Ah, the office holiday party - it's a delicate operation. After all, you know these people - in fact you probably spend one-third of your life with them - but do you really know them? Do you want to? If my experience is anything to go by, it's only sheer effort that's kept your opinions of how the boss really ought to run the company quiet. Ditto your feelings on your cube neighbour's BO, ugly baby or sloppy work.

And yet, every December the powers that be decide to round up this unruly group in a hall or hotel conference room, serve them drinks and expect them to get along without embarrassing themselves.

If it wasn't for television, it would be impossible.

Rick Mercer of the satirical Canadian program This Hour Has 22 Minutes interviews Americans to find out how much they know about Canada in these very funny videos found on YouTube. The special is called Talking to Americans, and features clips of Mercer asking about drilling for plutonium in Mount Rushmore, and whether or not America should bomb Saskatchewan (which I spelled correctly on the first try, thank you very much). Anyway, it's the kind of "approach people on the street and set them up to look silly" bit we've seen a million times before, but it's still pretty damn funny. Noteworthy: This Hour Has 22 Minutes also featured Colin Mochrie of Who's Line Is It Anyway?

The first video is after the jump, and you can watch the rest of them here.

[via Boing Boing and Digg]