The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984 in Calgary and Toronto, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson.

[1][2] Their name came from 1950s TV comedian Sid Caesar, who would attribute a joke that did not go over well (or played worse than expected) to "the kids in the hall", referring to a group of young writers hanging around the studio.

At the same time, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald were performing around Toronto (along with Luciano Casimiri) as The Kids in the Hall (KitH).

In 1984, the two pairs met in Toronto and began performing regularly as KitH, with a rotating band of members, including Paul Bellini for a short time.

Not long afterwards, the Kids broke up for a short time when scouts for Saturday Night Live invited McKinney and McCulloch to New York to become writers for that show, and Foley made a poorly received film debut with High Stakes,[6] while Thompson and McDonald worked with the Second City touring group.

While certain characters made reappearances (Buddy Cole, Mr. Tyzik and McKinney and McCulloch's "smooth-talking" salesmen), the rest of the show revolved around entirely new material.

Typically good-humored, the group poked numerous jokes at their own recent weight gain, and the state of their post-Kids acting careers.

[11] The 2008 tour closely mirrored the "Just for Laughs" performance, excluding the rat catchers, subway fan and Nicole Ritchie sketches.

Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald performed with the Barenaked Ladies on their "Ships and Dip V" cruise, along with other bands and comics, on February 1–6, 2009.

Four of the members appeared on-screen in drag (as girls), who had grown up as beauty pageant contestants (parodying Toddlers & Tiaras).

In 2014, the cast reunited on Foley's sitcom Spun Out, appearing as Dave's high school goth friends who had made a suicide pact.

[18] In the same year, the troupe performed a live reading of the screenplay for Brain Candy at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.

[19] In December 2014, McDonald, McKinney and Thompson appeared in an episode of the TVO's children's television series Odd Squad.

[20] McDonald, Foley and Thompson appeared on Chris Hardwick's game show @midnight, which aired August 2, 2017 (season 4: episode 139).

Several characters from the original The Kids in the Hall series made an appearance, including the OPP Officers and Chicken Lady.