While primarily remembered as a ‘90s show, The Kids in the Hall premiered in October of 1989, which legally means I can write about it on the 80sXchange. No, really, check the documentation on this one. I’m absolutely not exploiting a loophole so I can write about one of the best sketch comedy shows ever made. Now that we’ve got that settled…
The Kids in the Hall return to the small screen via Amazon on May 13th, 2022 with all five original members and some new faces. Watch the trailer below.
As seen in the trailer, it doesn’t look like they plan to pull any punches, which is one of the things I loved about their original run. Their humor was often dark, absurd, and deliciously cynical. As was their 1996 movie, Brain Candy and their reunion back in 2010 when they released a limited run series entitled The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town [1].
Along with the new season of The Kids in the Hall, Amazon is also releasing the aptly-titled Docuseries, The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks, on May 20th, which promises to reveal plenty of never-before-seen footage about the iconic comedy troupe.
"Comedy Punks" rings true to my ear. At a time before other similarly absurdist troupes were on television (The State, The Upright Citizens Brigade), I often found myself gravitating to The Kids in the Hall over other, more mainstream shows like Saturday Night Live [2]. SNL always felt a little more safe. A little more censored. There was nothing like the Chicken Lady or Cancer Boy on SNL, after all. Those edgy, dark, and slightly offensive skits were what kept me coming back episode after episode. What kept me watching years and even decades later. What encouraged me to follow each of “the kids” in their careers after the show.
I remember walking around the school yard “crushing the heads” of peers who were mean, laughing to myself over the ridiculous nature of both the skit and my repetition of it. It was far from the weirdest thing we did at school, like getting together to sing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme song, but it was definitely up there.
If you're planning on catching up by watching the original series, you can find the entire season on AMC+, or seasons two through five on Amazon Prime.
Are you planning on tuning in to The Kids in the Hall this May?
[1] I vividly remember looking everywhere for this series when it first came out, and not finding it anywhere. This was before streaming was as prevalent as it is today, making television and movies more accessible. I had to resort to illegally downloading it, but even then I could only get the first episode. It was years before I finally got to watch it all the way through, and viewers today will be happy to know you can get it on Amazon Prime.
[2] Lorne Michaels produced The Kids in the Hall as well as SNL.