NOTE: This episode is available to patrons only. To become a TPS patron, click here.
Welcome to the first-ever episode of ‘The Produce Stand’!
Join hosts Allan, Tanya, Mat, and Victor as they dive into a heartfelt tribute to the Canadian sensation, Letterkenny.
Expect lots of laughs, debates, and a touch of chaos as the group discusses their varying levels of fandom. From Allan’s passionate adoration to Tanya’s skeptic heart, and everything in between, this podcast explores the quirky world of Letterkenny, one episode at a time.
Get ready for some fun segments like Canadian slang translations, and music highlights from the show! Don’t miss out on what could be the beginning of your new favorite Letterkenny podcast.
Tune in and join the Produce Stand crew on this hilarious journey!
Featured Music
The Letterkenny theme song is ‘Who Needs A Girl Like You’ by Indian Wars (https://youtu.be/ArdUkG3NXOQ)
Links:
Al: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to the inaugural episode of the pod- of The Produce Stand, a podcast paying tribute to the great Canadian show, Letterkenny Now I know that what you’re thinking, there are many other podcasts about Letterkenny out there, but this podcast, it’s one too. I’m Al, your host, and joining me in the room is the lovely Tanya, and online we have Matt and Victor.
Hey, welcome guys. How are you doing tonight? Very
Victor: well. How you doing, my
Mat: friend?
Al: Yeah, don’t all speak at once.
Victor: Or at least say the same thing.
Al: This is an auspicious start. We’ll, we’ll find our pecking order. Yeah, we’re, we’ll find our pecking order, exactly. We still don’t know who’s funny enough to start. So, uh, thank you for joining and, uh, and for agreeing to do this.
Um, it’s been something I wanted to do for a while and, uh, we just didn’t have the right subject matter for it, so hopefully we’ve found it. Uh, so we’re gonna start off by saying, you know, this is gonna be a weekly, hopefully weekly podcast where we’re [00:01:00] gonna, uh, do some recaps of the great comedian show called Letterkenny, and I know there’s some dissenters in the room, uh, that that don’t think so.
Uh, and hopefully we’re going to change some minds here. Uh, so- The greatest yet to be determined, right? Exactly. So just a little bit of background. Uh, Victor, Matt, and I, we’ve, we’ve kind of d- done some podcasting in the past, and actually it was Matt who turned me on to Letterkenny a, a while ago. So Tanya, you can blame Matt.
Thank you. Um, he mentioned it- You’re welcome … one day. He said, “Hey, uh, you should watch this show, Letterkenny.” And I, uh, at the time I didn’t have access to it. I didn’t have Crave so I couldn’t watch it at the time. Said, “Yeah, that sounds great. Maybe I will.” And, uh, the more I heard about it, the more I saw it, the more like I think this could be a show that I could enjoy.
So finally got a ch- a chance to watch it, and when I watched it, I just started slicing through it. Like I’ve g- I’ve seen e- all eight, eight seasons. Uh, Matt, I think you’ve seen them all as well?
Mat: Uh, no, actually. [00:02:00] I’ve only seen the first six seasons, I believe, and I remember very little, to be honest. It’s been a while, but I’m excited to go through it again and, uh, rehash the moments I loved and the moments I hate.
‘Cause, you know, I mean, what I’ll say admittingly, I mean, I, I, I really enjoy the show, but there’s definitely some elements I’m in between on. So I, I’m excited to see if my opinion changes on it and, uh, find those golden nuggets again and, uh, yeah, it’s gonna be a fun run.
Al: Okay. So you’ve seen most of it, but you’re, you’re on the fence.
Victor, I think you said you saw, uh, the first season only, correct?
Victor: Yeah. But it was a long time ago, so I remember nothing. Uh, all, all I know- Okay … is there’s a c- couple of dumb hockey, hockey dudes and, uh, that speak funny. You nailed it. And so that was amusing. Yeah. That’s it, man. And, uh- You got it … yeah. So, so that’s what I enjoyed and, uh, that’s why I’m, I w- I wanna continue watching it.
Al: All right.
Mat: And- You know it has nothing to do with hockey though, the show, right?
Al: Well, it’s-
Victor: That’s, that’s what I hear. That’s what I hear, yeah …
Al: hockey is one [00:03:00] quarter of it. Uh, there’s, there’s other stuff. And then, uh, I- But a
Mat: quarter is pretty big …
Al: I, I don’t want to speak for Tanya, but I’ll just say this, that, uh, when I started watching this episode, uh, th- this show, uh, one day
Uh, by the way, Tanya’s my wife, so, uh, sh- we live together. So she came downstairs and, uh, I was watching the fa- the Fartbook episode And sh- and basically I think sh- her, her words were, “What the fuck are you watching?” Yes. Uh, and uh, it’s been downhill from there. So she’s the skeptic on this podcast. She’s the one whose mind we really have to change, or I have to change I guess, because, uh, uh, I don’t think, uh, Matt or Victor are 100% on board.
Um-
Victor: Well, well to, to be hon- I have to say, to be hon- the, the real reason I was intrigued by it is because, uh, and I think I shared this with you before, Alice, I love the show Corner Gas and um, Less than Kind. Uh, and I think Less than Kind was only one season, but, uh, Corner Gas, I love both of those shows, and I was hoping that Letterkenny would be kind of in the same spirit as those shows.
So, [00:04:00] uh, so we’ll see.
Tanya: Yeah. See, and I enjoyed- Yeah, I mean if, if
Mat: Cane- Sorry, go ahead, Danielle.
Tanya: I enjoyed Corner- Corner Gas too, but I compared this show more so to like, what was it? Trailer Park Boys? Yeah. It was- Yeah. Like it was that, that kind of level of- I, I can, I can get down with Trailer Park … of stupidity.
