When Amazon released Season 6 of The Kids in the Hall earlier this month after 27 years since Season 5, I was quite excited to watch one of my favorite comedy shows make its return.
The Canadian treasure was revamped with all five of the original cast members (Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson) and features a bit of the troupe’s dark side of the comedy spectrum that they might not have been able to show off during the CBC, HBO, and CBS runs in the 90s.
One such dark comedy sketch features Dave Foley as the Doomsday DJ, broadcasting from his survival bunker to anyone who will listen (or who might still be alive). Foley’s character puts on an upbeat façade while playing Melanie’s 1971 hit “Brand New Key” over and over again, but when the mic is off, he pretty much just stares off into nothingness. It’s funny on so many levels, yet Foley admits in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he really doesn’t know why it caught on with so many people.
“At the risk of infuriating my colleagues — although they wake up infuriated — it’s the piece that’s had the most response I would say of anything in the new eight episodes,” says Foley. “It’s been cited in just about every review of the show and almost everything I’ve seen on social media has at least mentioned it as a favorite. I’m startled. I’m totally startled by it, frankly.”
Foley goes on to describe how he wrote the piece, which was originally something that he penned for his wife’s variety show. “It’s odd, because, honestly, when I first presented it to the troupe, I thought they’d dismiss it,” Foley admits in the interview. “Even when I was shooting it, I kept thinking, oh, this can’t possibly work on film. I mean, am I really thinking people are going to be okay with sitting and watching me listen to music for such an extended period of time?”
And why does he just play that one song over and over again? Foley says that he never put in an explanation, but he meant to keep in a segment of the skit that showed scavengers stealing the rest of his record collection. “I can’t believe I cut that out. But there was that [explanation] that his entire collection had been stolen by scavengers who were using it for fuel.”
Be sure to check out the complete interview that tells so much more about the glorious sketch and check out the latest season of The Kids in the Hall only on Amazon Prime.
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