St. John's

In 1989 CBC television debuted two half-hour comedy shows: the Kids in the Hall, comprised of young men from Alberta and Ontario, and CODCO, a mix of slightly older men and women from Newfoundland. Both ensembles were seasoned "live" performers who mixed sketch comedy and improvisation. Both included homosexual scenarios delivered by homosexual actors.

While Kids in the Hall succeeded in pushing boundaries -- both identifying and mocking an ever-atomizing mainstream culture for an ever-widening popular audience -- it was the more-regional CODCO that took the bigger chances, dug the deeper wells, activating within this viewer the kind of complexities that make life what it is (and isn't).

I am not sure if the above sketch was included in the original CBC broadcasts. Looking at it now, it seems tame, but back then it would have been outrageous, too close to home, particularly in light of then-recent events.

That said, looking at the sketch at the level of language, it does not include words banned by the CRTC, only situations that could be perceived as suggestive. Indeed, where Kids in the Hall was over-the-top, CODCO was so far under-the-bottom, so far up our asses, it might as well have been radio.