Moving Pictures

BOUNDARY-BREAKING COMEDY: THE KIDS IN THE HALL AREN’T KIDS ANYMORE

BY JOE NOLAN, FILM CRITIC

When The Kids in the Hall debuted in 1989 they were sort of like Saturday Night Live’s Canadian kid brothers. The show was produced by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels and it aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Company and HBO. The show ran through 1995 and was followed-up by a feature film (Brain Candy, 1996) and the Death Comes to Town miniseries which aired on Amazon Prime in 2010. Now the Kids are back on Amazon Prime with a new season of sketch comedy as well as a documentary about their journey from a plucky improv comedy troupe in Toronto to international comic legends.

The new The Kids in the Hall season picks up where the series left off in 1995, reviving some classic characters and skits, but, thankfully, also bringing lots of unique, original, daring and hilarious new ideas to Amazon Prime. Saturday Night Live lost it’s “not ready for prime time” edge a long time ago and my joy at a new The Kids in the Hall season was definitely tempered by a sense that a return to the show almost three decades after their original series ended might be a disaster. Thankfully, it’s a triumph. The new season looks a lot like the show’s original run: episodes still cold-open with a skit before the needle drops on the show’s classic surf punk theme song by Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet. The opening credits and experimental bits between skits still feature random candid goofing and gritty street footage shot in grainy black and white. The new material still finds the Kids mixing surreal silliness with dark themes as well as lots of wigs and dresses, but their new sketches feel fresh as well as familiar. The first sketch of the first episode ends in a display of full frontal nudity that’s as ridiculous as it is hilarious, and it sets the tone for this new season which is just as weird, smart, daring and laugh out loud funny as their best shows from way back in the grunge era.

Saturday Night Live was originally energized by the punk rock music and ethics that emerged in New York City in the 1970s, but The Kids in the Hall always seemed emblematic of the Generation X sensibilities that shaped so much of American culture in the 1990s. The Kids themselves are technically late Baby Boomers, but their weird comedy broke the ice for off-kilter sketch shows like Mr. Show, The State and Exit 57 which are now considered classics of the era, and it doesn’t take a genius to draw the very obvious connection between the Kids’ wearing dresses and making queer-friendly comedy and Kurt Cobain wearing dresses and advocating for women and the gay community.

The original The Kids in the Hall series, the Death Comes to Town miniseries, the Brain Candy film, and the new series reboot are all currently streaming on Amazon Prime along with a new two episode documentary,

The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks. Even if you’re a super fan from way back in the day, this new doc will surprise you with lots of early footage of the Kids before their television stardom and on the road touring the various live shows they’ve performed over the years since their breakthrough success. The movie reveals lots of insider stories about the Kids’ friendships and struggles during more than 30 years as a comedy troupe, and it even reveals that The Kids in the Hall name is a reference to a line comic legend Sid Caesar would deliver, blaming jokes that flopped on, “the kids in the hall” — the newbie comedy writers who hung around the television studio looking for a big break.

All of The Kids in the Hall projects are now streaming on Amazon Prime

Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based inEast Nashville. Find out more about hisprojects at www.joenolan.com.