Playlist: Death Comes to Town

There's nothing more hit or miss than sketch comedy (insert own Helen Keller joke here*). Comedy of any kind is hard enough (or so I'm told), but when you get a group of funny people trying to be funny together, you more often than not get a train wreck of comedic sensibility and ego, both of which would be trains in that example, though I suppose they could be arguing on the tracks and depending on the size of the ego, say Chevy Chase's, could make the Crash at Crush look like like a fender bender on the LIE. As I was saying, comedy is hard enough.

The Kids in the Hall were one of the best sketch comedy troupes. When they were on, they were fresh and smart and inspired in ways that other comedians couldn't even imagine. Even though they were championed by Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels, they were always closer in spirit to Monty Python than the more mainstream SNL. But, like Python, the end all and be all in the field, when their skits didn't work, they really didn't work. As big a fan as I am of Python, I admit to finding a lot of their pieces nonsensical and nearly unwatchable. That's what you get when working with artists in such a volatile medium. Are the highs worth the lows? Or is it better to shoot for the middle, like SNL? That's the raging art debate, right there. Burning out or fading away or, like SNL, staining the very fabric of pop culture until some space age solvent is discovered to remove you.

Well, The Kids have been gone for some time, but they returned this summer with an eight episode series on IFC called, Death Comes to Town, and it's probably the best thing they have done to date. Maybe I should say the most consistently good thing they have done as every episode is cohesive and accessibly funny. The whole thing plays like Twin Peaks in a quirky little Canadian town with the Kids playing most of the major characters as usual (and Dave Foley still makes me forget he's not a woman). I think this was missed by a lot of people, but should make one of those great DVD finds. Man, I love TV shows with short seasons.

*Really, Helen Keller? She died like a hundred years ago. Actually, 1968. Really? Yeah, she lived to be 87. Oh, all the things she didn't see in her life. Makes it sadder, doesn't it? Anyway, that's still 42 years ago. I know, but would you have preferred Ray Charles? Even Stevie Wonder hasn't been culturally relevant since The Cosby Show was on. What I'm saying is that we need a new famous blind person. Have we become so shallow that we cannot allow someone who isn't physically perfect to grace even a scant few pixels for our seedy little eyes? I'm not asking for a blind LiLo here. I'll settle for a visually-impaired kid on Glee. And while you're at it, Marlee Matlin ain't getting any younger.