Yeah, yeah. Like it was just- That’s, that’s fine. Yeah, no. I, I, no. I can’t bring myself to that kind of level of mind-numbingness.
Al: So I mean, I’m not a fan- No. I’m not a huge Trailer Park Boys fan. I never really got into it. My, my brother was a big fan. Oh, god yeah. Bigger fan. But I, I never got into it, but I love Letterkenny.
And I know, and I’m gonna admit right now, it’s low brow. For sure it’s low brow. But my- Mm-hmm … argument is it’s also very smart and it’s also like one of the most inclusive and important shows to come out of Canada. And, and, uh- Yeah … maybe, maybe I missed something about the Trailer Park Boys, but I didn’t see that kind of stuff in it.
I was a Corner Gas fan. I liked it. Uh, I thought, I always com- compared it to, it was like the Canadian version of Seinfeld. It was basically a show about nothing. [00:05:00] Uh, and, but it took place- … in the prairies and, uh, you know. I
Mat: mean, yeah. I mean, if you look at a lot of the Canadian content out there, we always go low budget.
I mean, we don’t have the, the big dollars that they do to the south of us, but we create a lot of very unique, uh, clever writing, uh, style shows, and Letterkenny’s definitely one of those gems that came out of all this. Um, so I’m glad that it’s got the attention it does. And I mean, the, the ratings are beyond what they ever imagined with that kind of, with this show.
And it’s, it’s- And if you, I don’t know if you know anything about the history, it started off as just a web series.
Al: That’s right.
Mat: It was a, it was a, it was a five-episode web series back in like 2013, and it wasn’t till 2016 that Crave actually picked it up and signed them for a season, and that’s where it took off from there.
And then this cult following just took off, and now eight seasons later, here we are.
Al: So it’s funny you bring up that web series. And the web series was called Letterkenny Problems, and I actually have the very first episode of that series I’m gonna play for us now. Oh, did you? Yeah. Here we go.
Clip: Heard some city [00:06:00] gals talking about paying to get their pubic hair ripped out with wax.
Tell you what, grab a cow by the tail, they’ll kick you in the box for free if that’s what you’re into. Friend’s barn cat had kittens, so you took one, but fuck is it stunned. Your friends are out picking off groundhogs down the side road and they want you to come, but your dad’s got the .22 and your gas tank’s dry as a fart.
You pert near popped a street meat vendor after the Jays game last night for selling you venison, dog, even though you know goddamn well that was venison. You drove down to Buffalo to watch the Leafs play, and sure gas is cheap, but fuck, they don’t even have all dressed chips in that shithole. There’s a girl from up country you kinda like, but she’s a mouth breather and you heard her brother smokes meth.
If you had as many bucks in your wallet as bucks mounted on your wall, you’d have, well, give or take six bucks. You piss outside as much as the dog does. Tim’s, McDonald’s, and beer store are all closed on Christmas Day, and that’s about your whole fucking world right there. You had half your finger cut off one of three ways: bike chain, bandsaw, penalty box door.
Pack of coyotes come right up the back porch the other night ’cause your dog’s in heat, and you know those fucking yellow-eyed bastards will go right through the screen door if they’re horny
Al: I’m sorry. You [00:07:00] don’t get any more- Well- … any more Canadian than that. And I feel like one of the big things we’re gonna do on this show, because, uh, right now, uh, Letterkenny’s is, is blowing … Well, not blowing up, but it’s, it’s getting popular in the States because it’s moved from Crave to Hulu, so there’s a lot more Americans watching it.
I feel like, uh, it’s gonna be up to us to kind of translate some of that Cana- Canadian slang.
Tanya: Can you translate it
Mat: for me? Yeah.
Al: Yeah, we might have to translate it for Tanya too.
Mat: So I think what we should do is, is as we go through this, I mean, there’s a ton of slang words. I’ve even looked up online.
There’s like lists of the slang that comes out of this show. I think each week we should almost have a feature slang word that we can educate people on what they’re saying, keep them up to speed as we go through it. Um, it’s funny. I mean, I don’t, again, I don’t know how much research you’ve done. I mean, Jared, uh, Jared Keeso, who’s the, who plays Wayne the Wing, uh, the main character there, I mean, he’s also the creator of this, of this thing.
That’s right, yeah. And, um, they, they talk about it being loosely based on his time growing up in Listowel, Ontario. Um, if you don’t know where that is, it’s about 45 minutes [00:08:00] northeast of, uh … sorry, northwest of Kitchener. Uh, but funny enough, the actual show is shot five hours north of that up in Sudbury. Um, so it, it’s very homegrown.
Um, and, and a lot of like the, the lingo and things you hear in that are really, again, loosely based but, but, but supposed to be inspired by some of his, uh, his experiences growing up.
Al: Yeah. I saw an interview o- of, of, uh, Jeth- Jared Keeso on Q on, on, uh, CBC Radio, and he mentioned a lot of the slang, uh, he said about 50/50 of it is, is slang that they used, uh, growing up in Listowel and, and the other 50% is, is all made up.
So, uh- Yeah. Sounds made up. Yeah. Well, some of it. But, but the thing is, so the stuff that I catch, I, I know … And, and, you know, Listowel, uh, I, I grew up in a town that was maybe twice the size of Listowel, um, but there was, there’s definitely a lot of that kind of terminology and that slang when I was growing up.
And, uh- Yeah … and I also n- know a few people who, for example, uh, [00:09:00] the Squirrely Dan character who, uh, you know, adds S’s needlessly to the end of words. Yeah. I know people like that. Like, there’s, it, there’s so mu- Yeah. And the funny thing about that, and we’ll go into it I’m sure, the most hick character on the show is actually the one guy from Toronto.
So he’s not even, he, he didn’t even grow up in that kind of surrounding. But, uh, yeah, it’s pretty funny.
