Kids in the Hall on Amazon Prime

[Fambo Number Mive]

Have been watching this on YouTube. I dont find it incredibly funny but it makes me laugh at times. Even when I dont find it funny I enjoy watching it.
Another comedy show I would never have heard.of if not for Cookd and Bombd.

[BeardFaceMan]

There was a time when Channel 4 used to show all sorts of weird and wonderful imports, they'd never go near something like this these days. It was great to be able to flick through the channels and stumble upon something like The Head Crusher.

[sutin]

The only thing I know about this is that I had an mp3 of a great They Might Be Giants song from it's soundtrack for years. I will check it out.

[dead-ced-dead]

I'm only on the end of season one, so I may be wrong, but I like how they don't overly rely on reusing characters or settling on catchphrases.

I also agree with the above that even when I'm not laughing it's enjoyable and fun to watch.

Can anyone else recommend any other weird and fun Canadian comedies? I've seen some of Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys, both of which I like but don't love.

[QDRPHNC]

Death Comes to Town was the KITH doing their version of League of Gentlemen, worth a watch.

If you can dig up the old SCTV with John Candy, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, etc., it's great.

Speaking of Rick Moranis, the movie Strange Brew is considered something of a classic here.

[dead-ced-dead]

Death Comes to Town was the KITH doing their version of League of Gentlemen, worth a watch.

If you can dig up the old SCTV with John Candy, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, etc., it's great.

Speaking of Rick Moranis, the movie Strange Brew is considered something of a classic here.

Thanks! I've been meaning to check out SCTV.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Slings & Arrows, the best comedy about directing Shakespeare. Three seasons, co-written by Mark McKinney, who's also one of the leads.

[letsgobrian]

I'm only on the end of season one, so I may be wrong, but I like how they don't overly rely on reusing characters or settling on catchphrases.

I also agree with the above that even when I'm not laughing it's enjoyable and fun to watch.

Can anyone else recommend any other weird and fun Canadian comedies? I've seen some of Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys, both of which I like but don't love.

I've enjoyed Letterkenny in fits and starts, as it is often missing some supporting cast members (and occasionally main cast) depending on what other work they are booked for.

However, the latest series had one of the laziest TV episodes ("American Buck and Doe") I've ever seen. Season 5 is probably where it peaked.

[dissolute ocelot]

I've been watching series one. Things that stood out just from the latest I watched, 1.12, were the sketch Kathy Turns Over where typists all have clocks at the back of their head like odometers recording how much typing they do. All the excitement as Kathy's reaches the maximum and rolls over 0000000, and then

Spoiler alert

the sadness after it's over

[close]

. There's just something weird and poignant and marxist critique of the modern workplace, as well as very silly, even if it's not particularly funny. You could imagine it as 1970s East European animation.

And from the same episode Skoora the shark, which is like a mini-movie. There's the gradual reveal of this strange community, simple but evocative special effects, great performances, a song, and again an odd poignancy in the sympathy the townspeople feel for the shark.

Spoiler alert

Don't blame him! He blames himself! Don't hate him! He hates himself!

[close]

And lovely touches like the sea captain taking out a crumpled lyric sheet.

For me, the genius of the show is how it can slow down sketches and take them in interesting places, while still remaining funny and keeping a light touch. And it always seems tied to an understanding of human nature, of how strange people are with their sympathies and passions and obsessions.

[dead-ced-dead]

I've been watching series one. Things that stood out just from the latest I watched, 1.12, were the sketch Kathy Turns Over where typists all have clocks at the back of their head like odometers recording how much typing they do. All the excitement as Kathy's reaches the maximum and rolls over 0000000, and then

Spoiler alert

the sadness after it's over

[close]

. There's just something weird and poignant and marxist critique of the modern workplace, as well as very silly, even if it's not particularly funny. You could imagine it as 1970s East European animation.

I don't know what Canadian (and more broadly North American) corporate culture was like in the early 90s, but the sketches mocking corporate and office culture are easily their most scathing and sureally satirical. Like the sketch when they continue a meeting going even though the building is on fire or where they equate businessmen with stray dogs.

[bigfatheart]

I believe a lot of the stuff skewering corporate culture came from Bruce McCulloch - he'd done Business Studies at college and hated it, according to the Myers book.

[dead-ced-dead]

It definately shows. And it's good for a sketch show to have actually venomous satire, rather than the mild digs most TV comedies aim at.

[steveh]

Have remembered more sketches than I thought I would given I'd only seen it once on a mid nineties run on probably Bravo.

Dunno why but this has made me laugh the most so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbfA5L3YAO0.

[BeardFaceMan]

Have remembered more sketches than I thought I would given I'd only seen it once on a mid nineties run on probably Bravo.

Dunno why but this has made me laugh the most so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbfA5L3YAO0.

I think that may have been from the first show of theirs I saw back when Channel 4 showed it, it's definitely one of the sketches burned into my memory.

