime“.

“Frankly I love the O Canada national anthem because there’s only like 10 words to it and I wish they’d let me sing it” opined Murray during the delay.

“It’s one of the goofiest national anthems I’ve ever heard”

You’d think that that would be enough, but the Stripes star continued with military precision, apparently buoyed by the $241 million box office success of Tootsie in which he co-starred with Dustin Hoffman. Referring to O Canada, he said:

“It’s one of the goofiest national anthems I’ve ever heard. It makes the national anthem of the United States sound like Beethoven’s 9th. It’s just ridiculous.” 

Mr. Murray’s Little Shop of Horrors continued, feeling a bit like long, slow root canal. Referring to Canadians and their anthem, he kept up the assault:

“They’ve only got five words in the song, and they just keep saying them over and over again” continued the man famous for singing Do Wah Diddy Diddy.

Backing away somewhat from The Razor’s Edge, and perhaps even offering some actionable insights, the Chicago Cubs fan had this to offer:

“I hope you Canadian folks call up and say something to whoever’s in charge in your country about that theme song of yours.”

Did Ontario leave a bad taste in Bill Murray’s mouth?

Maybe Bill Murray ate some bad Canadian bacon while filming Meatballs in Ontario, but by gosh, this is one story that isn’t going away any time soon!

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¹The game between the Chicago Cubs and Montreal Expos was played on April 17, 1987. In addition to Bill Murray’s incendiary words, the Cubs would add insult to the Canadian side’s wounds to win the game 7-0.

Even worse, Cubs pitcher Rick Sutcliffe threw a complete game, allowing only 4 hits. 3 years removed from his Cy Young year, Sutcliffe, also known as The Red Baron added 2 hits (a single and a double) resulting in 3 RBIs, an incredible feat for a pitcher. Sutcliffe even had a stolen base, so he was in the Shohei Ohtani stratosphere that day.

Check out the box score if you don’t believe me!