Cult series...any followers?

The Tom Green Show in its primitive, Canadian incarnation remains to be one of my favourite series of all time. Sure, the comedy was a bit raw, it took some time to "get" (especially when it came to the really weird stuff), and some who are impatient will mistake the show for being lowbrow and only remember it for its more well-publicized bits, "The Slut Mobile" being a prime example. It is unfortunate that most people first acquainted Tom when it was mass-marketed and dumbed down for the MTV audience in 1999, because a lot of what made the show so great was lost in transition.

Many will cite Green's "shock tactics" as the reason why the show was so popular: cow head in parent's bed, humping the dead moose, etc. I personally find these to be among the least funny of the show's offerings. I am certain that I am in the minority, but my favourite bits had always been segments in which Green got to interact with passers-by on the mean streets of Toronto. Bits like "Are You My Mother", the drag sketches ("Canterbury Tales", "Oxymen Girls", "Bag Lady"), etc. which captured the real reactions of Green's antics. When it comes down to it, physical comedy was never this raw and this real.

To me, The Tom Green Show's Golden Age ended in 1999, when production moved to MTV. The show was never the same again, and Tom, whose meteoric rise to fame was so sudden and short-lived, would never produce comedy of that caliber. I still consider myself a Tom Green fan. I occasionally check out what he's up to (website, I think he has a radio show or something), but somehow it just doesn't feel the same. The stunts he pulls now are not in character with what he would have done in the 90's. And it's not that the original "Southpole Crew" is missing - sure, Glenn, Derek and Phil contributed, but it was Tom who was, is, and always will be the impetus of his unique brand of comedy. It's almost like he is now trying to fulfill people's stereotype of what he is - a crude, lowbrow shockjocky-"Jackass" type comedian.

In short, "Buzz" (another Canadian series) was too clean and nice, "Jackass" was too direct, but "The Tom Green Show", circa 1994-1999, got it just right.