Rick Mercer has been ranting for decades, but can his anger be replicated? We asked him for some tips if there were anyone looking to follow in his graffiti-filled, back-alley footsteps.
1. A rant doesn’t have to be angry, but it helps. Also, the news comes on every day, so there’s a lot to be angry about.
2. Anger is my cardio.
3. Don’t rant about the same thing over and over again. I never do. Sometimes I rant about what the government is doing wrong. Sometimes I rant about what is wrong about the government.
4. It helps when a rant is funny, but reserve the right not to be funny; then you can always say, “That wasn’t supposed to be a funny point, it was a salient point.”
5. Be warned: if you’re a social ranter now, you could become a chronic ranter. You get together with friends after work on Friday and have a few rants. Next thing you know, it’s every night. Before you know it, you’re ranting at home alone every day in front of the TV. At that point, you only have two choices: rehab or show business.
6. Only rant about what you care about. People know when you’re faking.
MORE ABOUT RICK MERCER:
- Order of Canada leaves Rick Mercer ‘completely speechless’
- Rick Mercer on what’s to come in 2014: ‘Stephen Harper will resign’
- Waterloo’s Geese Police, Day of Pink & McGillLeaks
- Parody of a Minute: Rick Mercer’s ‘Bathroom’
- The Mercer test
- Rick Mercer: Why I rant. And why you should too.
- Toronto Pride draws most colours of political spectrum. (Anyone see blue?)
- NDP Convention – scenes from the second day