About This Quiz
No one was ready for "The Kids in the Hall" when it first hit the airwaves in the late 1980's — and that's what made the show the irreverent pastiche of weirdness Canadians audiences know and still love today. The Monty Python-esque comedy show was all over the map, featuring delightfully off-the-wall sketches and vignettes from five very talented improv actors. Who can forget Buddy Cole's memorable monologues (who still remains a very iconic and important LGBTQ+ character in Canada) or the head-crushing habits of certain cranky characters? What about Queen Elizabeth II, Sizzler Sisters, the Chicken Lady and the Flying Pig? For 102 episodes, "The Kids in the Hall" took the audience from weird to weirder (and even weirder still!)
In addition to the show, there's also a movie, a TV mini-series and an impressive list of live shows featuring all of the original members. There's definitely a lot to remember, but you can always go back and re-watch your favourites to remind yourself of the correct answer if you get stuck.
If you love "The Kids in the Hall" and think you know everything there is to know about the show itself — and its members — then you'll have a blast taking this quiz. It's a fact!
"The Kids in the Hall" first aired on July 21, 1989, on HBO and on September 14, 1989, on CBC Television (airing the show from beginning to end.) The series remained on HBO for three seasons before being moved to CBS for two more seasons.
Time for a roll call for "The Kids in the Hall." Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulluch formed the all-Canadian sketch comedy troupe in 1984.
Mark McKinney went on to join the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 1994 but didn't have many on-air appearances. His famous Chicken Lady character made a single appearance on the show in a long-forgotten sketch called "The Chicken Lady Show."
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Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch spent exactly one season writing for "Saturday Night Live" before Lorne Michaels saw The Kids in the Hall perform as a sketch comedy group. Michaels sent them to New York so they could finesse their material, and in 1988, the KITH pilot special made its debut on CBC and HBO.
Mark McKinney has said that his Chicken Lady and Bearded Lady characters were based on the 1932 movie horror movie "Freaks." Directed by Tod Brown, the movie was considered highly controversial when it was first released — resulting in quite a few scenes being cut before it was shown to the public.
"Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy" was released in 1996 to mixed to negative reviews. As per usual, the five cast members play almost all of the characters (both major and minor.) The film follows the developers of a powerful antidepressant, which leaves its users in a coma-like state, trapped in their happiest memory.
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Dave Foley starred in "Newsradio" from 1995 to 1996 (the duration of the show's run) alongside Andy Dick, Maura Tierney, Joe Rogan, Stephen Root, Vicki Lewis and Phil Hartman — his last role before his untimely death. The show focused on a New York AM news radio station and the professional and personal lives of its employees.
Scott Thompson played Buddy Cole, an out-and-proud gay socialite who delivered monologues about his correspondence with Queen Elizabeth II and his various brushes with the wildly wealthy and famous. Scott Thompson recently embarked on a one-man Buddy Cole tour called "Après le Déluge: The Buddy Cole Monologues."
Canadian band Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet performed the instrumental song "Having an Average Weekend," which would end up becoming the central theme for "The Kids in the Hall." The Tragically Hip song "Butts Wigglin'" was used an intro song for "Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy."
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As played by Bruce McCulloch and Scott Thompson, Cathy and Kathie were two secretaries who worked at a fake corporation named A.T. & Love. The sketch revolved around their mindless gossip and always included delighted squealing about a particularly juicy piece of information.
The Kids in the Hall took their name from American comedian Sid Caesar, who used to say that a joke was written by "the kids in the hall" if it didn't land with the audience. There's also another good reason why the KITH used that name; at the time, those "kids in the hall" included comedy legends Neil Simon and Mel Brooks.
"Death Comes to Town" was commissioned by the CBC as an eight-part miniseries. Featuring all the original members of "The Kids in the Hall," the 2010 series tells the story of murder in a small town and the mayhem that follows as the crime is investigated.
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In season four of "Arrested Development," Bruce McCulloch plays Father Marsala, co-host of the show "And As It Is Such, So Also As Such Is It Unto You" (Egg Veal's father Pastor Veale co-hosts the religious daytime talk show.)
Bruce McCulloch played Cabbage Head, a man who has cabbage leaves instead of hair. Cabbage Head is a crude, unpleasant misogynist who blames his bad luck in dating on the fact that he has cabbage for hair instead of the fact that he's an awful person.
If you guessed A.T. & Love, you're 100% correct! A. T. & Love, an obvious play on telecommunications company A.T.&T., was used as the go-to name in any sketch involving the absurdity of office life — particularly in sketches involving Cathy and Kathie or Danny Husk.
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If you're a fan of "Fawlty Towers," you might have recognized the occasional Connie Booth-cameo on "The Kids in the Hall." Booth famously co-wrote and starred in "Fawlty Towers" alongside her ex-husband John Cleese.
