Canadian Broadcorping Castration is a common nickname for Canada's public television and radio network, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
It is commonly attributed to an actual blooper spoken on the air by a CBC radio host, although the wording of the blooper varies:
- "Tune in next week for another series of classical music programs from the Canadian Broadcorping Castration." [1]
- "This has been the Canadian Broadcorping Castration." [2]
- "This is the Dominion Network of the Canadian Broadcorping Castration." [3]
- "Good evening and welcome to the Canadian Broadcorping Castration." [4]
- "This has been the news from the Canadian Broadcorping Castration." [5]
The flubbed line is not usually attributed to an actual CBC host, and when it is, several hosts are claimed. Allan Fotheringham has suggested that the famous line was spoken by Angèle Arsenault ; other sources have attributed it to Peter Gzowski, Max Ferguson or Lorne Greene.
Few, if any, references exist which confirm any details about the broadcast in question. It may, in fact, be untrue that this spoonerism was ever actually uttered over the airwaves; in its variability of detail and its lack of corroborating evidence, the story bears several classic hallmarks of urban legends.
Regardless of its origins, however, the term has persisted in Canada as a satirical nickname for the CBC. A number of satirical nicknames for Canadian media outlets are in widespread use, including The Grope and Flail or The Mop and Pail for The Globe and Mail, and Daily Tubby, National Compost or Irrational Post for the National Post. The origins of these nicknames are clear, however. The Globe's unflattering nicknames originate with legendary Canadian humor columnist Richard J. Needham, and the Post's were coined by Frank Magazine.
