The members of the iconic and groundbreaking comedy troupe reminisce about their 40 year career in The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks. The Kids in the Hall were formed in the early 1980s when Calgary comedy duo Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney joined up with Toronto’s Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald to form a troupe, with the four soon being joined by York University acting graduate Scott Thompson. The Kids in the Hall would develop their sketches with regular shows at Toronto’s Rivoli nightclub, before gaining notoriety for their five season TV series that aired on CBC in Canada and HBO in the United States.
On the heels of the upcoming Kids in the Hall revival on Prime Video, director Reg Harkema (Super Duper Alice Cooper) brings together the five members of the comedy troupe to reminisce about their career, with additional interviews from the likes of Mike Myers, Fred Armisen, and Eddie Izzard. The film covers the Kids in the Hall’s entire career spanning from their early club shows to their groundbreaking TV series, mid-1990s break-up, and their multiple reunions over the last two decades.
Even though I was never personally into the comedy trouple, The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks really shows how ahead of the curve their comedy was, particularly in regards to their depictions of gender and sexuality. While the failure of their 1996 film Brain Candy put an end to the troupe for a while, re-runs of the television series on Comedy Central helped the Kids in the Hall to develop a cult following that continues today. Altogether, The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks is a documentary that should satisfy both old and new fans.
