Here’s the joke: Canada’s breakout comedy hit Little Mosque on the Prairie won’t be competing for the Geminis’ best comedy series award when the trophies are handed out in the show’s home province of Saskatchewan on Sunday, Oct. 28.

Turns out Gemini voters decided against a Mercy and Dog River showdown in Regina, leaving CTV’s Corner Gas, CBC’s Royal Canadian Air Farce and This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Showcase’s Rent-A-Goalie and The Comedy Network’s Odd Job Jack to compete for the gold statuette.

‘I was a little surprised, frankly, given the fact that [Little Mosque] did garner so much media attention as well as fairly good audience ratings,’ says Jonas Diamond, producer of Odd Job Jack. ‘And [Little Mosque] is a CBC show, more in synch with Gemini voters.’

The CBC’s funny take on Canadian Muslims in a post-9/11 world didn’t even earn a Gemini nomination for best comedy ensemble performance. The message: pay your dues to the Academy before a best comedy series nomination comes your way.

After all, a look back at past Gemini Awards reveals homegrown sitcoms often have to prove their pilot was no fluke and their first season no faint promise before the Academy anoints producers with hardware.

The CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, for example, bowed in 1993 and didn’t get its first Gemini nomination until 1995. The sketch comedy series has since earned 68 nominations, and racked up 26 wins, including seven best comedy series crowns. This year it’s up for four more statues.

‘Once the show got established, yes, we were continuously nominated for eight years, then it became spotty,’ producer Michael Donovan of Halifax Films recalls.

Likewise, Corner Gas bowed in January 2004 and – no less an instant hit than Little Mosque – waited for 2005 and 2006 before series creator Brett Butt snagged successive Geminis for best comedy series.

‘It does seem like as shows show a bit of a life, the nominations increase,’ Butt observes.

That’s okay by Mary Darling, executive producer of Little Mosque, who insists the biggest award is her series connecting with a growing audience.

‘In terms of how the Geminis work, there’s usually a year lag or so,’ Darling ventures. ‘I don’t know what causes that. [It’s as] if people want to wait it out and make sure they’re voting for the right show.’

Royal Canadian Air Farce, the TV version of which debuted in 1993, has amazingly never won a Gemini for best comedy. That’s after challenging and mostly losing out to This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

‘We used to console ourselves that 22 Minutes gets the awards, Air Farce gets the ratings, and between us the CBC has two great shows,’ says Roger Abbott, a longtime member of the Air Farce comedy troupe.

Diamond’s Odd Job Jack, now in its fourth season, has a similar Gemini trajectory.

Originally developed as a web-based cartoon, the comedy earned two Gemini nominations in the writing category in 2003. Now with its nomination for best comedy series, Diamond hopes the animated series has earned the credibility that award shows traditionally offer live-action dramas.

‘It’s taken some time,’ says Diamond. ‘The Simpsons is at year 18. So it’s taken time to reach the conscious level of our society where animation is not relegated to young kids.’

Of course, there’s always one show that bucks the trend, and this year it’s Rent-A-Goalie.

Like Little Mosque, Rent-A-Goalie aired eight episodes during its first season in 2006, and is back for a second season on Oct. 28, the same night as the Gemini Awards telecast. But unlike Little Mosque, Rent-A-Goalie will contend for best comedy.

‘We were surprised,’ says Chris Szarka, coproducer on Rent-A-Goalie. ‘We thought if there were shows that would be picked, they would be Corner Gas and Little Mosque.’

Despite the snub in the comedy series category, the Little Mosque team can console itself with the noms for Michael Kennedy for best direction and another for Alan Rae for best writing.

But all the talk about Little Mosque overlooks the real reason for Canada’s TV awards – promoting homegrown television, according to Air Farce’s Abbott.

‘The Gemini [awards show] is here to make a fuss about TV shows produced in Canada,’ Abbott says. ‘It validates a lot of shows. It doesn’t matter who wins, as long as someone wins.’