Mat: Love it.
Al: Uh, so yeah, uh, that’s a great idea. I like the, you know, we can maybe pick one or two terms that pop up in an episode and, and try to explain it, uh, maybe to Tanya. And in explaining it to Tanya, we’ll, we’ll explain it to- Yourselves
uh, to everyone else. We gotta educate the masses as we go along, right? Exactly.
Tanya: Gosh.
Al: Um, so a lot of the research that I did anyway was courtesy of, uh, letterkenny.fandom.com. It’s, it’s a lot of great stuff on that, so I’ll probably be getting most of my factoids from there. It’s a, it’s a wiki, and there’s a lot of great stuff on there.
For example, uh, the music on this show is really [00:10:00] good. Like, uh, I, I’m, I’m … And so the, uh, website gives, will, will, uh, list all of the, the featured songs on each episode. So I think we can have some fun with that too, just kind of talking about the music that they use on the show. What do you think? Mm-hmm. Is it
Victor: all homegrown?
Al: Uh, it’s hard to, to pin down whether it’s all, uh, Canadian or not. I know, for example, the, um- Uh, the, uh, theme, uh, where is it? Uh, the theme song’s called Who’d- Who Needs a Girl Like You by a band called Indian Wars, and I didn’t really … I don’t know, Matt, if you looked them up at all. I don’t know if they’re Canadian.
Mat: No. I saw that title, but no, I haven’t looked up the group.
Al: Well, the thing is they’re not even on, like, I couldn’t find them on Spotify. The only place I could find this song by them was on YouTube, and another song by them that’s also used in the show, and it’s also just on YouTube. It’s not, um, uh, like, if they have a release, it was a very small release.
So, uh, maybe these, you know, these bands that they’re picking are, like, friends of theirs, or, uh, [00:11:00] who knows? But it’ll be interesting to kind of dive more into that. It’s, there’s some really fun, uh, some really weird music in it, too. I think- I think, uh, Victor, you may like some of it, but, uh, you may not like all of it.
Victor: That’s all right.
Al: I’m open. Just knowing your musical taste. Uh, so yeah- It’s all good … you mentioned, uh, Matt, that the creator is, uh, Jared Keeso, and he plays- Yep … Wayne, the, the main guy. Yes. Uh, and the co-creator, writer, and producer, Jacob Tierney, he’s the guy who plays the pastor- Glen … on the show, Pastor Glen.
So- Pastor
Mat: Glen, yep.
Al: Uh, it, he’s also a very interesting character.
Mat: Yes, and I, we, what’s funny is when I was, when I was looking this up, I assumed, I mean, just my assumption, that that would’ve been Darryl, his buddy there, um, that was, was the other creator. Um, but when I found out it was Glen, that’s, that, it kind of caught me off guard, but I, but excited me as well.
I mean, Glen’s a really interesting character to follow. Um, got his own flavor that he brings to the show. Um, and again, the writing’s just brilliant in this. [00:12:00] So it’s, it’s just funny to watch it all t- come together, and like I said, I’m excited to go through it again.
Al: Yeah, it is weird because you’re right, Darryl is the character who’s in the original web series, Letterkenny Problems.
Um-
Mat: Yep …
Al: and he’s also on the show, the guy who’s always wearing the, the one-piece jumpsuit. Um, but, but it’s, but it’s, uh, Jacob Tierney who’s, who’s the co-writer, and it’s just the two of them writing. So it is a very small product- well, small-ish production. By Canadian- Yeah … standards it’s probably massive, but, uh, by, you know, normal North American TV standards, it’s small.
Uh, so you’ve got the- Well- … the two writers and the, and the one writer’s also the producer
Mat: Yeah, and what I found out again, I mean, I will say none of this is absolute fact. I mean, the good old Dr. Google helps us along the journey as we go. Um, but when, when I was curious about why they chose the Sudbury area to do a lot of the shooting and, and the only facts that I seemed to land on was apparently that area, like a lot of areas, you know, have all kinds of, um, funding efforts that they do to try to encourage people and, and, [00:13:00] and bring, uh, productions like this up their way.
Um, so there’s a lot of benefits and grants that they can benefit from. So there’s some assumptions that they definitely took advantage of that, um, is what positioned them up in the Sudbury area.
Al: Yeah, and I mean, already I want to go up to… I’ve never wanted to go to Sudbury, and now I want to go ’cause I hear they do, like, Letterkenny tours.
Mat: It, it’s a unique town, for sure. I, I, I have a strong- It’s a town you can’t wait … connection to the area. It, it’s basically, it’s a c- They, they, they have a nickel mine.
Victor: That’s what I know.
Mat: Yeah. It’s a city built on… or a town, or whatever you want to call it, built on a big rock is basically what the fuck it is.
Al: Right. And that, and they’ve got the giant nickel, and that’s where the moon landing was shot, too.
Mat: Yeah. T- totally. The moon
Al: landing. Brilliant. Right, Victor?
Mat: Oh, man.
Al: That’s correct. Uh, anyway, so an- another segment I was thinking we can do because, uh, the whole the… Throughout the whole show, Wayne, the, the main character, he always has these kind of rules or words of wisdom that he goes by.
And I’m thinking we can probably use that as a segment, too. Wayne’s Words of Wisdom. [00:14:00] They like the alliteration on the show, so I’m gonna put that down as something we can do. This is, by the way, a production meeting everyone’s listening in on. Uh, we’re, we’re just kind of deciding what this podcast is gonna list- sound like as we move forward.
So, uh, yeah, any ideas, uh, you know, are more than welcome. Victor, what do you think? You want to do a hockey segment?
Mat: I mean, I’m totally expecting Victor to take
Victor: his
Mat: off course.
Al: S- sorry, what was that?
