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Whaddayamean you can't read the captions?! *Sigh.* Okay
then – from left: BUTTONS' only goal in life is the pursuit
of pleasure; BILL has had 58 ventriloquist partners die in unlikely
accidents; DAN BARLOW runs the puppets’ halfway house and
is supposed to be their moral guide; CUDDLES is a comfort
doll who could only hear so much of other people’s problems; ROCKO
used to be the sidekick on a popular children’s TV show –
until the day he snapped.
PUPPETS WHO KILL CONTINUES TO THRILL IN ITS SECOND SEASON.
BY SEAN PLUMMER
ACTRESS EMILY HAMPSHIRE does not normally have sex on camera,
but she is willing to make an exception for Rocko the dog.
"I probably would never play this part, beating
off a real human being and screaming ‘Jesus!’, if it was a
real person," Hampshire says reassuringly. "That would be
bad career-wise."
No doubt. Hampshire plays Selma, a "prostitute
for Jesus," on a second season episode of The Comedy Network’s
hit Puppets Who Kill. Along with her partner Thelma (Robin Brülé),
Selma is sexually healing the sick and dying in the name of the Lord.
When Rocko finds out that Health Canada will pick up the tab, he and
fellow halfway house inmate Bill, a ventriloquist’s dummy whose
58 previous partners all met with "accidents," fake terminal
illnesses to enjoy the fruits of the ladies’ labours.
Sound insane? It is, but what do you expect? Puppets
Who Kill has built a large grassroots audience with its irreverence.
It was co-created by Jon Pattison, a puppeteer who got his start in
the early ‘80s working on Jim Henson’s TV show Fraggle
Rock. Pattison took the idea of a TV version of his acclaimed one-man
fringe stage show to Hollywood (Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander
was briefly interested in producing) before realizing he would never
be allowed to maintain creative control. So he crafted a low-budget
pilot with the help of director Shawn Alex Thompson and sold it to Canada’s
Comedy Network instead.
The show casts Dan Redican as Dan Barlow, a self-deluded
social worker who runs a halfway house for four incorrigible puppets:
Cuddles (Bill Martin), a comfort doll who snapped; Rocko (Bruce Hunter),
an angry ex-kids show mascot; Bill (Gord Robertson); and Buttons (Jim
Rankin), a cuddly, libidinous teddy bear.
Hampshire, a fan of the show who asked to be on it,
thinks Puppets Who Kill is so popular because the outrageous
acts it depicts – murder, fornication, the sale of black market
urine – is being perpetrated by puppets not people. "You can’t
get in trouble for anything," she points out. "They’re
puppets!"
Pattison agrees: "Yeah, with puppets you’re
able to do all kinds of things you can’t do with humans. I think
that’s why puppets exist in the first place because it’s a
great way of expressing things without having it be taken in some kind
of offensive way. It’s very much like the court jester in days
of old. Puppets are able to say things and do things that humans aren’t
allowed to do."
Thompson, the show’s regular director, thinks
cable audiences, far from being offended, crave provocative programming.
"There’s no question we’ve been fed a steady diet –
not only in Canada but mostly from the States – of pabulum; of
stupefying, boring shows that sort of land somewhere in the middle,"
he says. "And then, all of a sudden, people like HBO and some of
the specialty channels here in Canada and in the States have been doing
some groundbreaking stuff that’s... clearly of significant interest
to a great many."
The numbers bear him out. The 13-episode first season
was The Comedy Network’s highest-rated original series. Bruce Hunter,
a.k.a. Rocko, isn’t surprised. "I just think it’s so
twisted that there is an audience out there that loves this type of
material," he says. "It really pushes the envelope."
Redican, a Canadian comedy vet used to busting taboos
on stage with his own comedy troupe, The Frantics, and on TV as a writer
for the old Kids In The Hall show is amazed at the network’s hands-off
attitude. "There have been very few Standards & Practices notes,"
he says. "And some of the ones that they had they backed off on
afterwards. So it’s been great to work for, as opposed to The
Kids In The Hall when we were on CBS. They got quite picayune at
CBS."
Will PWK be back for a third season? Pattison
thinks it’s possible, as long as Dan Barlow never cures his inmates.
"That would be a sad day," he says. "As long as the show
goes it’s just not gonna work for the show. I’m just going
to have them get worse, I think."
Puppets Who Kill airs Fridays at 10 pm EST on The
Comedy Network.
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HE SAID, THEY SAID
Social worker Dan Barlow think he’s da man. Puppets Rocko
and Bill think he’s deluded.
 WHAT
DAN SAID...
Are your tenants ready to be reintegrated into society?
Yes, I think that because of the hard work I’ve done... that
they’re just a short government grant away from being right
back there in the thick of things.
Are you happy that they’ve all come to love and respect you?
It is gratifying because I know that they are dirty, low-life
animals. It’s nice to see that they’ve allowed me into
their hearts and I think it’s just a testament to my abilities.
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 WHAT
ROCKO AND BILL SAID...
Bill, are you ready to be reintegrated into society?
Bill: Oh, of course. [creepy laugh] Any day would be fine
by me.
How about you, Rocko? Has the halfway house been a good
experience for you?
Rocko: Uh, no, actually. I’ve gone from halfway house to
halfway house and I find it really impedes my creativity. You
know, I want to explore life...
Bill: ...and death.
When’s the last time either one of you felt shame?
Bill: Excuse me?
Rocko: Shame... I’ve never really considered it. There was
a Christmas when I was very young.
Bill: Oh, that kind of shame. I thought it was somebody I knew.
Rocko: That would be Shane.
Bill: Oh, Shane. I felt him.
What have you learned from Dan?
Bill: What not to be in life?
Do you think his heart is in the right place?
Rocko: I think it’s in the left place.
Bill: Yup, that’s the right place.
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.: ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
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