And the winner for best self-deprecation in a country: Canada!

Three years into the Canadian Screen Awards, the combo replacement for the retired Genies (film) and Geminis (TV), it’s apparent that what this show does best is mock not just the event, but the entire country.

And unlike the Oscars, where they only pretend to be poking fun at themselves, the gang here really means it, although it’s all in good fun.

Andrea Martin made it a very Canuck hat-trick of great hosts for the CSAs — or the “Screenies,” as they’re rapidly becoming known — as she nimbly succeeded Martin Short, the host for the previous two years, who is also her friend and fellow former SCTV star. (She said afterwards she got help with her jokes from Short and also from another famous comic pal, Steve Martin.)

American by birth but Canadian by humour, Martin started the Canuck yuks even before she entered the building, Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

After vowing on-camera from inside her limo that “tonight, we shall change the world of cinema!” Martin showed how serious that promise was by pratfalling onto the red carpet — which she later joked was “the only red carpet where they ask you to wipe your boots.”

She managed to make naughty riffs about both 50 Shades of Grey and Toronto’s mystery tunnel as she regained her footing and commenced high shticking.

Martin’s barbs and skits were aimed at national figures — everyone from Prime Minister Stephen Harper to broadcast icon Lloyd Robertson to fellow comic Eugene Levy, yet another SCTV alum, who was in the audience.

Martin was right in tune with the headlines, the latter including a shot at U.S. retail giant Target’s plans to abruptly quit the country while clearing its store shelves at the same time.

“All our nominees get a terrific gift bag — and thank you, Target Canada!”

Even real news announcers got into the self-deprecating spirit of the affair.

Lisa LaFlamme of CTV National News, the winner for the second year running of the prize for Best News Anchor, joked about the incongruity of having to be both polite and ruthless: “The first thing I say on the show is ‘Good evening,’ and then spend the next 30 minutes telling you why it wasn’t.”

The humour was not only appreciated but also necessary to keep together a show that otherwise still groans from an excess of kudos. The CSAs dole out a total of 128 awards, adding digital prizes into the mix, too. That’s more than the combined trophies of the Oscars (24) and the Grammys (83).

Most of them aren’t distributed on the two-hour, tape-delayed broadcast, but it’s still way too many overall. And there’s much confusion in the naming of them. Some are for “best” this or that, others recognize “achievement” while still others just name the category: such as “original screenplay,” the first of nine awards won by Xavier Dolan’s family relationship drama Mommy, the night’s big motion picture winner. (Sci-fi series Orphan Black again cleaned up in the TV categories, with 10 wins.)

Dolan was close to tears several times during the night, but he also was frustrated by having to thank his mother in a portion of the show that wasn’t aired nationally.

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He said his mother is “present in every word that I write, in every frame that I cut and in everything that I do. The person she is is the reason why I’m here today.”

He also tried to thank his father, but then the orchestra started playing him off, because there was a strict 30-second time limit on speeches, even for one that no one was seeing on TV.

“I’m going, I’m going!” the exasperated Dolan said.

Snafus like this happen at the Oscars, too, so it’s unfair to criticize the still-young Screenies too much.

And they remain the best Canadians awards show for people who want to make fun of Canadian awards.

Or as Andrea Martin put it: “If you can make it at the Canadian Screen Awards . . . then you my friends, have made it at the Canadian Screen Awards!”