‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ marks 30 years and many incarnations, cast members

It is not easy editing 30 years down to 22 minutes.

This was the task handed to Matt Charlton, director of the 30th anniversary edition of “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.”

Charlton had to look back over “600 episodes and climbing.” An impressive total that puts the Canadian news satire within hailing distance of “The Simpsons” (730 episodes into its 34th season). Beyond that is “Saturday Night Live,” which passed the 930 episodes mark this 48th season.

What Charlton discovered in scanning through the decades was how much the series has changed.

“The Newfoundland core really defined it,” he said, referring to the original fab four: Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, Greg Thomey and Rick Mercer. Jones and Mercer made their names with one-person shows, so, as Charlton observed, those early “22 Minutes” episodes, “were kind of monologues in many ways.” The cast excelled at playing eccentric characters such as Marg Delahunty, Mrs. Enid, and Jerry Boyle, with Mercer off on streeter rants as well as “Talking to Americans.”

What bridges then and now for “22 Minutes” is the news desk. That set piece dominated the stage at the CBC Broadcast Centre’s Glenn Gould theatre earlier this month when the Halifax-based series recorded its first-ever shot in Toronto episode.

The industry audience made up of talent and programmers included cast members from CBC shows such as “Pretty Hard Cases” and “Strays.” They came to see the current “22 Minutes” headliners — Mark Critch, Trent McClellan, Aba Amuquandoh and Stacey McGunnigle — along with featured player Chris Wilson and guest star Susan Kent — take turns on screen and behind the desk.

Before the performance, series co-creator and executive producer Michael Donovan thanked CBC for its support and suggested that the series could only have thrived on that network.

“No other broadcaster would be foolish enough to bite the hand that feeds it,” he said. “This is exactly why the CBC remains so vital to this country.”

The network and the series, of course, have their critics. One in particular is the new leader of the opposition, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre — lampooned at that performance by Wilson.

“I’m going to defund the s– out of this place,” said Wilson/Poilievre as the audience gasped. Then he listed off the shows he would cancel. “‘Workin’ Moms’? Not in my Canada.”

There was some nervous laughter, but Wilson and the writers were simply making Donovan’s point.

The cheekiness of the sketch also hearkened back to “22 Minutes’” roots. McClellan, who drew the short straw to mock the Maple Leafs at the Toronto taping, is, like Critch, a Newfoundland native.

That East Coast edge comes naturally, he said. “The economy has been really tough over the years. The weather can be pretty tough. I think storytelling just becomes a way of life because you’ve had to make light of difficult situations. As a result, you don’t take yourself too seriously and you sure as hell don’t take anyone else too seriously.”

Besides, said McClellan, “it’s a comedian’s job to distil it to the truth. That’s the great thing about comedy, right? You get to say what everyone else is thinking.”

Case in point. McClellan was in line at an airport recently. An Air Canada worker recognized him from “22 Minutes.” “She says to me, ‘Well, I guess you’re going to have a lot of material on us this year.’ I thought, now I’m never going to see my bag.”

Critch — once the “new guy” and now, after 20 years as a writer and performer, the veteran player — said he is hearing increasingly from fans who watch sketches from the show on social media.

He was in a bank recently when a young teller said to him, “Oh — you’re the guy from the TikTok videos!”

Critch tried to explain that he was part of a television show. Said the teller, “I don’t own a television.”

Amuquandoh, who joined the cast in 2020 just before McGunnigle, said it was cool to see players from past years reminisce at the Toronto taping. A couple of former deskers were in the audience, including Meredith MacNeill (now on “Pretty Hard Cases”) and Geri Hall (touring with former “22 Minutes” writer Gary Pearson in “Middle Raged”). Nathan Fielder, who stood out as an awkward special correspondent back in 2007, had to send last-minute regrets due to a conflict with his current HBO series, “The Rehearsal.”

The first cast member born after the series began, Amuquandoh feels she is part of “22 Minutes the Next Generation.” Like Critch, she has noticed an uptick in viewers who only know the series from TikTok and finds more online feedback comes from outside of Canada. “Half the comments we get are, ‘How can I watch this in the U.S.?’”

The Toronto-native is happy to help represent the changing face of Canada on the series. “No one was really writing for a Black cast member before,” she said — although former player Shaun Majumder, whose father was from India, did stir things up with one “Beige Power” sketch.

And while she respects the series’ roots on “The Rock,” Amuquandoh is also happy to represent, along with McGunnigle, the GTA.

Next, she wants to take part in one of the show’s hallmarks: ambushing political leaders. From Marg Delahunty laying a big, red smooch on Stephen Harper to Critch going shirtless while photobombing Justin Trudeau, “22 Minutes” has never shied away from gooning the great and powerful.

“I want to yell at a politician!” said Amuquandoh. “I’ve asked for it a few times.”

Who knows — maybe even Poilievre will someday see the value in such an encounter. As former New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair used to tell his caucus, “Run towards, not away from, the ‘22 Minutes cameras.’”

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