Victor: I, well, you know-
Mat: Go ahead
Victor: Uh, well, uh, we could do anything. Uh, I can, uh, you know, I made a new friend over the last couple of weeks.
I, um, I got an amp, a new amp, but it’s a smart amp. It’s an amp that jams with you. So it, it’s, it’s, it… You start playing, it starts to listen to what you’re doing, and then gives you a drum beat and a bass line-
Al: What? …
Victor: and starts jamming along with you.
Al: Get out. It’s a like, it’s a [00:15:00] karaoke amp- I’m s- … but for guitarists.
Victor: But it’s not karaoke. It, it follows… Karaoke, you follow the ke- the, the machine. The, uh, this, the machine follows you.
Al: That sounds
Victor: crazy. It’s a whole twist on- So- … on the whole thing. Yeah … so
Al: do you wanna do like a Mark, Marc Maron thing where you, where you play a little, uh, guitar thing at the end of an, an episode like Marc Maron does on his podcast?
Is that what you wanna do?
Victor: Um, I didn’t know that he does that, but, uh, yeah, I’m game. Whatever, you know. I don’t have a guitar here now, but I can certainly set that up.
Al: All right. Well, we’ll have to… Yeah, maybe you can learn the, uh, the riff to the Letterkenny, uh, theme, and then we can just have you-
Mat: Yeah
Al: play us in.
Mat: I was just gonna say that. We need some riffs coming from Victor. Yeah. Yeah, we can do that. I mean, we got, I mean, we got a couple musical talents here in the house, uh, for those listening in here. Uh, Mr., Mr. Al is also a musician, so, uh-
Al: Yeah, but I’m not gonna sing … I-
Mat: So- Things… I, I expect great things, guys.
Al: Oh, great.
Mat: Yes.
Al: Better
Mat: Kenny duet
Al: Yeah. What are you drinking, M-
Victor: Al’s got the pipes, so…
Al: Well, yeah, I don’t know if we’re, if [00:16:00] we’ll have any singing segments. Uh, but, uh- … thanks. I’ll, I’ll just, uh, use the pipes for the, the hosting duties. And- Cool … I was also thinking we can, uh, as we go along, we can just kind of like rank our, e- each individually rank our favorite episodes.
Uh, I’d be interested to find out ’cause I already know and I’ve got in mind what mine are, and I even tried playing a few to Tanya, you know, when I was trying to convince her that it was a good show. Uh, failed miserably. Um-
Mat: So, so on that note, hold on. We need to, we need, Tanya, you need to get in this for a second.
How did he convince you to do this? ‘Cause the first thing he led with, he said, “Bring in Tanya in. Um, she doesn’t like the show,” or, “She, she’s not sold on it.” So why would she wanna do a podcast? So I’m really curious to know your angle and how he convinced you to take part in this nonsense.
Tanya: Allan has a, a strange, um, voodoo way over me to like convince me of things that I didn’t know that I necessarily wanted to do maybe.
Um, so yeah, this whole thing- Think twice if you need help. Yeah, I know. Exactly, right? [00:17:00]
Al: I bribed her.
Tanya: I bri- Yeah, so I think this is his, uh, next ditch effort or last-ditch effort to try to convince me that the show is good, and, and, uh, he’s wrapped it up in a podcast kind of way to force me to watch the show and try to g- gang up on me to convince me that this is a good show.
Al: Well, as you can see, there’s no ganging up involved- … because, uh, apparently, uh, Matt and/or Victor are also not 100% on board, so we’ll see.
Tanya: There you go. So maybe we’ll convince you that it’s not a good
Al: show. But by the end of this, I want to take this podcast on the road up to Sudbury, and we can- Oh, dear
all four of us do the Letterkenny tour after all the social distancing is done. Oh, my gosh. What do you guys think?
Tanya: Okay. I said yes to the YouTu- uh, to the podcast. I’m not sure I’m taking a, a trip for the Letter- Letterkenny road trip. No, I’m not sure about that.
Al: Oh-
Tanya: There’s gotta be some sort of line.
Al: What, what…
Victor’s got a, a, what’s that, an emu in the background, V- We’re, [00:18:00] we’re doing- Allegedly … m- a Microsoft Teams chat, and, and Victor’s keeps on changing the background to his, uh, to his video. Um, and there’s an emu behind him.
Victor: It’s allegedly an emu.
Al: Oh, that’s right. That’s- … that’s very apropos. I feel like I should take a screenshot of this.
You know what? I’m going to.
Alt, Print Screen. Where is it? All right, good
Mat: So I know this is a production style meeting, but I think for those, if there’s anyone listening in who’s never watched the show, which is probably rare, but in case someone stumbles across this, we need to set the stage. What is this show about? Give us… Le- let’s talk the very high level about what, what’s going on before we start getting into the episodes.
Al: That sounds… That’s a good idea. So, I mean, the show opens with, with the, the characters on screen. Letterkenny consists of hicks, skids, hockey players, and Christians. These are their problems. [00:19:00] And I mean, that’s a good… So every episode it seems, gets kind of divided into four parts, right? There’s the hicks, which is, uh, Wayne and his buddies are on, around the produce stand.
Uh, there’s the skids, which are the, the drugged out guys who are dancing out in front of a… Where, where are they? The liquor store or something? Yeah,
Mat: I don’t remember.
Al: The convenience
Mat: store. But they’re always dancing.
Al: Yeah. Uh, they’re always dancing to, to what- whatever kind of music that is. House or
Mat: something.
Yeah, something ridiculous.
Al: There’s the hockey players. Hockey.
