thumbnail|The 1090 CHEC Radio Station where Brocket 99 was recorded.

thumbnail|Tim Hitchner in July 2006

Brocket 99 was a comedy audio tape that parodied aboriginal people in Canada. It has been described as a "phenomenon" by some, and racist by others. Hitchner worked as a radio DJ at CHEC, CKTA, and CKIZ-FM from 1985 to 1992. It is claimed that Hitchner was inspired to create Brocket 99 based on another underground tape circulating in 1986 called "AIDS Radio" that was a spoof of a homosexual radio station using stereotypical and bigoted references. The initial method of distribution from Tim Hitchner has not been documented, although its wider distribution has been described as viral.

Hitchner died on February 12, 2011. On February 12, 2011, a fan site reported the then anonymous actor who played Ernie Scar had died at age 49, of myocardial infarction due to coronary artery disease. CKIZ's list of past employees on its website currently identifies Hitchner as the voice of Ernie Scar.

In 2004, prior to the release of the documentary, Mark Campbell of Global News interviewed Patel. In addition to discussing prevailing Canadian attitudes on race and culture in the context of the documentary, Patel made an unsubstantiated claim during the interview that Campbell was in denial about being the creator of Brocket 99. No evidence has been presented implicating any individual other than Tim Hitchner in creating or participating the tape. On February 15, 2015, Campbell wrote a blog post confirming again that he was not involved.

In the media

In 2022, former Alberta Cabinet Minister Jonathan Denis and Calgary political operative Craig Chandler were featured in a video where they parodied Brocket 99, and their actions were deemed racist. The video clips showed them using offensive stereotypes of First Nations. In an interview Chandler said he was pictured in one of the videos and that "Some comedy is not politically correct, but this is a private function of my close friends. The video was taken by a close friend, I thought," he said. Chandler was working on Danielle Smith's leadership campaign when the videos came out, and she fired Chandler over it. Denis said he did not recall being in the videos but blamed his racist actions on previous problems with alcohol. Denis then suggested the videos may be fake.

Later Chandler also said the videos were fake. However, Hany Farid, an expert in deepfakes, said: "But the knowledge of how these things are made, how difficult it would be to make them, I think it's extremely unlikely that these are deepfakes."

See also

  • Ethnic joke

Notes

  • Official Brocket 99 website
  • 2006 documentary film
  • Brocket 99 on YouTube