Something I’ve been enjoying lately is Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town which is airing on Thursday nights on ABC2.
Kids in the Hall are of course the great Canadian comedy troupe of the 80’s and 90’s, featuring such luminaries as Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch and Scott Thompson (oh hell, I’d better mention the other two lest I be accused of favouritism – Kevin McDonald and Mark McKinney, there, you happy?). I was first turned on to their work by Stephanie, who was an online friend of mine who went off to college and suddenly became too cool to associate with foreign geeks 😛
While never a hardcore KitH fan I am quite fond of a lot of their sketch work. Phrases such as “they can all read my thoughts!” and “he’s clearly insane!” have wormed their way into my consciousness, and I know almost all the (non-French) words of the terrier song (I’ve even been known to perform it while critically bored, even including the “you are scantily clad and add nothing to the narrative” bit). So when I noticed “Kids in the Hall” on the TV schedule a few weeks back I made sure to tune in.
The first episode – well it wasn’t great. There was a lot of background to fill us in on, a whole bunch of characters to introduce and I was distracted trying to figure out who was who under all the makeup and prosthetics. Not to mention the fact that it takes a fair bit of mental reconditioning to witness Mark McKinney in a leather posing pouch without immediately switching off (and possibly burning) your TV. But I stuck with it and three episodes in I’m really enjoying the insanity of it all.
Much like the UK’s Psychoville it’s comedy of the grotesque (did I mention Mark McKinney in a leather posing pouch?) but with the Kids’ unique brand of surreality thrown in. I wouldn’t really recommend tuning in at this point – there’s a lot going on and you’ll probably be completely lost – but it’s certainly worth a look if you can obtain it on DVD or one of those torrent sites I keep hearing so much about. At least last night’s episode is up on ABC’s iView for Australian viewers, so that might be worth a look as well.
OK, that’s all I’ve got to say. But I hate to leave on that note, so here’s a song,
Terriers are my favourite, favourite breed!…
