It's been 20 years since "The Kids In The Hall" went off the air in 1995. It was a time when homosexuality was much less mainstream than it is today, but that didn't stop the comedy series from airing sketches that tackled gay humor head on.
During a conversation with HuffPost Live's Ricky Camilleri on Wednesday, "Kids" star Bruce McCulloch attributed the success of those sketches largely to the interplay between gay co-star Scott Thompson and his straight colleagues:
Because Scott was one of the first openly gay people on TV and was in our troupe, I think it made it richer. And also the fact that we weren't a gay comedy troupe -- not that there would be anything wrong with being a gay comedy troupe -- but I love that here I am, a heterosexual man, dressing up, kissing Scott on the lips in the mid '80s, and we're all doing it, it makes it kind of richer. But no, we [probably] would never have taken some of the sexuality things on if we hadn't had Scott.
The "Kids In The Hall" cast is still doing similar material on tour today, including an old sketch called "Running Faggot," which McCulloch wrote and describes as "Scott being a folk hero, going around [saying], 'Hey faggot, good to see you faggot.'" Though the world is more sensitive about gay slurs today, McCulloch said the bit still works.
"As the times have changed ... we can do it, I think, because we've come from that place and we have that sensitivity, perhaps," he said. "And it's been grandfathered in, in a sense, culturally, because we've been doing it 20 years. But I don't know if people now would go, 'You can't say that.'"
Bruce McCulloch's new book, Let's Start A Riot: How A Young Drunk Punk Became A Hollywood Dad, is available now.
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