By Chris Cox
The most popular exports from Canada are traditionally thoughtto be ice hockey, premium beer, and maple syrup. However, heftybatches of Canadian comedians have found fame on American soil.Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, and John Candy are neighbors to the northwho managed to find successful gains as comedians and actors herein the states. One of the more popular, yet contritely overlookedacts to tickle funny bones below the great lakes is one whosetimeliness has not worn off in 15 years: The Kids in the Hall.
Out today is the DVD box set of Canada’s most offbeatcomedic troupe to date. The four DVD set includes all 20 episodesfrom The Kids in the Hall’s first season in 1989-1990.
Among the episodes are an array of some of the more memorablemoments and sketches from the five who comprise The Kids in theHall: Dave Foley, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch, Scott Thompson,and Kevin McDonald. Mark McKinney’s “headcrusher” character makes frequent appearances, placing thumband forefinger over the head of those far away and declaring in anAndy Kaufman-esque accent “I am crushing your head, youlittle flat head.”
The second episode debuts Scott Thompson’s openly gaycharacter, who espouses commentary on gays, blacks andsexuality.
The character was, and to some extent still is, years ahead ofits time, finding an audience a decade and a half before Queer Eyefor the Straight Guy brought gay characters to mainstream.Thompson’s confident, yet simple wit gives credibility to hisskewed take on culture, and is comparable to the comedic and socialinsight of such performers as Chris Rock and Margaret Cho and isthe proverbial “queer eye” for every man.
Random sketches often produce some of the biggest laughs. DaveFoley informs the audience that, in the process of filming theshow, they have found the cure for cancer. He then brings out BruceMcCulloch who apologizes for “causing all that cancer”and promises “it won’t happen again.”
Mcculloch also plays a character whose scalp is covered withcabbage, but whose most grotesque trait is his womanizingpersonality. “What do you say we skip the meal and go do itin the bathroom? Oh excuse me, I mean the ladies’room,” he says to a cross-dressing Kevin McDonald. McCullochtops himself though, by playing an overzealous squash playerdonning a black mask and referring to himself in third person as”the eradicator.” The over-the-top nature of thecharacter, within the realm of something as trite as squash, makesMcCullogh’s performance absurdly hilarious.
One of the most hilarious characters from the first season isDave Foley’s “sarcastic” man, whose every linereads with a weighted portion of sarcasm. Though the characterclaims it’s a speech impediment, the premise isn’t soimportant as the laughs are too rampant to be accurately describedin print.
The set itself is a bloated beast, with several great specialfeatures. Some episodes contain audio commentary by all the Kids.An Oral History is a 45 minute documentary which contains recentinterviews with the Kids and producer and Saturday Night Live guruLorne Michaels. The real treat is performances from the RivoliTheater, the stage on which the Kids performed before they werepicked up for television distribution. This is the Kids at theirearliest, before their material was truly honed, yet raw enough tobe appreciable as the root of their comedic genius.
Aesthetically, the set does leave a little something to bedesired. The audio is poorly mixed on some sketches, and produces awisping noise that makes it hard to listen to the dialogue. Thevideo transfer is good, although there are some minor bits ofgranulation, and the look isn’t as crisp as DVD often allowsfor. Only an HDTV would be able to full accommodate a superiorpicture.
The first season DVD set for The Kids in the Hall is a must-ownfor even moderate fans of the show, and is also great trainingwheels for those unaware of the show’s comedic prowess. Itsjaded nature and unrelenting wit make it prime fare for fans ofsketch comedy, as well as those who enjoy the candor of fivecross-dressing, sadistic bastions of progressive comedy.
