Another hilarious golden nugget! The idea of a mounty police person chasing a heroin addict up a narrow spiral staircase while on a horse set me laughing for 5 minutes straight X'D
On the first season of SCTV, Harold Ramis starred in a sketch called Undercover Mountie. He was on a horse in plainclothes, trying to score some pot, man. Hilarious.
My dad was an RCMP, the red serge is for special occasions. The people who ride the horses just basically do musical rides. They're like normal police but they also cover things that would be normally be covered by the FBI or Scotland Yard.
LOL Stephen Fry knows like everything on the planet, and he doesnt know if there are any NON-mounted police in Canada? XD As a Canadian, the name is just a formality. Most of them, despite being the RCMP, are not mounted and are just like normal cops. The red uniform with the funny hat is also a formal uniform. Again, they just look like normal police. Also Alan's relative would have worked for the Vancouver Police Department, since Vancouver is a big enough city to have its own police department and not need the RCMP. Fun facts for anyone who likes to know more about other countries.
There is RCMP in Vancouver though, I know cos I used to pass by their station and it didn't say VPD (Vancouver Police Department). Mounties are like the FBI in America.
The mounties aren't the only police force in Canada, some jurisdictions will have their own municipal police department, some provinces maintain their own police force but if you're in a jurisdiction that has neither, the RCMP will be your presiding police force.
The irony in your quip being that Europe has 21st century infrastructure while American roads crumble so new carriers and aircraft for them can be built.
Soldiers in the UK have dress uniforms that they use for special occasions, right? They don't wear them on the battlefield, do they? The ceremonial guards around the Tower of London wear uniforms you would never use in battle because it a ceremonial posting. You wouldn't assume that all British soldiers dressed that way on the battlefield, would you? Those red uniforms worn by the RCMP are only used during special events or when they are working on Parliament Hill, which is a ceremonial posting. Everywhere in Canada that doesn't have a provincial, municipal or military police force is policed by the RCMP and they use automobiles to do that just like every other modern police force. They have a regular blue uniform they use while doing regular day to day work. If you get pulled over by an RCMP officer for speeding in rural Alberta he isn't going to be wearing his dress uniform, he will be wearing a standard issue blue one.
Excellent comment! Just have to add that the RCMP continue to have a mounted division for ceremonial purposes like parades and such. They don't do police work on horseback, but they do represent us both nationally and internationally, and were tasked to lead the funeral procession of Queen Elizabeth II.
Guy in the Klingon fan club in Toronto has done is wheelchair up as a Klingon battle cruiser. It has weapons pods that fire lasers that can burst a balloon across an auditorium. It's brilliant.
the monted red officers in canada are the GRC and they're a little bit like the guards of the queen. You can't find them in every city and regular police officers are like anywhere else in the world
“If you’re a Canadian policeman, you’re a Mountie”! R u kidding?? Canada has lots of municipal,and provincial police forces that are not Mounties!!! Duh!
I was surprised at Stephen's comment, too. For someone so well versed in so many subjects, he wasn't aware that the RCMP are Canada's federal police force. But no other comment I've seen mentioned that fact, either. It does help people put them in perspective, I believe, and explains why there are small detachments in rural areas of the country that have no municipal force. Some commenters have said they're like the FBI in the US, which is also true. So they're a cross between a cop on the beat and Scotland Yard, which is a confusing concept for many, and part of what makes our RCMP so wonderfully and uniquely Canadian. 💖🍁💖
It's kind of funny how often Stephen Fry says stuff that's nonsense on QI! I always assume it's that he just gets given a few main points by the researchers, and if the conversations wanders, he's got to improvise. Which often results in brilliance, but also sometimes means he just repeats myths or speculates randomly.
In Canada not every police officer is a member of the RCMP, the RCMP is a policing group with national jurisdiction and many large municipalities in Canada have their own police force. Also most people in the RCMP don't look like that or ride horses they just look like regular cops. That outfit is pretty rare these days.
I realize your comment is years old, but I do have to reply to your statement that "that outfit is pretty rare these days." The outfit in question is the Red Serge, the current dress uniform of the RCMP. It continues to be their regulation attire for all formal occasions and many public events. Mounties no longer wear a red work uniform, but "the Serge" is worn proudly on parade and for official royal, state and even personal ceremonies.
The RCMP are like the Canadian version of the FBI. We started off with redcoats on horses but we've modernized... Until you're getting sworn into citizenship then they get back into costume 😅
I guess it depends on where you're from. The Mounties here are just police that are outside of the city's limits. There are some investigators but most of them are more like the US' state troopers.