Mat: Jungle. I think it might be jungle or drum and base stuff, wasn’t
Al: it? Yeah, it’s, it’s just all sorts of things. Yeah, and they’re all, like, goth and, and stuff. Uh, there’s the, um, hockey players, and they’re, they’re Victor’s favorite there. Uh- Yes … and then there’s the Christians, although kind of later in the seasons we, we don’t get as much of the Christians because…
Anyway, we’ll, you’ll see why. But, um, yeah, so it’s kind of each episode seems to kind of center around those four groups of people. And- Yeah,
Mat: a small town Ontario and their problems.
Al: Yeah. [00:20:00] Uh, and so listening to Jared Keeso kind of talk about, um, talk about it on cue again, like, he talks about… I mean, the reason I love this show is just how inclusive it is and, and how, um, it…
They’re making fun of each other, but in the end they’re a- they always kind of band together because they’re all from the same town. They all come from the same place. Uh, and that’s kind of a, an endearing part of the show I find, uh, ’cause, you know- Yeah … throughout the whole episode, they could be at each other’s throats, but in the end, if one of them needs help, the- they’re, they’re quick to help, which is kind of a, a nice, uh, description of how society should be and unfortunately isn’t.
So that’s, that’s one of the reasons why I, I love this show What about you, Matt?
Mat: Yeah, I mean, it, it definitely, it is unique, I think is, is one word I would use. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before. The fast talking, quick pace to it. I mean, I’ll admittedly, I lose it sometimes. It, it, it gets beyond you really quickly with all the slang a- and a lot of the [00:21:00] nonsense.
And, and like you said, a lot of it’s made up, so it’s, it’s hard to follow at time. But there’s brilliance in amongst the writing. Um, and inclusiveness is definitely the top, um, element there. I mean, there’s no topic out of range for them, but they handle them all very well, um, with, with and without offense, but, um, w- with direction.
And it’s, it’s just really, you need to see how it all comes together.
Al: Yeah. Can
Mat: Jared- So, I mean, it’s, it definitely something catches you off guard, but, uh, it’s, it’s an acquired taste to some.
Al: Yes.
Mat: Um, but if you get beyond the, the format and, and it, there, there’s a lot of great content there to follow.
Al: And Jared Keeso says that in his interview.
He said, “We, we’re, we’re mean with each other, but there’s no bullying. We don’t like…” As, as soon as it, it feels like it’s co- coming close to being, like, to bully, bullying, they, that’s where they kind of draw their line. Uh, and uh, I know they, they, they, they come up to that line quite a bit but they don’t seem to ever cross it.
Victor: I… Well, I think episode one’s scene one [00:22:00] starts with the bullying-
Al: Yeah … if
Victor: I recall correctly.
Al: Well, it starts with them jabbing at each other. And, and, and one of the best, I mean, the, the, the, the… My favorite line in the whole show happens, uh, in episode one, and, and I’ll have that clip next week. Uh, to, or I don’t know if it’ll be next week, maybe in a couple of weeks.
It depends, ’cause, uh, we, we have vacation next week. But, uh- … I, I’ll have to see if I can convince Tanya to do this Thursday without
me.
Tanya: Somehow I’m doing a podcast and going on a field trip and doing my vacation with Letterkenny.
Al: So, uh, we’ll, uh- It’s all part of COVID
Mat: times.
Al: Yeah. We- we’ll see whether we record next week.
Hopefully, we do. But, uh, yeah, uh, you’re right. It’s episode one, scene one of episode one starts with them jabbing at each other. But, uh, I don’t think it gets to bullying. I, I, I-
Mat: Does it end in a donnybrook, though? I don’t recall.
Al: Uh, no, not, no, not in a Tilly. It doesn’t end in a Tilly. Uh, but- … other episodes do.
There’s a lot of fighting in it. So Victor, other than the hockey stuff, uh, what, what are you looking forward to?
Victor: Uh, [00:23:00] just to really understand what the tone of the show is because, um, you know, you know, the fir- first time I watched it was really more f- out of, uh, oh, some, you know, shiny new object that potentially could be very interesting.
But I didn’t really, um, you know, sit down and really try to, uh… It’s, it’s, you know, I didn’t binge through it, so I was watching sporadically. So I, you know, I think what I’m looking to kinda to get is what is the spirit of the show, and, um, I’ll try to kind of understand the characters a little more so it’s not just the caricatures- Right
of, of what I recall. So I’m looking forward to that. And also I’m looking forward to not feeling stupid because I do remember myself watching some, some of the scenes thinking, “Are there people that understand what’s happening right now?” ‘Cause I don’t think I understand what is happening right now. Yeah.
Well- Um, and the irony of people that I think are dumber than me saying things that I don’t understand, so. Characters.
Al: Characters. And, and you know what? It’s funny [00:24:00] ’cause- Yeah … the, the characters are pretty two-dimensional. Like, they’re, they’re caricatures. Uh, each one of them has their own kind of characteristics, and they don’t really get too deep past their- Yeah
their characters. But for some reason they’re still kind of really good characters, I find.
Mat: Yeah. They’re consistent with their gimmicks, and, um- Yeah … and then, you know, you might seem annoying, but it’s not ’cause you’re, you’re ready for it, and you expect it, and they just play off their, their gimmicks that they build into the show.
Al: Yeah.
Mat: Um, and it works.
Al: Yeah. And Tanya, dare I ask if you’re looking forward to any of this? She’s shaking her
Tanya: head. I’m just, I just, I m- I’m having a hard time
Al: She’s just gonna have a glass of wine and listen- … listen to us talk about it, and every once in a while she’s gonna make fun of us for how- Oh, dear
how we’re geeking out on it.
Victor: She’s, she’ll be waiting for the musical segment.
Tanya: You know what? You know what? But I’m looking forward to you guys changing my mind. I’m look- I- if, if this is as big of, of a, a show as you guys are saying it is, and [00:25:00] as, um, eh, going as, as big as it is in the States and everywhere- They’re big in
Al: Australia
at, oh, okay … they’re big in, uh, in, uh, in the St- they’re getting big in the States, in some places. Texas loves ’em apparently. Um-
Victor: I… Tanya, I’ll have you know I had no idea that this show was bigger than it was two years ago. I had no idea that it’s growing in momentum, so this is all
Tanya: news to me. Is this like a cult favorite sort of thing?
