The Kids in the Hall

Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson formed the funny group in the 80s Toronto. Everybody wanted to get into Second City and then graduate to SNL. These guys decided to start a sketch show on their own.

Their combined skills generated some of the most original characters in comedy. My favorite characters include host Simon and his sidekick Hecubus, chicken lady, red hair girl, crushing your head, and when all 5 cross dress as office temps. Also Scott Thompson's "Fag!". The guys are a great group, but they didn't break down any major walls. They re-engineered, they reworked, they pushed the envelope, they just didn't invent the envelope.

All of all the sketch comedy shows I have seen, The Kids In The Hall is the best damn comedy show ever. The Kids are outstanding and they are very funny and it was a shame that their show ended. I love them!! I was almost into tears when the show ended. I hope that someday they can do another reunion show. The coolest sketch comedy show i have seen in years.

I'll keep it short. Here in oz it's on 6:30am but i still watch it. At first I didn't really like it because it was different but it grew on me and now I love it! They don't make fun of Politicians & celebs which makes it even more better. Great show, very original!

1,000 words is not nearly enough to express my complete, total, and utter love and devotion for TKITH.

I started watching this show on HBO in 1988, when I was 8 years old. I would tune in an hour before my bedtime, and literally laugh my ass off. I really don't think my parents had a clue what I was watching, and thank God. This show was a huge part of my childhood, and shaped my entire view of comedy, and what is truly funny. I was never a Monty Python person. Prime time TV sucked, and made me sick to my stomach most of the time. Later on, The State and Mr. Show came close, but never achieved the absolute comedic excellence of these 5 guys.

Besides giving me hours of enjoyment, I really feel this show shaped me to be a better person in so many ways. Growing up in the burbs I had very little exposure to the true stuff of life: alternative lifestyles, class warfare, and the complete ridiculousness of pop culture. If not for this show, I may have become yet another brick in the wall of socially accepted behavior. The Kids taught me it was OK to be weird - that I didn't need to like what everyone else liked. When I first met a gay person, I didn't blink. When I got my first office job, all I could see were the businessman sketches. This show gave me a very unique perspective with which to frame reality, and I'll be forever grateful.

I guess this is a pretty serious review about a comedy show, but what the hell. I frigging love these guys.

Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, you have to admit that there's never been anything like the KIDS IN THE HALL. Sure, sketch comedy shows are a dime a dozen, but these guys set themselves apart from all the rest with their unmatchable brand of bizarre, surreal, and often gender-defiant skits. The show is usually downright hilarious, although some of the jokes do miss their mark on occasion. But even the most unfunny sketches are entertaining, simply because of how insane they are.

The humor in KIDS IN THE HALL is, for the most part, purely unexplainable, and sometimes it's actually subtly disturbing--an experimental sort of comedy that best fits in the "either you get it or you don't" category. When watching KITH with a group, the viewer response will invariably be split: one half will be teary-eyed from laughter while the rest of the gang will be hopelessly confused or frustrated, making condescending statements like "I don't see how you think this is funny!"

It's clear that these lovable Canucks decided from the get-go that they were going to do exactly what they wanted, without too much concern for genre standards, formulas, or even success. And that, I think, is the secret to their success. Whether they intended to or not, these five KIDS succeeded in carving themselves a very distinct niche in the world of sketch comedy, towering above even SNL because of their fresh style and consistent hilarity.