MONTREAL—Who knew pasta would end up being so funny?

Opponents of Bill 14, the Parti Quebecois’ proposal to strengthen the province’s language laws, came out to Buonanotte on Monday night to show their support for language equality.

The downtown restaurant at the centre of the #pastagate scandal last month hosted a comedy act with a message of unity: bilingual comics reminded the crowd that sometimes we need to put aside the frustrations—and just laugh.

It was a night of stand-up comedy to stand up for a cause.

“Think about it, if French people get mad at Italian restaurants, and Jews, Greeks, Chinese and Indians, they're going to have no places to go out and eat,” joked comedian Franco Taddeo.

With staff running about with shirts saying “J’aime Pasta,” Buonanotte’s owner was happy to see humour on the menu.

“What better way to highlight the whole event of pastagate through humour,” said owner Massimo Lecas.

“I believe that the healthiest societies are societies that can laugh at themselves,” Taddeo added.

The two solitudes were challenged as jokes about Quebec’s language divide flew all night.

“All my neighbours, whenever they meet me, they try to speak to me in English and I hate that. Je suis parfaitement bilingue,” comedian Mike Paterson said with a thick accent.

“I say, ‘I wanna start to learn English,’ so I start to watch Oprah, Dr. Phil, The View... I cried a lot,” Sebastien Bourgault chimed in. The Francophone only recently began to learn English.

The message was clearly one of unity.

“We have Italians, Anglophones and Francophones so we have it all covered, and you know what? If anything else, we're going to laugh at each other,” explained Antoinette Mercurio, a member of Unity Group, an activist group that will appear before the Bill 14 hearings on April 9.

For others, there's nothing funny about Bill 14.

“There are things to be angry about. I don't think the broad mass of people, even with their frustrations, realize how serious this bill is,” said Beryl Wasjman from the Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal.

Others called it a chance to poke fun at ourselves.

“If you charge $600 ticket because you put pasta on your menu, then go to every restaurant in Quebec because they put hot dog,” joked Bourgault.

Proceeds from the event will help with an online awareness campaign and will also be used to help small businesses that have been targeted by Quebec’s language office.