New Approaches to the Halifax Explosion

Abstract

In April 2018, actor Rob Lowe appeared on the American talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote his most recent movie. In the segment he adlibbed about the Halifax Explosion and explained that he had convinced the movie's producers to change his character's nickname from 'The Explosion" to "The Halifax Explosion." Lowe went on to (mis)educate the host of the show, Jimmy Kimmel, about the details of the Halifax Explosion, and between the two men it was implied that the explosion was a forgotten historical event. The response from Canadians to the segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live was swift and largely condemnatory of both Lowe's inaccurate recounting of the details of the disaster and the conclusion reached by the men that it was acceptable to laugh about the disaster now because it was 100 years ago and the victims have been "forgotten."