The Kids in the Hall are the punk rock SNL. I was a punk rock kid in the 80s and 90s, so their approach to comedy resonated with me. They’re subversive. And weird. And I absolutely love them.
The Kids in the Hall have been a major influence in my life. They always look for the joke behind the joke. This takes extra work. And I find it incredibly more virtuous than going for the easy landing.
But maybe that’s why they never went mainstream, telling shitty jokes at 7:30PM on a major TV network with a laugh track telling their audience where the punchline is.
With The Kids in the Hall, you don’t need a laugh track. There is no singular punchline. The whole work of art is a collective punchline. Growing up, The Kids in the Hall was kind of a pass/fail test for friendship. Do you listen to The Pixies? Yes? Do you watch The Kids in the Hall? Yes? Well then, excellent, we can sit together.
The title One Dumb Guy refers to the troupe themselves – collectively they’re One Dumb Guy.
Paul Myers did an absolutely superb job weaving together 30 years of nuttiness into a concise 300 page read. Similar to the series, each Kid had their moment to shine. While the book – taken as a whole – represented the entire troupe, collectively One Dumb Guy.
I don’t edit when I write; I simply sit down and type. Nor do I save drafts and come back to finish them later. I have to run now, but I might return to add some additional thoughts at a later point in time.
Get this book here.