The Kids in the Hall

Here is some of the freshest and most disarming material the comedy scene has been able to claim in a long while.

If the first two episodes are indicative of the kind of inspired lunacy these guys will produce over the next 20 weeks, the Kids may well be the successors to Monty Python, SNL and SCTV. [21 July 1989, p.5]

A gifted, wickedly witty ensemble that writes and performs with tasteless abandon. In a wonderfully varied series of skits first broadcast on HBO, these comically vicious brats express unrestrained glee in sending up homosexuals and homophobes, welfare-mother bingo addicts, religious nuts ("naked for Jesus"), beer commercials and May-December romances. [29 Nov 1988]

They are disarming in the most pleasant extreme...It is fresh, hip and frank. It could prove - especially given the stars' proclivity to perform in drag - America's "Monty Python." [21 July 1989, p.1]

Some of their humor is bizarre, and some is even more bizarre. [21 July 1989, p.E-3]

The quality of the material, all of which is written by the performers themselves, is spotty, to be sure. But when it hits, it has that "on the edge" feeling that makes you squirm as much as it makes you laugh. [21 July 1989, p.9E]

It turns out, though, that these guys are funny...The whiteness of the group is more problematic. Racial and gay/straight stereotypes are the target of a monologue by Scott Thompson, portraying an effeminate gay character. The script intends to skewer those stereotypes, but the blunt language and the fact that the group is white may lead some observers to question whether the sketch doesn't reinforce them. [21 July 1989, p.C6]