Scott Thompson portrayed Queen Elizabeth as an eccentric yet enthusiastic monarch with very little idea as to how the real world works. Uttering phrases such as, "without me and the French you are just Americans" and waxing poetic about maple syrup, Thompson's character always brought the laughs.
Bruce McCulloch directed the Kids in the Hall-esque video for "My Music at Work" off of the Tragically Hip's seventh studio album "Music @ Work." McCulloch was close friends with Hip frontman Gord Downie who died of glioblastoma in 2017.
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"I'm crushing your head! I'm crushing your head!" is the constant refrain of Mr. Tyzik, a character who spends each sketch crushing people's heads with his fingers from a far-away distance (he refers to everyone as a "flathead" who is deserving of finger-crushing fate.)
Sir Simon Milligan and Hecubus (as played by Kevin McDonald and Dave Foley respectively) hosted the show "The Pit of Ultimate Despair" in a sketch about an evil television host who is, in fact, only marginally bothersome — his servant, Hecubus, is slightly more mischievous.
Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney played two idle Toronto police officers who were always shown chatting beside their police car (and never in action.) Based on improv sessions between the two actors, the short was used throughout many of the episodes between full-length sketches (they even appeared in "Brain Candy" and "Death Comes to Town.")
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Dave Foley makes a guest appearance as Principle MacIntyre in three episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." His character is known for making poor decisions and for hiring Dee and Charlie (arguably his worst decision yet.)
The very first sketch by The Kids in the Hall to be shown on television (on their 1988 pilot special) consisted of Bruce McCulloch looking out the window and seeing three millionaires (as played by Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson) going through his trash. He then yells out his window, "Hey! You millionaires! Get out of the garbage!" as the men run away.
No one likes having their pen taken away from them, especially Bruce McCulloch's character in the "My pen!" sketch. After lending his pen to a customer — who absent-mindedly pockets it and leaves — McCulloch embarks on a wild but successful chase to get it back (all the while imagining ways he could punish the offending pen thief.)
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If you think that Bruce McCulloch caused cancer, you're absolutely right! In episode one of season one, Foley speaks directly into the camera and declares that the troupe accidentally discovered what causes cancer — enter Bruce McCulloch, who apologizes for causing cancer.
Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald wrote and starred in a series of sketches about two mopey, sullen-voiced friends who keep repeating "nobody likes me." The pair engage in several increasingly awful social faux pas, including eating live earthworms on a bus surrounded by children.
Dave Foley played Mr. Heavyfoot in a series of silent vignettes about a man whose legs were so heavy they made his life miserable. In one memorable sketch, Mr. Heavyfoot decides to run a marathon — which then takes him a year to complete.
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Darcy Pennel hosted the very pathetic talk show "The Darcy Pennel Show." In addition to the fact that the studio audience was always shown as being mostly empty, Darcy Pennel had an issue with painfully mispronouncing her guest's names every time they came on the show.
In the "Axe Murderer" sketches, Dave Foley plays an axe murderer who asks for multiple favours from strangers while holding a still-bloody axe. His transactions are courteous and peppered with small talk — but he warns people if they tell anyone about his whereabouts he'll come after them, too.
Occasionally the content of "The Kids in the Hall" had to be edited for HBO (and then CBS.) Generally speaking, the issues had to do with religious content and mild nudity. One of the worst offenders was a sketch called "Dr. Seuss Bible," which involved the cast reciting the Crucifixion story in the style of a Dr. Seuss book.
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Mark McKinney not only co-created the dramedy show "Slings and Arrows" but he also co-wrote the series and starred in it. The show offers a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes action of a Shakespearean theatre company and is loosely based on the Stratford Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ontario.
If you guessed that a certain Buddy Cole on "The Colbert Report" was giving his hot take about all things related to the Olympics, you've got a great memory! Scott Thompson made several appearances on the satirical news show as a correspondent for the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
Written in the voice of Thompson's most-celebrated character, Buddy Cole, "Buddy Babylon: The Autobiography of Buddy Cole," tells the story of Buddy's life — beginning with his childhood and leading up to his life in the fast lane and across the pages of tabloids everywhere.
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If you're ever watching the video for the Outkast song "Roses" (off of their 2004 album "Stankonia"), keep an eye out for Kevin McDonald! He makes a brief cameo as a high school principal in the star-studded video — Lukas Haas and Paula Abdul (amongst others) also star.
Although almost all of the acting in the movie "Brain Candy" was done by The Kids in the Hall themselves, Canadian actor Brendan Fraser had a small role as a placebo patient who was putting on weight due to all the sugar pills he had to take for the medication trials.