Funny Faces

The Kids—Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Dave Foley, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson—reunited this year after a six-year hiatus. But even though they’ve updated old characters with new material, the crux of the jokes has always hinged on the same conceit: Social politics, in all their bizarre, awkward wonder, present endless opportunities for punch lines.

These five funny-looking Canadians wore Smiths T-shirts, referenced Orson Welles to Oscar Wilde, played teens and women affectionately, were socially awkward and endlessly witty. Businessmen, intellectuals, assholes, rednecks—the Kids took the piss out of all them. But whether you grew up in their world of awkward breakups, speech impediments and near-death experiences or just rented a couple seasons on DVD for the first time last year, you’d find their cultural satire still relevant.

During the seven years they held the court of sketch comedy in their Lorne Michaels-produced hands, they mocked high- and lowbrow in equal measure, layering jokes into sketches that painted nuanced tapestries of modern life. Though some of the decade’s concerns made their way into subject matter—environmentalism, gay rights, ’80s greed—at their core these were skits about common folks: cops, waitresses, rebellious teens, office temps, bank tellers. And of course, there was the occasional sex-obsessed half-chicken half-woman, and that gay vampire who picked up young men at ’Leafs’ games. And a guy who grew a tail. And a chauvinist pig with a cabbage for a head.

We caught up with shortest Kid Bruce McCulloch by phone on the road from Austin, Texas, where the wit behind mulleted rocker Bobby Terrance, Cabbage Head and gossipy temp Kathie Lassiter chatted about America, characters and comedy.

Scene: Are you the most requested Kids in the Hall member for interviews?

Bruce McCulloch: No. I think Dave is, because of his physical beauty.

Scene: Well, he does do a great deadpan.

McCulloch: That deadpan bought him his big, beautiful house.

Scene: I wanted to talk to you because I like your characters the best.

McCulloch: Yeah, I could see that.

Scene: You have such sympathy for rednecks and weirdos and even chauvinists.

McCulloch: Well, I’m a very dark little man. But I love people.

Scene: Even Cabbage Head—as a viewer you’re somehow sympathetic even though he’s such a despicable character.

McCulloch: Well, maybe it’s because I’m so likable myself. But really, when I wrote that, I kept thinking at the time that my girlfriend couldn’t go to a restaurant without a-holes hitting on her. And so it came from that point of view. But I don’t think that guy ever got laid. He’s actually kind of pathetic.

Scene: Growing up down South, you don’t see a lot of men willing to talk openly about menstruation or write female characters that seem to actually incorporate real knowledge of real women the way you guys did.

McCulloch: Well, we’re four heteros and one gay guy. To us, people always thought we were a gay comedy troupe, and it devalued the fact that we were heteros who were kissing each other or dressing up in women’s clothes or having that point of view. I grew up in Calgary, which, I don’t know if you know this, is one of the cattle capitals of the world. So it’s a very redneck kind of place. So maybe we were a reaction to that. And we go to places like Nashville or Austin or Madison, Wis., where there are supposed to be all these people with repressive beliefs, but there’s always lots of artists there.

Scene: I read you decided to do this tour because of the writer’s strike.

McCulloch: No, that’s not really accurate. We’ve been working on new material—the show is almost entirely new material. For a year-and-a-half I just had the impulse and said, “Guys, let’s just get together and write a show like we used to.” Even before the TV show we used to get together on a Sunday and write some stuff and by Thursday we’d just put it up. And we did that a couple times and it worked. So I think the writer’s strike allowed us to grab a time that would be clearer for people’s schedules. It’s five guys—somebody’s always working. It’s hard for us to get together.

Scene: So is the new material new characters and skits or just old characters in new situations?

McCulloch: Both. We have some new characters and then we have Kathies with a new premise and Gavin with a new premise.