As It Occurs6:41Nardwuar the Human Napkin has items and video games for Canada’s federal social gathering leaders
For greater than twenty years, Nardwuar the Human Napkin has been on a mission to play the Sixties social gathering sport Hip Flip with each Canadian prime minister and would-be prime minister he crosses paths with.
The Vancouver-based TV and radio persona, whose actual title is John Ruskin, is extensively identified for his quirky persona, distinctive aesthetic and well-researched interviews with celebrities.
However each time there is a federal election afoot, he turns his efforts to interviewing the candidates vying to be Canada’s subsequent prime minister and difficult them every to a spherical of Hip Flip — a 1968 Hasbro sport during which two individuals prop a steel rod between their bellies and try, in unison, to swing a plastic flipper the other way up.
To date this 12 months, he is engaged within the bodily awkward ritual with Liberal Chief Mark Carney, NDP Chief Jagmeet Singh, and Inexperienced Get together co-leader Elizabeth Might.
Solely the Conservative Get together chief stays.
“We’re simply ready for Pierre Poilievre, presumably, to do the Hip Flip. I’ve tried,” Nardwuar instructed As It Occurs host Nil Köksal. “I am going to hold attempting. I will not surrender, as a result of that is what I do. I wish to full this.”
Video games and items for Carney, Singh and Might
Nardwuar, identified for his frequent appearances on MuchMuch within the ’90s, received his begin in 1987 internet hosting his personal present on CITR 101.9 FM, the College of British Columbia campus radio station, which he continues to do at this time.
He additionally has a presence on YouTube and TikTok, the place he typically shocks and impresses celebrities along with his intimate data of their lives and careers, and bestows upon them obscure items catering to their pursuits.
He developed his eye for element, he says, throughout his early days of school radio.
“If the interview was boring, individuals would cellphone in and simply say, ‘That is boring!’ So I all the time have the tidbits as a result of I reside in worry of individuals phoning in saying, ‘It is boring! It is boring!'” he mentioned.
He brings that very same power to his political interviews, all of which he performed this 12 months within the basement of Neptune Information in Vancouver.
WATCH | Nardwuar vs. Mark Carney:
First up was Carney, the newly minted Liberal chief.
“I could not imagine that the prime minister of Canada truly got here to me,” Nardwuar mentioned.
Nardwuar dug into Carney’s years as a minor hockey goaltender and gifted him, amongst different issues, a forty five RPM vinyl of the 1982 single Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by King Richard’s Military, a significant enviornment anthem that includes Vancouver Canucks goaltender Richard Brodeur as the quilt artwork.
When he requested whether or not Carney would do a Hip Flip with him, the Liberal chief responded: “That appears like a lot enjoyable. Yeah, why not?”
WATCH | Nardwuar vs. Jagmeet Singh:
Next up was Singh, in his third election interview with the Human Napkin.
“That is actually one of many issues I stay up for within the marketing campaign. I do know I’ve a assured go to with Nardwuar,” the NDP chief mentioned.
Nardwuar shocked Singh with musical trivia about his personal NDP colleagues and likewise provided items, together with vinyls by each artist featured on the 1998 Canadian hip-hop hit Northern Contact, every pressed by Clampdown, an organization based mostly in Singh’s Burnaby, B.C., driving.
WATCH | Nardwuar vs. Elizabeth Might:
Most just lately, Nardwuar spoke to May, the one chief who appeared to match him along with her data of obscure Canadian trivia.
As he was gifting albums by B.C. environmentalist David Suzuki and Nova Scotia songstress Rita MacNeil, the Inexperienced Get together co-leader spun yarns about every of them, together with the time she tracked Suzuki down at a Halifax resort when she was a younger activist, interrupting his bathe whereas calling for a favour.
Whereas accepting Nardwuar’s Hip Flip invitation, Might mentioned: “I’ve received two synthetic hips. We’ll give it a go.”
Many years of Hip Flippery, and the occasional snub
Nardwuar has been doing the Hip Flip schtick with Canadian politicians for greater than twenty years, throughout each federal and B.C. elections.
“For me, it is identical to enterprise as standard,” he mentioned. “Get the Hip Flip executed.”
He is performed with former prime ministers Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin and Justin Trudeau; former Liberal chief Michael Ignatieff; former NDP leaders Jack Layton and Thomas Mulcair; and former Green Party Leader Annamie Paul.

He struck out with Stéphane Dion in 2008 at an occasion at UBC, regardless that the viewers shouted on the Liberal chief to do it, then jeered him when he declined.
When he tried to provoke the sport with then-Conservative chief Stephen Harper in 2004, he was carried away by safety guards. He tried once more Harper through the 2006 and 2015 elections, to no avail.
Now he has his eyes set on the brand new Conservative chief — the one prime ministerial candidate who has not but spoken to him throughout this election. (He has not requested Yves-François Blanchet, although says he would welcome the Bloc Québécois chief ought to he ever discover himself in Vancouver).
Nardwuar says Poilievre’s staff acknowledged his interview request in an e mail on March 30, and promised to get again to him. However, to date, he is heard crickets.
“I’ve adopted up about 10 occasions,” he mentioned.
CBC has additionally reached out to the Conservative Get together about Nardwuar’s request, however didn’t hear again earlier than deadline.
The Human Napkin, nonetheless, hasn’t given up hope.
“I am going to hold attempting,” he mentioned. “I’d love him to come back on.”
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