This Hour Has 22 Minutes (commonly shortened to 22 Minutes since 2009) is a weekly Canadian television comedy that airs on CBC Television. Launched in 1993 during Canada's 35th general election, the show focuses on Canadian politics, combining news parody, sketch comedy and satirical editorials. Originally featuring Cathy Jones, Rick Mercer, Greg Thomey and Mary Walsh, the series featured satirical sketches of the weekly news and Canadian political events. The show's format is a mock news program, intercut with comic sketches, parody commercials and humorous interviews of public figures. The on-location segments are frequently filmed with slanted camera angles.
Its full name is a parody of This Hour Has Seven Days, a CBC newsmagazine from the 1960s; the "22 Minutes" refers to the fact that a half-hour television program in Canada and the U.S. is typically 22 minutes long with eight minutes of commercials.
Jones and Walsh had previously worked together on the sketch comedy series CODCO, on which Thomey sometimes appeared as a guest. Mercer had been a notable young writer and performer on his own, touring several successful one-man shows of comedic political commentary.
This is the life
The life of huge and small
Forces blind or they guide you to shore
You're alive and you pour your heart like you should
I know you'd step back and see if you could
Don't whisper, don't wait
Sing out this hour
Sing out this restless hour
Sing out, sing out and let it go
Sing on this time
Sing on this lovely time
Sing on and let it go
This is the life
Your soul is just what they seek
You feel the clash but you scarely can see
Love is alive, and is pouring down like a flood
I know you'd step back and see if you could
Don't whisper, don't wait
Sing out this hour
Sing out this restless hour
Sing out, sing out and let it go
Sing on this time
Sing on this lovely time
Sing on and let it go
It's your turn, it's yours now
You are free, to capture daylight
Sing on this time
Sing on this lovely time