Kenny vs. Spenny: Season One

It looks as though Canada is finally getting back on the comedy map, and it's two competitive friends from Toronto that should further strengthen the hold. The premise of Kenny Hotz and Spencer "Spenny" Rice's show is quite simple, as the pair agree on taking part in competitions ranging from simple tasks, such as who can stand up the longest, to more complex head-to-heads, such as who can be a better fashion designer, and whoever wins gets to humiliate the other. Sounds rather simplistic, but it's the clashing personality traits of Kenny and Spenny that make for true entertainment and can make something as simple as who can stay blindfolded the longest so engaging. Kenny is basically a man-child who uses manipulation and cheating to cruise to victory while the ever-frustrated Spenny comes up short most of the time, but he can at least sleep easily knowing he approaches each contest honestly. The way that these two best friends cook up tactics and theories when approaching a battle is one of the greatest assets of the show, especially Kenny's clever dishonesty, which can range from small loopholes to all-out sabotage. Just witness the great lengths he actually goes through in order to overcome his inability to ice skate! The DVD contains three discs, but the extras are a little light, though thankfully sparing us of hours and hours of unused footage that surely piles up on the cutting room floor. The most significant extra is Kenny and Spencer's hour-long film entitled Pitch, in which the two friends hit the Hollywood circuit in order to shop around their script of a mob don who goes into the hospital for a hernia operation and accidentally gets a sex change. This 1997 film isn't really as entertaining as it should be, but it's interesting to see how toned down Kenny Hotz was back then, and you get a sense as to how these two best friends interact with each other and get along in a more candid, non-competition environment. The other extras are clips of what appears to be international versions of Kenny vs. Spenny, as duos from around the world join in on the fun of fierce battles and humiliation. Are these for real? It's hard to say, but with the show's fans ranging from Conan O'Brien to Matt Stone and Trey Parker (Hotz currently writes for South Park), it wouldn't be completely surprising if Kenny and Spenny were international heroes. Plus: biographies. (VSC)