Letterkenny gets at our neighbor to the north

Letterkenny is a wonderfully hilarious CraveTV original show about a Canadian town full of 5,000 “hicks, skids, hockey players and Christians.”

The dialogue and slang might come off as hard to understand on first viewing, as a lot of American viewers likely won’t understand half of what the characters say. But once you learn the lingo, Letterkenny is a hilarious experience from start to finish.

The show’s humor relies a lot on repetition, fast talking and clever writing. Some lines and gags are repeated, but none of the jokes ever feel like they overstay their welcome.

I will say, though, that it takes a certain kind of mindset to really appreciate all of the humor in the show, and Letterkenny is best enjoyed with friends.

My first experience watching Letterkenny was with some buddies in my fraternity house earlier in January. My brothers and I were laughing nearly the entire time as we attempted to binge the entire first season. Letterkenny seems to gear itself towards this binge-favoring demographic.

The show takes place in a small town in Ontario, Canada called Letterkenny, which is named after a town in Ireland. Wayne, the main character, and his friends run a produce stand, which is where much of the show takes place.

The cast of characters in the show is diverse in personality and each character brings their own element of humor.

The main group of characters, the “hicks”, consist of brother and sister farmers Wayne (creator David Keeso) and Katy (Michelle Myatt), and their friends Daryl (Nathan Dales) and Squirrely Dan (K. Trevor Wilson). Most of my enjoyment from Letterkenny came from these guys and their interactions with the “skids”, slang for drug addicts, and hockey players.

The hockey players have their own kind of lingo, which comes out in short, snarky insults known as “chirps” in the world of hockey. As a longtime fan of the sport, I understood a lot the hockey lingo and chirps from the hockey-player characters in the show. However, I think the writing is clever enough that even non-hockey fans will derive some enjoyment.

I also appreciate the parodies found in some episodes, like one episode where the characters parody The Social Network and create a spin-off version of Facebook called “Fartbook.”

In another episode, Wayne and Katy hold a parody version of Shark Tank with other residents of Letterkenny.

The tagline, “There are 5,000 people in Letterkenny. Here are their problems,” which appears in almost every episode, reminds me of the intro to one of my other favorites shows, Law & Order.

In short, Letterkenny is a show of guys being guys. There’s a certain demographic that this show appeals to, but Letterkenny is all laughs from beginning to end. I’ve already recommended the show to all my friends, so it’s no secret that I’m going to recommend it.

“Pitter patter, let’s get at ‘er.”