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Comment by the_af | Hacker News Reader

> Weirdly i feel like there’s no really good, singular American equivalent

What about The Whitest Kids U Know? For some reason they remind me a lot of the Kids in the Hall, and not just because both have "kids" in their names. There's the absurdist humor, but I also think they even physically resemble the other troupe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whitest_Kids_U%27_Know

Example skit: "Happier And With Your Mouth Open" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwjmUWh-ymo)

Then there is the absolutely fabulous Key & Peele, I can lose hours just watching random sketches on YouTube. But they don't resemble the Kids in the Hall at all.

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WKUK had its moments, but was definitely led by Trevor in a way KITH members could stand on their own. Personally, i felt it dipped a bit too much into contemporary politics (stuff like Bush being in Skull and Bones), which doesn't quite have the shelf life of KITHs high points.

We're a very in-the-moment people, in the US.

That's about as close as you can get.

Americans are too earnest to be into absurdist humor.

I do think there's kind of an element of truth to this, though it feels very broad to say so. American absurdism does exist, just maybe not as much on TV? Screwball comedy is very much a thing in film, and occasionally reaches for the same feeling.

Stuff like Airplane! or some of Mel Brooks' stuff or National Lampoons movies, and later the "Scary Movie"/"Teen Movie"/etc. things... but it's like when they go much deeper than an average SNL sketch they almost always go too far and suddenly reach into trying to offend or anger or even disgust (though the new KITH has a bit of that too).

Adult Swim has a lot of American absurdist humour, like Tim and Eric, The Eric Andre Show, Rick and Morty, etc.

I really love WKUK and had been watching their Twitch streams at the time of Trevor's passing. I'm really looking forward to them releasing their Mars movie, as bittersweet as it may be.

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