'Kids' these days: Legendary Canadian comedy troupe is back with new shows

On Friday, Amazon premieres new episodes of “The Kids in the Hall.”

As someone who watched countless hours of the Canadian-based troupe on Comedy Central in the 1990s, I approached the return of Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Dave Foley and Scott Thompson to televised sketch with optimistic skepticism. Their heyday was long ago. Happily, I can report the show is not only still funny but the players continue to push boundaries.

For those of you who don’t have the familiarity of a self-proclaimed fanatic, Amazon also premieres the documentary “Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks,” a nice summation of Paul Myers' recent Kids biography “One Dumb Guy.” Since everyone reading this column likely didn’t read that book, this film does a nice job of explaining their enduring legacy as well as the history and drama that forged them into comedy trailblazers.

The merger of two comedy teams from Calgary and Toronto, the Kids took the '80s Canadian hipster scene by storm, selling out shows night after night. This caught the attention of “Saturday Night Live” talent scouts who ended up taking only McKinney and McCulloch to New York as writers. Sensing the misery of his new talents, producer Lorne Michaels decided the group needed its own show.

Under the banner of the CBC and HBO, “The Kids in the Hall” ran for five seasons from 1989 to 1995. As the show’s popularity grew, so did the members’ desire to try new things. They agreed to end the show, but to follow the Monty Python route of making movies together.

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They wrote “Brain Candy,” a dark satire on the pharmaceutical industry with little appeal outside the Kids’ fan base. What’s worse is Foley, at this point tapped as the lead in “NewsRadio,” felt duped into signing a contract to appear in the film. Tensions flared, feelings were hurt, and the group broke up.

The film flopped and I’m unsure if you can find it now, other than buying a VHS tape. A shame, because “Brain Candy” is well done with some incredibly memorable moments. In fact, “Brain Candy” plays an oversized role in the first new episode. As long as you know the Kids have no fond feelings for their cinematic foray, you should be fine.

Years later, the Kids began talking and realized their chemistry and talent could overcome bruised egos. This lead to years of live tours and even a 2010 miniseries, “Death Comes to Town.”

The Kids in the Hall have remained relevant over nearly four decades thanks to their ability to observe and turn simple moments into absurd spectacles. They rarely do topical humor — although the unbelievably filthy Zoom sketch in this new iteration may be one of the funniest skits they’ve ever done — and they don’t do much in terms of impersonations, parodies, or other traditional staples of sketch.

A good example of their humor is the “Citizen Kane” skit. Two friends are having lunch. One is trying to recall a movie they watched and begins to describe it. It is obviously “Citizen Kane,” the other friend notes. The other friend keeps saying, “No, that’s not it.”

This goes on for several minutes until the character who knows the movie is “Citizen Kane” stabs his friend to death with a fork.

It's funny because we’ve all had arguments like this, and maybe we’ve even become so frustrated that our companion just cannot acknowledge we are correct. The Kids take the scenario to its extreme conclusion, and we laugh because that very feeling or impulse is lurking in an ugly corner of our psyche.

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But the show also broke down barriers. Thompson is the first openly gay person I remember ever seeing on television and his matter-of-fact depiction of the gay lifestyle — primarily through the monologues of flamboyant bartender Buddy Cole — normalized perceptions. The all-male trope would also wear drag a lot, but their female characters were fully realized and not set up for ridicule. The portraits were of men understanding women, and uniquely feminist in that regard.

In the documentary, almost all the members chalk up their humorous talents to having alcoholic dads. “You become very observant of shifts in behavior when a drunk lives with you,” one notes.

“We had to prove to our fathers that we were real men,” Thompson deadpans. “By dressing up as women.”

I've already tried to describe one joke in this column, and since that never captures why a joke works, I won't go through any specifics of this new season. But I will say the new shows made me laugh. The members still have a potent rhythm and, even though they are creeping up to senior citizen status, still have no trouble taking risks. For a show that set cultural expectations decades ago, the team remains relevant and cutting-edge.

For fans and non-fans alike, don’t give “The Kids in the Hall” a pass.

In real life, James Owen is a lawyer and executive director of energy policy group Renew Missouri. He created/wrote for Filmsnobs.com from 2001-2007 before an extended stint as an on-air film critic for KY3, the NBC affiliate in Springfield. He was named a Top 20 Artist under the Age of 30 by The Kansas City Star when he was much younger than he is now.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 'Kids' these days: Legendary comedy troupe is back