Don Harron - Charlie Farquharson

Charlie Farquharson

Harron is best known for the character Charlie Farquharson /ˈfɑrkəsən/, a personality he first portrayed in 1952 on the CBC series The Big Revue and used as part of the cast of the U.S. country music television show, Hee Haw. The character was also reprised on The Red Green Show.

Dressed in an overly well-worn sweater and frayed cap, and sporting a grizzled 'two-day beard,' Farquharson is a decidedly rural Ontario farmer from near Parry Sound. He and his wife, Valeda, have a son, Orville. He would deliver his opinion about matters local and worldwide, using many malapropisms in the process that often resulted in both double meanings and increased satire about the events. He was also known for his loud hearty laugh "Hee! Hee! Hee!". In addition to his television appearances, Harron published several books in the character, reproducing the malapropisms in print and including strange photos and woodcuts as illustrations.

Examples of Farquharson's comments:

• "Nowadaze Parry Sound looks like most uther towns on this continence, thanks to them branched plants of frenchfrises that has sprung up everywhere--Mickdonald's, Burglar King, Kernel Kadaffy Frayed Chicken. Noware will ya see a sine "Home Cookin'", cuz all our lo-cal burghers is out eaten them malty-nashnul burgurs. This makes everplace into a no place, and it's eezy to fergit ware you is if yer jist passin through at snacktime."
• "Every guvmint estimit incloods an extry estimit of how much more it's gonna cost than yer ferst estimit. That's how come they always leeve this big deficit on the floor of yer House. And a deficit is what you've got wen you haven't got as much as if you jist had nothin'. If we tried any of this, we'd end up in jail. But the guvmint gits rid of its detts by Nashnullizing them. That's like the alkyholick who solved his problem by poring the booze in all of his bottles into one big container. Himself."