Rick Mercer Report - Segments

Segments

• Monologue — At the beginning of each show, Mercer delivers a brief monologue. In the earliest episodes this was similar to a late-night talk show monologue, with Mercer joking about Canadian politics. In more recent seasons, the opening monologue has been rarely more than an outline of the on-location segments to come, punctuated with a related joke or two.
• On-location — On each programme Mercer travels to one or more different parts of Canada, often to communities that are currently in the news or celebrating some event, and collects opinions, reactions, and quotes from people on the street. Oftentimes Mercer will participate in some demonstration related to the location (e.g. driving a TTC bus while visiting the agency's bus compound), with comic results. Two on-location segments (sometimes different locations in the same area, sometimes two distant locations; occasionally one may be a direct continuation of the other) appear in a typical episode.
• Ad spoofs — Mercer does a parody ad, often spoofing a real one. Usually appears at least once per episode, right before a commercial break.
• The Front Page — Mercer makes comical comments on certain photos of famous people in the world. Normally seen at the start of segment 2.
• Rant — Mercer does a 'streeter'-style tongue-in-cheek monologue about current issues, using the same format that he popularized on 22 Minutes with a long take and camera tilting. These are almost always taped while Mercer walks up and down a graffiti-strewn Toronto alleyway. Usually used to begin segment 3.
• Newsdesk — Additional topical jokes, similar to the newsdesk segments on 22 Minutes, are sometimes seen in the latter part of the programme to pad time.
• Conclusion — During the brief final segment, Mercer invites the audience to visit his website with his blog, video clips and photo challenge. He then mentioned a local event happening in a (usually) small town somewhere in Canada.