Scott Thompson

The Danger of Being the Smartest Person in the Room

Scott Thompson arrived on Toronto's comedy scene with a restrained rage that few understood at first. In 1984, they co-founded the group The Kids in the Hall with their bandmates, and from that moment on Canadian comedy stopped being polite. They didn't seek the audience's approval; they preferred to make people uncomfortable with characters who challenged every social convention of the era.

His portrayal of Buddy Cole became a direct challenge to conservative television of the 1980s. But Thompson didn't limit himself to parody. Behind every monologue at the cocktail lounge was a fierce critique of political hypocrisy and of the segregation faced by the gay community. He was the first openly gay comedian to reach a mass platform without apologizing for his existence.

The gamble paid off.

And they did it because their writing was sharper than that of their contemporaries. While other groups went for easy jokes about everyday situations, they preferred to explore surrealism and human cruelty. So when the series moved to HBO in 1989, the impact was immediate in the United States. The group taped five seasons that ended in 1995 with the release of the film Brain Candy.

A Top Supporting Player Behind the Scenes

After the group ended, Hollywood tried to typecast Thompson in hollow supporting roles. But Thompson avoided obscurity by joining The Larry Sanders Show in 1995, where they played Brian, the personal assistant to Garry Shandling. In that show, they proved that their gift for sarcasm worked just as well in other people's scripts.

Television didn't know what to do with them.

Because Scott Thompson was always too odd for traditional sitcoms and too talented to be ignored. In 2009, their career came to a forced halt when they were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Chemotherapy kept them out of the spotlight for a while, but it did not dull their creative drive in the scripts they wrote during recovery.

In 2013, he took a turn toward psychological drama with his role as Jimmy Price in the series Hannibal. He worked under Bryan Fuller for three seasons and provided dark comic relief in one of the most intense shows of the decade. This role helped him connect with a new generation that didn't know his sketches from the 1990s.

The Comeback from the Abyss

Nostalgia can be a minefield for veteran comedians. But in 2022, Thompson and the other original members brought The Kids in the Hall back for a new season on Amazon Prime Video. They made no effort to soften their humor for modern standards. On the contrary, Thompson revived his sharpest characters to poke fun at the passage of time and his own physical decline.

In 2024, they still record the Buddy Night podcast, keeping the spirit of their most famous character alive. They prefer the independence of digital formats to submitting to the filters of major network channels. Their career is defined by that constant resistance to becoming a decorative figure in ensemble casts.

Filming the last season of his main series reportedly cost about $15 million.