Many european countries have two very distinct "types" of law enforcement - the "police" and the "gendarmerie", where the first one stems from the greek word "politeia" (public order, administration, government) and the second one stems from the french phrase "gens d'armes" (literally "men at arms"). The traditional division is that police are investigators, traffic wardens and a modern version of the city watch while the gendarmerie was the keeper of the peace in the backcountry. Kinda like the cavallerie portrait in the Lucky Luke comic books, always on time for a battle, but not a permanent presence. In France, for example, it's the Police national and the Gendarmerie national - in the netherlands it's the Politie and the Marechausee - in Italy it's the Policia and the Carabinieri - etc. Even though the UK never had this division, because local police and constables were always a thing and the nationwide force was established as a merger of these forces rather than as an add on, Canada (much like the US) had a huge problem with policing the vast emptyness of their territory in their starting days. So the RCMP (or rather their predessesors, the Royal North-West Mounted Police and the Dominion Police) were established in the image of these european half-police/half-military units called gendarmerie. The french-canadian name reflects this much better as they are still called _Gendarmerie royale du Canada_ to this day, but the english name shouldn't mask the fact that mainly they were a mounted guard to keep the peace in the territories. So if you want to make a US comparison, they are much more like a Sheriff, state police, a game warden and border patrol rolled into one.
I'm a huge Fry fan. However, not every policeman in Canada is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Every time I watch this clip, I get annoyed.
Vancouver Mounted Police, LOL!! I'm imagining Vancouver cops nailed to plaques and stuck to a wall :) Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police force, it polices towns and municipalities to small to fund their own forces, and then Ontario, who has to be 'special' also has the OPP, Ontario Provincial Police, and of course the major cities across Canada each has their own police force, a few of them are even using motorized vehicles these days :)
really Christ is coming well better late then never. Because in the bible he promised he would return within the life time of those whom he preached to. PLEASE over come your delusion before you waste your entire life for nothing.
I hate my country for many many reasons - as I do most countries, but how were we to be honey-trapped over here... we have something far superiour - maple syrup!
There are normal Canadian RCMP in blue uniforms, unmounted. To my knowledge, the 'Mounties' are just for decoration and tradition, essentially. A part of Canadian heritage. I can also tell you that, from what I've seen, most cops here use Glocks, and those I've spoken to about their side arm said it's .40 S&W which is a Glock 22. Full sized of course, why give police compact Glock 23s? It's not like they're concealed carrying it... I remember once seeing a cop waltz on over to his vehicle, I think it was a truck oddly enough, with a bolt action rifle (my guess is a Remington 700 but honestly, modern bolt actions all look the same to me), and a pump action shotgun (likely either Remington 870 or Mossberg 500, but shotguns aren't my forté.) The truck might have been a 'ghost car' as it were, or maybe it was just a police car and my memory is all fucky. This was a fair few years ago, was tempted to get in conversation with him, ask what kind of firearms they were, obviously asking to actually handle them would be quite stupid but it would have been interesting to know for sure. In the end, I didn't say anything. Never did like talking to blue bastards. Well, except for this one fellow, Asian, can't remember specifically what nation his heritage is from, we got into a lengthy conversation about firearms. He seemed like one of those rare 'good' cops. Yeah, sadly even Canada has some bad cops, though I don't think as many or as EXTREME as Yank cops. Those sadistic pricks seem absolutely insane. HOURS upon HOURS upon HOURS of footage online of brutality.
That didn't even make sense. All I know is that what you're preaching is stupid and homophobic and the internet already has too much of that so please take it elsewhere...
At no point would a transgender individual say their gender identity is "transgender". Their gender identity would be whichever gender they transistioning into, or if they're in the gender grey-area, because it's not a binary system, then whatever identity they feel most fits how they feel on the inside. But all of those gender identities have their own titles and to reduce it all to the blanket identity of "transgender" isn't truly accurate.
Vancouver doesn't use the RCMP; it's had it's own city police force from the beginning. Honestly, the British lack of knowledge of how policing is undertaken in the colonies is simply appalling!
+fishhead06 Well this just shows you know fuck all about the RCMP.Vancouver actually has both a district community policing office, as well as the North Vancouver RCMP Detachment. it is actually YOUR lack of knowledge of how policing is undertaken in the colonies that is simply appalling!
SilveradoNL First, North Vancouver is not Vancouver. It is a distinct municipality that is not now, nor has ever been, a part of Vancouver. Second, Vancouver is policed by the Vancouver Police Department. It is not now, nor has it ever been, policed by the RCMP. This handy document may help clarify policing in the Lower Mainland for you: vancouver.ca/police/policeboard/documents/20060419_0632_Appendix2_PoliceRCMP.pdf
L4BT3C If you were being pedantic about Czech Republic and Slovakia being different countries, Czechoslovakia was the name of the combined country between 1918 and 1992. I don't think they mentioned the actual time that Freund was running these tests but it certainly sounds like it would have been during that period.
vonteflon Not at all, I know history of my country pretty well I would say. But it is nice to hear about something that your country did in the past and im not aware of it.
i love when stephen questioned jimmy on his joke at the end, i hate those kinda jokes they're cheap, lazy and overused and still always seem to get a laugh
Stephen Fry may be a national treasure to the Brits but, as a Canadian, he gives me the impression of someone who is a pseudointellect, one who knows little about many things.
+sweiland75 Name me one person, who does not "know little about many things". The way you phrased it is meaningless, because everyone knows little about many things.