It’s, it’s, it’s
Al: kinda- It’s, it’s a bit of a cult f- following I think. But I, but I also think because, uh, I don’t know what season, Matt, maybe you know, did they go from Crave to Hulu? ‘Cause Crave is a Canadian-
Mat: Yeah …
Al: streaming service, so the, m- uh, the States wouldn’t have had Crave. But once they went to Hulu, that’s when they kind of, uh, started getting notoriety down in the States.
Mat: Yeah. To be honest, I, I don’t know. But, but what I would say, um, Tanya, if, if, if it gives you any peace of mind, I think the arrangement that we’ve just created- … is very similar to the top four we have on the show. You know, we’ve got… It’s, it’s a mainly male, [00:26:00] um, cast in the show for sure, but you’ve definitely got the female, the Katie in there in the mix.
So you got your top four. You got the, the Wayne, the Darryl, and the Dan, with sister Katie standing by to balance them all out. So- … I mean, our dynamic here, if you wanna pull it out, there, there’s a bit of that going on.
Al: So what he’s saying is- Uh, obviously … that’s what he appreciates about you.
Tanya: Oh, why thank you.
I appreciate that. You’re
Mat: bringing that, that, that female perspective to this nonsense.
Al: Yes. You’re the Katie.
Mat: So I, I, I look forward to it.
Al: Well, wait until you find out more about Katie’s character though. You may not be thanking him so
Tanya: much. Oh,
Mat: dear.
Tanya: I just keep on having those, those flashbacks to that fart book where they had people auditioning their farts.
I’m sorry. Are, am I moving too far ahead into-
Al: I believe that’s episode- Your spoiler alert … two or episode
Tanya: three. Spoiler alert. I, I, yeah, I, I- Yeah. Audition farts … just
Al: love
Tanya: to
Al: suck my- Look, I’m, I’ll, I’m gonna, I’m gonna admit to you now, that one there, that was probably one of my least favorite episodes.
Tanya: Oh, thank God.
Al: But they, they do like hammering on a joke- … for, for a bit.
Mat: Yeah. A- a- and I think that’s what I said to you, [00:27:00] Aldo. I mean, like, I’ve watched, I think, six, six seasons or seven seasons. Um, the first couple I loved. There was a sort of a, I, I would say a slower patch in the middle somewhere where I lost interest, and then it picked up again.
Al: Yeah.
Mat: Um, some of the later seasons that I caught, they were just… I think it might’ve been season six that I’m like, “That was just brilliant from start to finish.” Mm-hmm. Um, I could be wrong. I’ll remember when I get there. But there, there’s definitely s- it’s a bit of a rollercoaster with some of the content.
Al: Yeah.
Mat: I,
Al: I agree. Um, and we’ll
Mat: see that as we go through it.
Al: Mm-hmm. I agree with that analysis. Uh, season one was great. It hooked me in. K- there’s a few, yeah, dead spots, but then it picked up again, and I can’t wait for the next season. And so I guess the next season’ll be season nine, and I’m wondering if that’ll be the last season, actually.
‘Cause then when they got, when they went to Hulu, they got picked up, I think, for three more seasons, so season nine may be the last one. Hopefully not, though. Let’s, uh, fingers crossed.
Mat: Yeah. And it, and it’s challenging ’cause it, they’re short seasons too. Yeah. I mean, most, most shows these days range anywhere from eight to 12 episodes, I would say.
This one’s six.
Al: Yeah, six episodes a season, so it’s [00:28:00] not, it, it wouldn’t be too torturous. Let’s, uh, do the math real quick in my head. That’s 48 episodes, half-hour episodes.
Mat: Uh, f- Oh, yeah … 54-
Al: Oh …
Mat: for the math if you’re doing the math. Well- But I mean, just for, I mean, at worst case scenario, you have to endure-
55 episodes of this.
Al: 54? So. What? Not… Oh, ’cause nine. I was thinking eight times e- like, episodes that have, have already been created. There’s… What? Is my math wrong? Are they
Tanya: still, are they still shoot, uh, filming
Al: the show? Yeah, there’s gonna be another season.
Tanya: Wow.
Al: So, um- S- is
Mat: 54:40 from Sudbury- Oh, wait.
Tanya: Are we still working on the math, boys?
Mat: Yeah.
Al: Well, I don’t know what Matt’s drinking.
Mat: So originally it was 54 episodes, but then you’re right. There’s six episodes a season, and eight times six is 48.
Al: Okay,
Mat: thank God. Oh, there’s a couple seasons that have seven.
Al: I thought I- I thought I was losing my marbles. Oh, there’s a few season- No … that there are seven?
Okay.
Mat: No, just, just season seven. So now, no, the math on IMDb is not making sense right now.
Al: Oh,
Mat: wow. It’s all right. There’s enough season to keep us busy for a while. We’ll leave it at that, and we’ll, uh, we’re not here to do math. [00:29:00] We’re here to talk, uh, Letterkenny. So let’s get back to the topic, guys.
Al: All right.
So I’ve got… So here we, I have for segments so far Canadian slang, music, Wayne’s Words of Wisdom, and favorite episodes, and Victor is gonna do something on his new guitar contraption.
Tanya: So are we to have homework, watch an episode, and then come back and then discuss that episode?
Al: Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s how it’s gonna run.
Uh, each ep- each week we’ll, uh, wa- we’ll all watch one episode, and make sure it’s the same episode. And, uh-
Victor: And the same show …
Al: and the same show. And then we’ll, we’ll come back and we’ll… I’ll, I’ll try to have some clips, uh, ready and loaded. Uh, and then we’ll, uh, we’ll, we’ll dissect it and talk about it and have some fun with it.