[McChesney Duntz]

As far as weird Canadian comedy series go, you might want to track down Twitch City, a comedy about a guy who basically doesn't leave his apartment. Features Molly Parker (later of Deadwood), Bruce McCulloch (series one) and Mark McKinney (series two) play the host of a talk show the protagonist is obsessed with, and said protagonist is played by Don McKellar (also show creator), who can be seen in all sorts of Canadian film and TV and wrote, directed and starred in one of my favorite dark horse films of the last 25 years, Last Night, about the end of the world as experienced in a very Canadian manner.

[dead-ced-dead]

As far as weird Canadian comedy series go, you might want to track down Twitch City, a comedy about a guy who basically doesn't leave his apartment. Features Molly Parker (later of Deadwood), Bruce McCulloch (series one) and Mark McKinney (series two) play the host of a talk show the protagonist is obsessed with, and said protagonist is played by Don McKellar (also show creator), who can be seen in all sorts of Canadian film and TV and wrote, directed and starred in one of my favorite dark horse films of the last 25 years, Last Night, about the end of the world as experienced in a very Canadian manner.

I've heard of Twitch City, a bit like a weirder version of Spaced (or so it's been described to me).

[phantom_power]

I'm only on the end of season one, so I may be wrong, but I like how they don't overly rely on reusing characters or settling on catchphrases.

I also agree with the above that even when I'm not laughing it's enjoyable and fun to watch.

Can anyone else recommend any other weird and fun Canadian comedies? I've seen some of Corner Gas and Trailer Park Boys, both of which I like but don't love.

Four on the Floor is a sort of similar Canadian sketch show that Channel 4 showed at the same time as KITH. It isn't as funny and is a lot broader but still has some oddness. I mainly remembered it for Mr Canoe-Head, a superhero with a canoe fused to his head

[Sonny_Jim]

Have been watching this on YouTube. I dont find it incredibly funny but it makes me laugh at times. Even when I dont find it funny I enjoy watching it.

Did a rewatch recently with my 13yr old, this was basically my experience as well.  Not exactly 'ha ha' funny all the time (well, except maybe Scott Thompson), but always enjoyable and interesting.  My favourite is the mini-hallmark movie Girl Drink Drunk.

Looking at it through the eyes of my millennial son:

1.  The blackface/maybe offensive accents seemed to come out of nowhere, but at least each time it wasn't done from a position of 'punching down' and was pretty much essential for the joke to work (apart from Muddy).

2.  Not a whole lot of punchlines.

[steveh]

The chicken lady still scares me a little.

[BeardFaceMan]

2.  Not a whole lot of punchlines.

Not a whole lot of opening lines either, you just kind of drift in and out of sketches, like they were unfolding before you started watching and continue after you stop watching. I have no idea how this approach would have worked without the whooping audience to signify the end of a sketch, they'll often start cheering and laughing even when there's no obvious joke or end-point so they must have been prompted.

The chicken lady still scares me a little.

I'd forgotten how sexual that character was and how most of the sketches ended with her having a very explosive orgasm. Just got finished watching the one where she's trying to get people to give her a quarter so she can have a go on a kids ride in a mall and masturbate in front of children.

[BeardFaceMan]

Just watched the "office/submarine" sketch, may be my fave sketch of theirs, mainly down to McDonald's performance.

[QDRPHNC]

Saw this today, thought a few here might be interested:



The long lost musical project of 'The Kids in the Hall' alums Scott Thompson and Paul Bellini finally gets its due

[studpuppet]

May the thirteenth be with you...

https://twitter.com/primevideoca/status/1514317794011144192?s=24&t=iY8JCeVL0-WGCYyPRnQeOA

[BeardFaceMan]

Ooh finally, can't fucking wait for this.

[Shaky]

Enjoying going back through KITH sketches on Youtube, but Christ - the audience is unbelievably annoying.

[BeardFaceMan]

Enjoying going back through KITH sketches on Youtube, but Christ - the audience is unbelievably annoying.

They really are, but because of the kind of sketches the Kids wrote the audience were needed to signify the end of a sketch. Can't really tell from that trailer but it looks like a lot, if not all, of this was filmed without an audience, I didn't hear one in the trailer so is it going to be audience-free, or will they play the shows to a whooping audience to get a laugh-track in that classic KITH style?

[Magnum Valentino]

I've only seen an handful of KITH episodes but all of Death Comes To Town, which this looks a lot more like, although that's probably because no-one shoots sketch shows on video with three cameras any more.

Still, I predict no laugh track.

[Shaky]

Couple of characters from the movie in that new trailer as well, so I suspect you're right.

[BeardFaceMan]

There were some Death Comes To Town characters in the trailer too. Must say, I'm pretty excited for this.

[Twilkes]

For a bunch of old dudes from Canadia, the performances in the trailer look spot on - I remember seeing mini interviews before selected sketches on Youtube not too long ago and they all definitely still seemed to have something about them, so I guess it's all down to the writing. I never watched any of their older movie projects, I might look them up before this gets released.