CODCO - Segments and Characters

Segments and Characters

CODCO shared several characteristics with The Kids in the Hall, including the presence of openly gay members and the use of drag — although where The Kids in the Hall often revelled in absurdist humour, CODCO's sketches were typically based around social commentary and satire, often with a strongly political edge. Their sketches were also strongly reflective of the troupe's background on the stage, sometimes playing more as humorous character or scene studies than as conventional sketch comedy.

Recurring characters included the Friday Night Girls (Walsh and Jones), a homely, dateless pair of female friends whose Friday nights rarely consisted of anything more exciting than riding the Metrobus; Dakey Dunn (Walsh), an unexpectedly insightful macho lout; Frank Arsenpuffin (Andy Jones), a hapless talk show host faced with a succession of horrifying guests; Marg at the Mental (Sexton), a patient in a psychiatric hospital; and Jerome and Duncan (Sexton and Malone), a flamboyant pair of gay lawyers. Thomey sometimes appeared on the show as Newfoundland separatist Jerry Boyle, a character he would later reprise on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Another recurring sketch, House of Budgell, was essentially an ongoing soap opera set in a boarding house. Wake of the Week focused on the Furlong sisters, a pair of elderly spinsters who regularly crashed funeral wakes, while The Byrd Family focused on a family of hardened criminals. Another of the show's most famous sketches parodied Canadian literary icon Anne of Green Gables; instead of Prince Edward Island, Anne lived in a dreary Newfoundland fishing outport called Green Gut.

Malone performed a number of celebrity impersonations, including Margaret Thatcher and Canadian television journalist Barbara Frum, while Sexton did recurring impersonations of Barbara Walters and Tammy Faye Bakker.

Parody music videos were also a frequent feature of the show. In a transparent spoof of Quebec pop idol Mitsou, Cathy Jones played Jansu, a shallow, self-promoting pop singer who tried to be topical with lyrics such as "it's a political world/so separate your garbage!". Sexton parodied body image as Dusty Springroll, who sang an ode to the fashionability of bulimia. Figures such as Anne Murray and Bruce Cockburn were parodied in commercials for compilation albums with satirical lyrics set to the melodies of real songs by the artists, while another sketch was set in a café holding a Leonard Cohen impersonation contest.