The Kids In The Hall Revisited

Dave Foley playing a mass murderer: The difficult thing about being a mass murderer isn't the murdering part. It's the mass part. It's the pace you've gotta keep up, the sheer volume of murdering. 'Cause the funny thing about killing: After the first time you've killed, the second time it's easy. The third time you start to get cocky, so you gotta be careful. You know, you gotta stay humble or you make dumb mistakes. And, oh, by around the seventh time you're likely to feel like you're in a bit of a rut. Want to get artistic with it, you know, start cutting off the middle toe of each victim so you'll be known as "The Middle Toe Murderer." By that point, I don't know, I think that's showboating. You know, you gotta ask yourself: "Who am I doing this for? Am I doing it for myself or for the press?" Around about the twentieth murder, well, you're likely to be sick of the whole thing. You know, sometimes I don't even want to look at another corpse. I feel if I even see a chainsaw, I'll scream. It's like what happened the other day: I had just finished ending a human life in a senseless act of violence when I run into this old friend of mine from high school. And he says, "Hey! Whatcha been doin'?" And I think to myself, "What HAVE I been doing? What am I doing with my life? Where's this leading? Am I gonna be doing this at fifty?" Sometimes I think I really should go back to college.

The Kids In The Hall are a sketch comedy troupe starring Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson. They formed in Toronto in 1984 when Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch - a comedy duo called "the Audience" - met Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley at a midnight comedy fest in an old movie theatre. Scott Thompson joined up with them shortly thereafter. The group quickly gained a following at Toronto's Rivoli Club. They knew they'd really made it in early 1985 when their fans turned out during a snowstorm to see them perform. They were scouted by Ivan Fecan and expatriate Canadian Lorne Michaels, who produced the pilot episode for their sketch show in 1988. A series followed--five seasons aired from 1989 to 1994, and continues on in reruns all around the world. In 1994, they ended the show and have moved onto other projects. In 2000, the "Kids" reunited for a North American tour.

The name "Kids in the Hall" is a reference to Jack Benny. Jack Benny would sometimes take jokes from young writers who stood outside the studio; when he used one of their jokes he said, "This one's from one of the kids in the hall."

I vividly remember what a huge cult following Mr. Tiscic aka Mr. Tyzik aka the Head Crusher, played by Mark McKinney, had when I was a freshman in high school in northern Ontario.

I'm crushing your head! I crush your head! Crush crush crush!

Pure genius!

Here's a little blurb to close from The Kids In The Hall - The Official Site:

What THE KIDS IN THE HALL are is unique. Their brand of humour, an unlikely mixture of Pythonesque absurdities, razor-sharp monologues, cartoon-like inanities and sketch comedy reminiscent of Gleason or Burnett, is nonetheless utterly their own. All of them social misfits in one sense or another, THE KIDS have a unique perspective on the mundane standards and values of suburbia, and a surgeon's skill at honing in on its absurdities and stretching them into the preposterous.

THE KIDS IN THE HALL are a unique comedy troupe. To a man, they cut their teeth on improvisational comedy and have learned to adapt their style to the rigors of television.

They take everything they do very seriously, especially when they cross-dress. When THE KIDS are portraying female characters, they are far from the stock drag cartoons of Python or Benny Hill. When THE KIDS IN THE HALL don eyelashes and high heels, it is to portray a specific character with as much depth and reality as they can muster. A good actor, as far as they are concerned, should be able to play any character - no matter how irrational the situation. And the situation will always become absurd, regardless of the tragic, happy or sorrowful beginning it might have. "Men and women don't really act (or react) that differently," explains Scott Thompson, the crusader of the troupe.