Steven Blaney’s Korea Gaffe

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About

Steven Blaney’s Korea Gaffe refers to an incident in which Steven Blaney, the Canadian minister of Veteran Affairs, spoke about Canada's international military contributions, stating that without the Canadian armed forces fighting in the Korean War, PSY's 2012 viral hit K-POP song "Gangnam Style" would never have existed.

Origin

On May 5th 2013, after the anniversary ceremony for the Battle of the Atlantic (part of World War II) was held in Quebec City, the Canadian Minister of Veteran Affairs Steven Blaney tried to explain why the Conservative Government decided to celebrate it. His answer was:

"La Corée, c'est une autre démonstration éclatante de l'importance de connaître la contribution des Canadiens dans les grands conflits internationaux. On entend beaucoup le Gangnam Style et il n'y aurait jamais eu de Gangnam Style si ce n'était pas des Canadiens qui sont allés là-bas pour combattre le communisme.^[1]"

Translated to English:

"Korea [i.e. the Korean War] is another perfect example of the importance of knowing about Canadian military contributions to international conflicts. You hear Gangnam Style all the time, but there wouldn't have been any Gangnam Style if it weren't for the Canadians who went [to Korea] to fight Communism."

After this statement, Mr. Blaney was ridiculed by the leader of the official opposition in the House of Commons, the leader of the New Democratic Party, Thomas Mulcair. The latter told the minister of Veteran Affairs that "[There's] a chance that ridicule won't kill [Blaney] because there really is a limit to stupidity."^[2]

Media reaction

Some Canadian columnists and journalists were surprised about Blaney's statements, and tweeted about the stupidity of what he said. Aaron Wherry, a reporter for Maclean's (a widely-read Canadian news magazine), was one of them. Wherry tweeted:

Imagine a world without Gangnam Style: Steven Blaney on the significance of World War II bit.ly/15rdVED
— aaronwherry (@aaronwherry) May 6, 2013

Later, Blaney's press secretary Jean-Christophe de La Rue replied to Wherry's tweet:^[3]

@aaronwherry Thanks to the sacrifices of Cdn #Vets, S.Korea is now economically strong & democratic. Clearly it's also a cultural superpower

— Jean-Christophe (@JCDLR) may 6, 2013

Twitter Reaction

A lot of people on Twitter (particularly from Quebec) tweeted jokes about Blaney's comments. (Translations provided below tweets)

Sans guerre de Corée, pas de Gangnam Style (Steven Blaney). Sans victoire sur le nazisme, pas de… youtube.com/watch?v=WIEtNo…
— Matthieu Dugal (@MatthieuDugal) 10 mai 2013

Without the Korean War, there'd be no Gangnam Style (Steven Blaney). Without victory over nazism, there'd be no… youtube.com/watch?v=WIEtNo…

«C'est quand même grâce à la Guerre des étoiles que Chris Hadfield a pu aller dans l'espace.» -Steven Blaney #citationrêvée #Hadfield
— Jean-Luc Ratel (@jlratel) 14 mai 2013

"It's really thanks to Star Wars that Chris Hadfield [a prominent Canadian astronaut] was able to travel to space." -Steven Blaney

"Sans la guerre de 1812, on ne serait pas en train de regarder ce match" – Steven Blaney #CitationRêvée #CH
— Annie Desrochers (@NieDesrochers) 8 mai 2013

"Without the War of 1812, we would not be in the middle of watching this game." – Steven Blaney

Le Min. Steven Blaney milite pour l'indépendance du Québec. – "Il n'y aurait pas de Gangman Style si ça n'avait pas été du Canada" #lol
— Max B. (@MaxBouchardQc) 6 mai 2013

Minister Steven Blaney campaigning for Quebec's independence. – "Gangnam Style wouldn't exist without Canada"

À ne pas manquer demain: Steven Blaney expliquera comment la 2e guerre mondiale a rendu possible 99 Luftballoons et Du Hast #polcan
— Christopher Young (@ChristoYoung) 6 mai 2013

Coming up tomorrow, don't miss Steven Blaney explaining how World War II made 99 Luftbaloons and Du Hast possible

Derivatives

The quite has gained such infamy that the clothing company Mercerie Roger^[4] has begun to manufacture a t-shirt with the quote:

Additionally, the Tumblr page Histoire du Québec Memes^[5] has made some advice animal-style images featuring Blaney^[6]. On their Facebook page, they invite the fans to contribute some Blaney memes^[7].