Mat: Yeah. I think, I think also we should target, um, periodically bringing a guest or something onto the show. I mean, not anybody special, but just someone who has another opinion on something.
Al: You know-
Mat: Maybe we could find someone who has lived the lo- the small town experience and has some insight on that.
Al: Yeah, for
Mat: sure. Um, as an example.
Al: So- Well, actually, when, when I, [00:30:00] when I, when I spoke to Victor about, uh, the idea of doing this, he came up with an interesting idea, and was, it was to have, uh, William, his son, who’s, uh… How old’s William, 17 now? 16? What-
Victor: He’s gonna be 17 July 30th, yeah.
Al: And that would be an interesting, uh, uh, point of view, because we’re all around the same age.
And, uh, to have, like, a, you know, a, a teenager, that might be interesting to maybe have his opinion. He would
Victor: ma- he would appreciate humor, some of the humor maybe differently or from a different perspective.
Al: Oh, I know he would. And, and he’s not short on opinion.
Victor: He’s not.
Mat: Oh, yeah.
Victor: He’s not. I wonder where he gets that from.
Al: Yeah. I, I, I know because I’ve, uh, interviewed him before, and, uh, yes, he’s very opinionated. Which, uh, which… So apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Victor: That’s great.
Al: So that was an- Love it … that was a- Love that … that was an interesting idea. We could maybe try that if, uh, if he’d be interested.
Tanya: We should cold call- Yeah
somebody from Sudbury and see if they wanna come on.
Al: I,
Victor: I was gonna say, I have a friend that- Or- … kinda grew up in Sudbury, so. [00:31:00] Could we find a random person from Listowel?
Al: Yeah.
Tanya: See if they really talk that way.
Al: Yeah.
Mat: Right?
Al: I think they… Well, apparently they do. Uh, Emily from work, and we won’t mention last names or where we work, but she’s from that area, and she says that, that, uh, it, it’s, it’s, it’s about right
Mat: Yeah, Jared Keeso talks about that in a couple interviews where a lot of the, the things you hear, yeah, are, are directly taken from the way they speak.
A lot of the things that are just, like, slurred together as one big s- like, one word is actually a full sentence.
Al: Mm-hmm.
Mat: Um, terms like, I think Donnie Broke and some of that comes from there as well. So some of them are, and then yeah, you said it’s about a 50/50. A lot of it’s made up and just embellishment on the show, uh, for entertainment purposes.
Al: And maybe we should mention where we’re all coming from, right? So Victor, you, you live in Toronto, in the city, and, and Matt, you’re in the city as well, but you’re originally from the East Coast, right?
Mat: Um- Well … so, no, I, I’m from the Toronto area, but my family’s all East Coast. Oh,
Al: okay. So
Mat: I’ve spent a [00:32:00] lot of time out east.
Al: Right.
Mat: Um, but, but I wouldn’t claim to be, uh, from a small town or of anything
Victor: close.
Al: Right. So, so
Victor: s-
Al: so in Victor and Matt, we have kind of the city view. Uh-
Victor: Well, wait a second. If we’re going original, I’m not anywhere near from here.
Al: All right. But, well, okay, I know, understand. You’re from, you’re from the eastern bloc, but that, how old were you when you came over?
Victor: I was eight.
Al: Yeah, you, so you grew up here. Your formative years were here. Y- your- I think what’s
Victor: important
Mat: is
Victor: where did you spend
Mat: your teenage years?
Al: Exactly. I
Victor: spent eight years in the Soviet Union. I have some very strong perspectives. So- Uh, but Man, he’s
Mat: stubborn,
Victor: eh?
Al: Yeah, tell me about it. This’ll be good.
And, uh, and so yeah, I’m probably the one who grew up, uh, the closest to the kind of life that would’ve been portrayed in Listowel, uh, being in, uh, growing up in the marsh. Um, and I, and I do have some friends who, who fit the, fit the, uh, description. And Tanya’s just a little bit, uh, nor- [00:33:00] you know, south of me, closer to the city, but you know, GTA area, but not exactly a city girl either.
So th- that’s kind of the perspective we’re bringing to this show.
Victor: Nice. So we can, uh, create a spectrum
Al: of- Yeah, it’s a bit of a spectrum …
Victor: put ourselves on it, yeah. Nice.
Al: All right.
Tanya: But just to dig a little deeper, Matt, do you speak Newfie?
Victor: I understand it.
Tanya: There you go. Well, then we’ll need your assistance then on the show, I believe.
Al: Well, but it’s not Newfie. Absolutely. It’s, it’s Ontar- It’s funny. It’s Ontario. So, i- so comparing it to, for example- Small,
Mat: little hole in Ontario-
Al: Yeah, Corn- … I understand … so Corner- Their dialect … Corner Gas had kind of a m- I don’t know, like more of a homogenized Canadian accent.
Mat: Yeah.
Al: Trailer Park Boys is definitely kind of like East Coast.
It’s funny watching this though. There is definitely a way that Ontario, especially rural Ontario speaks, and, and it’s very apparent in this show. It’s different. [00:34:00] It’s different from, from, uh, uh, Trailer Park Boys or from Corner Gas, I’d say.
Mat: So what I can say about Trailer Park Boys and, um, funny enough, my sister-in-law actually at some point lived in the trailer park that they originally shot the, the first couple seasons.
Mm-hmm. And she will stand by the fact that that is not true.
Al: No?
Mat: But I mean, there, there’s definitely some places that reflect that, but mostly like
Al: It, it’s… Well, l- so growing up in a town where I grew up where there was a lot of Portuguese and Italians, there were definitely a lot of, uh, of that kind of Julian… Uh, what, what are the characters’ names, Julian and, um, from Trailer Park Boys?
