I didn’t see a lot of KITH – I think I just saw the bits on Comedy Central and tried to watch one show. But it just — wasn’t funny. I don’t mean that I found it rude or too biting or too “British” or anything like that. I mean simply not funny at all. I couldn’t understand why someone had gone to some much effort tio put together a show that seemed so thoroughly pointless. Not funny. Andy-Kauffman-not funny.
But maybe it was one of the later, weirder shows.
I consider myself a diehard KITH fan – I saw them when they did their comeback tour a couple of years ago – and I can’t stand any of their last couple of seasons together. Early stuff is the best, without a doubt. Their later stuff starts being, like, epic and just plain weird.
My favourite character/skit? Cabbage Head!
I started watching KITH when it first premiered (on HBO, right?) and I thought it was boring as dirt (with the notable exception of “Sorry I caused all that cancer”). I think the first several episodes were a little too much about the troupe reveling in their HBO-given ability to say “fuck” on TV. However, I often see the reruns on Comedy Central and they’re very funny. WHo knows why?
–Cliffy
I think you’re all just a bunch of twisted ass freaks.
And quit probing me. I’m starting to like it.
I started watching KitH reruns on Comedy Central a few years ago and it became one of my favorite shows. I love the early stuff and the absurdist sketches as well.
Being a teenage girl in Texas not many of my friends watch it or have even heard of it, but my best friend and I often quote from it and then collapse into fits of giggles while everyone around eyes us nervously.
“I Want Sausages!”
“My Pen! Someone stole my pen!”
I have wasted numerous hours here reading the scripts to their sketches and laughing like a drunken idiot.
Thank goodness. I always thought I was the only person in the world who didn’t find the show remotely funny.
I think I might be the only person who’s stuck in the middle ground on KITH. Some of their skits I found to be pretty inventive humour. Other skits I thought were mildly amusing. Most of their skits I thought, “WTF were they thinking?”
Of course, I can’t say anything bad about KITH around my Torontonian friends, who think they are Comic Deities.
Add another vote for “generally brilliant.” Although I have to say, the movie pretty much blew.
No, it premiered on CBC in Canada, then was picked up by HBO and CBS. A relatively large amount of swearing has always been allowed on the CBC late at night, and the show had to be seriously chopped for CBS (I’ve often wondered if this is why many Americans don’t find the show as funny). On HBO it stayed as it was in Canada, so all that swearing was not the result of HBO’s relaxed rules, it is pretty standard in Canada and probably just sounded odd and noticable to you, being unacustomed to the Canadian rules. I know it sounds odd, but thats my take on it.
FTR, KitH premiered on CBC in 1989 and ran until 1994. I’m a huge fan although I admit it did have its fair share of duds, as any show running for 5 years can be expected to produce. I really enjoy the dark, absurdist, downright surrealistic tone of the later shows. Also, Scott Thompson’s impression of Queen Elizabeth is hilarious.
I sort of wonder why it’s funny…I just know it is. It’s so weird, so…kooky.
“There are plenty of other places to live!” [teenager takes out globe and spins out]
“The ocean, Bob?”
[he stalks out]
“Where are you going, Bob? You don’t know anyone in the ocean!!”
And one where Mark McKinney is playing a guy with a lasting passion for his mother. And one with this occult show. 
Kids in the Hall was an aquired taste. They often didn’t go the ‘punchline’ route which results in a lot of people just not getting it.
Even I have to say that only about half their sketches were funny, half were just ok or kinda lame. But maybe one in ten was brilliant and worth the wait.
And, Kids in the Hall did what was not only their funniest bit but one of the funniest bits of all time, namely:
The Dr. Seuss Bible !!!
“What shall we do with this uppity Jew?
We can wash him in wine and make him all clean,
and into Sam Zittle’s crucifiction machine!
Whirl the girirl,
and release the geleze!
And in go the nails as fast as you please!”***
Several years ago, my sister, some friends, and I were watching KITH (Comedy Central was on pretty much around the clock at that house), when we got the call that my mom did, in fact, have cancer. We’re all sitting around, freaked out, and then–I kid you not–the “I’m sorry I caused all that cancer” bit came on. I could not help but laugh hysterically, though my sister (who, in all honesty, never thought the show was funny) got upset because she thought that there are some things that shouldn’t be joked about.
She was wrong, though. There’s humor in everything. I still laugh when I think about it.
I just saw their live show in Philly and it reminded me why I loved them so much in my teenage years. Regarding the OP, as pretty much everyone has already stated, different strokes for different folks. I didn’t get into NewsRadio, of course, I’m probably biased because I strongly dislike sitcoms in general, unless you consider The Simpsons a sitcom and I don’t.
When I was still living in Toronto, my partner and I were at the grocery store and Dave Foley was there pushing a baby carriage doing his shopping… (Just like a normal person, duh!)… Unfortunately, after seeing KITH for years, I just had to LOOK at him and started laughing…
The poor guy probably wondered who the fool was following him around the store snickering…
There were just SO many great skits…But I still laugh thinking of their send up of French movies, “Mr. Heavyfoot learns to drive”, “Mr. Heavyfoot goes on vacation”, etc…
And who could forget “Deryl / DA-ril”?
SFCanadian
Hmmmm, I might have to reconsider what I said earlier about “I don’t know how to play the piano” being their funniest sketch. Also, Office, Submarine has to get a place in here somewhere.
“Office, submarine, pop cans, money! Have I mentioned the imagination is a dying animal?”
I absolutely LOVED the movie!!!
“Faggo!”
“But mer PEE through their nipples!”
“I’m not going to spread for no roses.”
I loved Brain Candy, but then once upon a time I was forced to take an antidepressant when what was really wrong is that I had a stalker who was freaking me out. Yeah give me a pill and I’ll stop noticing the rich kid following me everwhere.
How can the sketch about the mail order male slave not be funny?
They have a skewerd perspective different then other shows. Like who else would think to stage a musical number of Do-Re-Me with some business men, a flower girl, a boy who lost his dog, his mother, a biker and a punk rock chick.
Or a guy creating his own fire department.
Or the guy who forgot to write an end to the sketch and they got trapped in it.
Or the sketch written by the guy in a real hurry.
And especially all the great lines they give like, and I’ve been going absolutely insane waiting for somebody to feed me a straight line so I can come back with it, “Office … Submarine.”
I adore KITH and have even seen them live. I haven’t thought about the dark “sausage factory” concentration camp type place in quite a while. That one really made an impression on me. It was brilliant (and odd).