"We end the show with something that's never been on TV because it was too big for a sketch but we couldn't stretch it out to make a whole episode because it would have been too long, but we always thought it was really good"
About this Quote
There is something wonderfully inside-baseball about Kevin McDonald framing a piece of comedy as a logistical problem first and an artistic triumph second. The line is a miniature manifesto for sketch performers: the funniest ideas are often the ones that do not fit. Not in time, not in format, not in the tidy math of television scheduling. McDonald is basically describing the lost continent of comedy, the great pile of material that gets stranded between “too short to live” and “too weird to scale.”
The intent is to sell the audience on rarity. “Never been on TV” isn’t just a brag; it’s a promise that you’re about to see something the medium itself rejected. That’s a potent hook for a sketch troupe like The Kids in the Hall, whose whole brand is built on making the network’s comfort level part of the joke. The subtext is also a gentle takedown of TV’s industrial constraints: the idea isn’t “too big” because it lacks craft, it’s “too big” because the container is small.
What makes the quote work is its deadpan candor. McDonald doesn’t mythologize the piece as genius; he outlines the banal reasons it got shelved, then slips in the crucial human detail: “we always thought it was really good.” That last clause is the emotional engine. It’s the performer admitting faith in a bit despite the marketplace, inviting the audience to join a private conviction turned public dare.
The intent is to sell the audience on rarity. “Never been on TV” isn’t just a brag; it’s a promise that you’re about to see something the medium itself rejected. That’s a potent hook for a sketch troupe like The Kids in the Hall, whose whole brand is built on making the network’s comfort level part of the joke. The subtext is also a gentle takedown of TV’s industrial constraints: the idea isn’t “too big” because it lacks craft, it’s “too big” because the container is small.
What makes the quote work is its deadpan candor. McDonald doesn’t mythologize the piece as genius; he outlines the banal reasons it got shelved, then slips in the crucial human detail: “we always thought it was really good.” That last clause is the emotional engine. It’s the performer admitting faith in a bit despite the marketplace, inviting the audience to join a private conviction turned public dare.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|
More Quotes by Kevin
Add to List