Do you remember?
Mat: Bubbles. Julian. Oh my
Al: God, Bubbles. No, no Bubbles.
Mat: And,
Al: uh- The two main guys. J- Anyway, there was a lot of that, you know, wearing wearing college shirts with track pants, walking around with rum and Cokes and like there’s a l- there was a, a bit of that, uh, in, in, in where I grew up. But, um, uh, I, I, I couldn’t relate to the whole [00:35:00] trailer park angle and, and, and that kind of stuff.
Victor: Yeah. Well, well, at Bathurst and Steeles where I grew up in Toronto- … after I came here from the Soviet Union, uh, we had a lot of the, uh, Russian community walking around in track pants, uh, with those brick cell phones in their hands. Yeah. So- Were- So there’s that image that I remember … were they also
Al: carrying the r- rum and Cokes in, in glasses everywhere they went?
Victor: Well, those, uh, you know, it is still a city, so those were a little risque I think.
Mat: But, uh- Well,
Victor: does,
Mat: does, does Bathurst and Steeles count as Toronto still?
Al: Bathurst.
Victor: It, it does, you know, you know, Steeles is the, uh, borderline between Vaughan and Toronto, and n- and because Vaughan is becomes like a, the s- it’s becomes part of the GTA, whereas, uh, North York is part of Toronto.
So-
Mat: All
Victor: right … that’s the line … so you
Mat: get a skinny pass on that
Victor: I, I was on the Toronto side, so there you go.
Al: So he’s a Toronto snob. He’s probably like right on the other side of Steeles, so [00:36:00] looking across the road- … with, with his nose up at those, uh, North Yorkers or those Vaughners or whatever.
Victor: Yes, the, where the TTC would not dare cross,
Al: yes.
Until now. I was
Tanya: just gonna ask about
Victor: the cross lake. Until now, yeah.
Al: All right. Well, I think, uh, I think we have ourselves a s- an idea for a podcast. What do you guys think?
Mat: Love it. It might
Victor: work.
Al: It might work.
Mat: All right. It might work. We’ll see. I mean, I’m excited to see the perspective here. Yeah. I’m gonna get into it deeper.
I, I, I’m honestly, Tan, I’m excited to hear your, your side of this as, uh, as you’ve been dragged along for this. Again, wink if there’s trouble. Um, and, uh- Well- … it’s gonna be fun, and Victor, I, I totally expect you’re gonna take us off topic from time to time, so it’s gonna be fun. I, I, I
Victor: might have to. I might have to, ’cause I’m scared to death that I’m g- we’re gonna come here and, you know, you’re gonna ask for my perspective and I’m not gonna understand the episode.
So I’ll just have to change the topic.
Mat: I mean, you- You said you, you said you’re okay with a quarter hockey, but I mean, some episodes it doesn’t give that much hockey, so we’ll see if you’re still okay with it.
Victor: Yeah. Well that’s okay, ’cause we’re gonna have real hockey, uh, very soon- … [00:37:00] so I’m gonna get that, so, so it’s, it’s all good.
Al: Let me ask you just quick before we st- uh, before we end it, Matt, uh, what, uh, what does your significant other think of the show? Did she, did you get her to
Mat: watch? She act- No, she’s a fan. Yeah? Uh, she’s absolutely a fan. I think she might actually be more of a fan than me.
Al: Really?
Mat: Um, she, she pulls me to the TV more often than not when, when we, when it’s time to watch.
So we went through a little phase where we binge watch it, and she keeps saying, “Let’s watch Letterkenny. Let’s watch it.”
Al: All
Mat: right. Um, so-
Al: All right.
Mat: Maybe
Al: we gotta
Mat: get her on … so we may have to bring-
Al: Yeah …
Mat: yeah, we may have to bring her on at some point.
Al: When, when the baby’s in bed and, uh, yeah. Sounds good
Mat: Absolutely.
Absolutely
Al: Okay Heard
Clip: some city gals talking about paying to get-
Al: Oh, wrong, wrong button. Here we go Pretty mature So we’re just gonna, you know, get all the, the wrinkles out now
Mat: Okay, you got 54 more episodes to figure it out, Al
Al: Yeah, exactly. By then we’ll have a perfect episode. And that’s all we have for this episode.
Next week we’ll begin episode recaps with season one, episode one.
Victor: Oh, wait, wait, stop.
Al: What?
Victor: [00:38:00] Stop everything.
Al: Uh-oh ,
Victor: uh, pod- uh, podcastawards.com. Yes Is it too early to ask people to go and vote?
Al: So early. So early, Victor.
Victor: All right. All right. Sorry. All right, continue.
Al: Let- let’s- Let’s get a few episodes under our wing Underneath our belts, right?
Let’s see if we even f- you know, follow through with this. Uh-
Mat: I mean, I appreciate your excitement, Victor. I mean, I
Al: really do Yeah, I really like your enthusiasm. And you know what? Uh, maybe we will submit, or at least… You know what’d be great, is if we can get Toronto Mike to interview us. That, that’ll be…
I’ll feel like, uh, we’ve, we’ve succeeded if that happens
Mat: I know a guy who has an in, so
Al: we’ll see Yeah, exactly Can I start the closing theme now, Victor? Okay Do I have your permission? It, it needed to be said All right, here we go. That’s all we have for this episode. Next week we’ll begin the episode recaps with season one, episode one, Ain’t No Reason to Get Excited.
We also invite you to visit our website, theproducestandpod.com for episode recaps, a list of our favorite episodes, and to email us. If you email us, we might even read your [00:39:00] email on the podcast. Thank you for joining us. Now we’re gonna get some choring done
Good night
Clip: Are you still recording?
Al: Yeah, hold on
What are you thinking?