A Mountain Lion Named Steve French

What do Samsquantches, Viagara burgers, potato guns and mountain lions have in common? And who the hell is Steve French?

In episode 6 of Trailer Park Boys season 4, man and nature collide in a sensitive vignette entitled “If You Love Something Set It Free“. And it’s one of the all-time funniest – I’d put it in my top 5. You may wonder why this warrants a blog entry. Well, considering that, in the last 3 months, I’ve written about garlic festivals, Tinkerbell Hilton and Ashton Kutcher – dope addicted mountain lions shouldn’t seem like that much of a stretch.

I linked to an episode recap above, so I’ll spare you another here. But quickly – Something has been eating the boys’ dope field (Bubbles thinks it’s a ‘Samsquantch’) but upon further investigation it turns out to be a mountain lion. Bubbles, who is absolutely infatuated with all-things-kitty, slaps a choker chain on it and becomes determined to “wean it off the dope”. He names the lion “Steve French” because he thinks its whiskers make it look like a French Canadian. That line alone is worth the price of admission.

I love this episode because in addition to being ridiculously funny (Trevor gets raped by Steve French after he eats some Viagara burgers Randy is preparing for Mr. Lahey, among many other things) it’s a perfect example of the sort of ‘heart’ that makes this show so enduring and special. Look for the scene at the end when Ricky and Julian start to cry when Bubbles has to let Steve French go back into the wild in particular. It joins the ranks of the most touching scenes in the show’s history – right up there with Jim Lahey’s slurred speech after the trailer park supervisior election, Ricky choosing to buy Trina her encyclopedias and kiss Lahey’s bare ass rather than use the money to buy his own trailer and Bubbles’ soliloquy after the boys accidentally burn down his shed.

To the uninitiated: if the above paragraph sounds too ridiculous to be believed, it’s because it is. Thurday nights on BBC America. I can’t stress that enough.