Ed the Sock Returns to Wage War On Stupid originally published by BeatRoute Magazine - November 2018 issue.
Ed the Sock is much more than a mere sock puppet. He’s also kind of an asshole. But he’s an educated asshole with strong statements and a charming knack for calling out stupidity when he sees it. The gruff-voiced, green-haired, cigar chomping personality is a key figure in historical Canadian pop-culture and entertainment. Now, he is set to embark on his coast-to-coast “War on Stupid Tour” which will see him unapologetically comment on modern day societal bullshit such as fake news, culture wars, outrage warriors, the alt-right, the radical left, and much more.
“I have had so many people over the past few years asking me to come back and speak truth to morons. I could no longer say no,” Ed explains. “People are aggravated and frustrated that nobody is out there expressing the views of the average intelligent Canadian, because reasonable voices get drowned out. But nobody drowns me out. I look forward to pressing the flesh during the tour. In a figurative sense, not like Weinstein or Cosby. I can be an asshole, but I am an asshole in service of non-assholes. Someone needs to be your voice.”
Ed is known for hosting a slew of shows from the mid-‘90s to 2000s including Ed’s Night Party, Ed’s Nite In, I Hate Hollywood, This Movie Sucks!, and the list goes on. He is best known for his work with MuchMusic during the channel’s golden years. Ed, upset with MuchMusic’s change in character over the last several years, made a video entitled “Who Murdered MuchMusic?” which was ordered to be taken down by the channel’s current owners, Bell Media.
“MuchMusic is dead. They dropped the ‘music’ from their name a few years back, so now it’s just called ‘Much,’ which is ironic because they are clearly ‘Less,’” Ed says. “It was a revolution in how TV looked, felt, and sounded, a rejection of the norms of the TV industry. Then management stopped valuing the channel’s uniqueness and started trying to emulate traditional television. It isn’t Bell that killed it – they inherited a channel that had already shit the bed. They just changed the sheets.”
Now, Ed the Sock, alongside creator Steven Kerzner, hopes to restore and revitalize the energy of MuchMusic through their own web-based platform: the FU Network, which will feature a plethora of brand new shows like Hey Ladies, Shooting the Shit, and other comedic programs. Old school Ed the Sock fans will be excited to hear that one of his most popular showcases, Fromage, will be returning as Fromage: The Cheesy History of Music Videos, a weekly show that will comically cover music videos from the 1950s to modern times.
Ed concludes: “People can now customize what news biases they immerse themselves in, what kind of opinions or information they get. They try to edit out the outside world and get outraged when the outside world pokes through. We’ve made ourselves stupid. Someone has to shatter the shell people have built around themselves, and so far, I don’t see anyone stepping up. So here I am.”