{"id":1489371,"date":"2022-05-24T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489371"},"modified":"2022-05-24T08:00:34","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T12:00:34","slug":"the-return-of-the-kids-in-the-hall-reminds-us-that-comedy-is-supposed-to-hit-in-all-directions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-return-of-the-kids-in-the-hall-reminds-us-that-comedy-is-supposed-to-hit-in-all-directions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return Of \u2018The Kids In The Hall\u2019 Reminds Us That Comedy Is Supposed To Hit In All Directions"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">38<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-return-of-the-kids-in-the-hall-reminds-us-that-comedy-is-supposed-to-hit-in-all-directions%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489371&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/kids2-e1653321382150.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The show opens with Scott Thompson sporting long, white, bejeweled hair, selling a copy of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kids_in_the_Hall:_Brain_Candy\">\u201cBrain Candy\u201d<\/a> at a garage sale. Upon completion of the transaction for one earth dollar, Thompson holds the coin up, beams, and proclaims the curse is broken. \u201cThe Kids in the Hall\u201d can return.<\/p>\n<p>With that quasi-trip through the fourth wall, \u201cKids in the Hall\u201d did return, this time on Amazon Prime, as though not a day has passed since the show ended in 1995. Although the kids \u2014 Thompson, Dave Foley, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch, and Kevin McDonald \u2014 are older and grayer, the ethos from the original show remains. The irreverence, the overall weirdness, the willingness to offend, and the full-frontal nudity that those of us who watched the first run remember have picked up right where it all left off.<\/p>\n<p>Well, maybe not the full-frontal nudity, which is a new development and was more than a little unexpected, but it\u2019s still \u201cKids in the Hall,\u201d which in 2022 is revolutionary.<\/p>\n<p>What makes it so isn\u2019t the return to the style of sketch comedy they\u2019ve been doing since the 1980s, but what they\u2019re not doing: focusing on scoring any ideological points. They\u2019re simply trying to make people laugh. And while the show was always politically incorrect, the continuation 17 years later \u2014 and it is a continuation, not a reboot \u2014 is a reminder that being politically incorrect isn\u2019t always about politics, but instead about not worrying about who might get offended.<\/p>\n<h2>Being Politically Incorrect Has Changed <\/h2>\n<p>Of course, today that looks a little different than when the \u201cKids\u201d made their HBO debut in 1989. When the show first aired, it was more shocking \u2014 and more of a political statement \u2014 to have an openly gay man not just admitting his sexuality but owning it and making fun of it. These days, that\u2019s almost quaint.<\/p>\n<p>This means the troupe had to set their sights on different targets for the new season. From jokes about everything being racist to how clapping is a form of aggression to mocking the importance of diversity and gender equity to the silliness of complaints about cultural appropriation, they\u2019re not pulling punches, even if they\u2019re considerably milder than other comics, such as Dave Chappelle, who revel in making fun of everyone. (They are Canadian, after all.)<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Rolling Stone, the quintet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv\/tv-features\/kids-in-the-hall-reboot-documentary-interview-1351236\/\">explained their thinking<\/a> on the state of comedy today, as well as their approach to it and the new season of \u201cKids in the Hall\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>David Fear: Maybe it\u2019s a course correction from years of comedy that punched down, and\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Scott Thompson: Oh, please!<\/p>\n<p>Dave Foley: That\u2019s based on a misguided notion, I think, that comedy punches anywhere. Comedy doesn\u2019t punch.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson: Or maybe it punches in every direction? But come on. Who decides whether it\u2019s up or down?<\/p>\n<p>Foley: There\u2019s always an element of condescension in deciding who\u2019s down\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Thompson: Exactly. Like you\u2019re the expert?<\/p>\n<p>Mark McKinney: I like Dave\u2019s quote \u2014 I\u2019m going to paraphrase a bit here \u2014 \u201cJust because you\u2019re down doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re not an idiot.\u201d And therefore, completely worthy of satire.<\/p>\n<p>Foley: I think there\u2019s a generation that stupidly believes they should never be yelled at by their boss.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson: Or have disagreements at all.<\/p>\n<p>Foley: I sincerely believe everyone should be forced to work for a boss that is mean. Because you grow a lot. You learn how to handle adversity. You learn how to function in the real world.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2>As Comedy Should Be, There Are No Sacred Cows<\/h2>\n<p>At this juncture, it\u2019s worth pointing out that when Thompson\u2019s famed gay character <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=D&#038;q=https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/comedy\/an-oral-history-of-kids-in-the-hall-s-unabashedly-outspoken-buddy-cole-played-by-scott-thompson-1.5777899&#038;ust=1653406260000000&#038;usg=AOvVaw0QUaEOfmtFAeIegD8Uj-vm&#038;hl=en&#038;source=gmail\">Buddy Cole<\/a> appears in Episode 2 of the new show, one of his first acts, almost imperceptible, is to take a sexual identity flag from a planter as he walks past it and nonchalantly throws it over his shoulder onto the ground. This occurs after he walks past an old-school gay pride flag, one that he leaves untouched. There is no commentary added to the act, no glaringly obvious political statement, but it\u2019s not a cautious touch, particularly in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>This is why the new season of \u201cKids in the Hall\u201d is so good, and so important. It\u2019s not the specific sacred cows they go after, it\u2019s that there are no sacred cows, which is how comedy is supposed to function. <\/p>\n<p>It isn\u2019t about confirming one\u2019s priors and making people tepidly chuckle by affirming their beliefs, whether from the left or the right, but about catching people off guard and making them genuinely laugh. It\u2019s about actually succeeding rather than just performing. Or being performative.<\/p>\n<p>As Thompson said, it\u2019s about throwing punches in every direction, which is something we should all get a little more comfortable doing. But also, it\u2019s a sad state of affairs that it took the bravery of five old white Canadian men to remind us of that.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Richard Cromwell is a writer and senior contributor at The Federalist. He lives in Northwest Arkansas with his wife, three daughters, and two crazy dogs. Co-host of the podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/coffeeandcochon.com\/%E2%80%9C\">Coffee &#038; Cochon<\/a>, you can find him on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jrichardcromwell%E2%80%9C\">Facebook<\/a><br \/>\nand <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rcromwell4\">Twitter<\/a>, though you should probably avoid using social media.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The show opens with Scott Thompson sporting long, white, bejeweled hair, selling a copy of \u201cBrain Candy\u201d at a garage sale. Upon completion of the transaction for one earth dollar,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":701,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/701"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1489371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1489371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1489371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1489371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}