Kenny vs. Spenny

Kenny vs. Spenny
Kenny vs. Spenny Logo
Created by	Kenny Hotz Spencer Rice
Directed by	Kenny Hotz Spencer Rice
Starring	Kenny Hotz Spencer Rice
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	63 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	20-23 minutes
Original release
Network	CBC, Showcase
Release	August 26, 2003 – present

Kenny vs. Spenny is a Canadian comedy reality television series about two best friends, Kenneth "Kenny" Joel Hotz and Spencer "Spenny" Nolan Rice who live in Toronto, Ontario, who face each other in various competitions. The loser of the episode must perform an act of humiliation, usually selected by the winner. Kenny and Spenny created the series themselves. As of November 2007, the show airs on CBC and Showcase in Canada, on Comedy Central in the United States and Germany. Kenny asserts that the series is completely unscripted, and is all real.

The series was nominated for Gemini Awards in 2005 and 2006 as the best Canadian comedy series, and has received a Rose d'Or nomination in Switzerland for "best international comedy series". The show has spawned several replicas of its format, including a British version on Sky One called Ed vs. Spencer. There is also a German version of the show, called Elton vs. Simon, featuring two German comedians and friends. A French Canadian version, called Frank vs Girard airs on VRAK.TV. Also following this format is Juan vs. Roman in Latin America, Cenk vs. Erdem in Turkey and Katja vs. Bridget in the Netherlands.

Premise

Each episode is typically based on a statement which sets the goal of the competition in a "who is...?" or "who can...?" style; occasionally a "first one to... loses" statement is used instead. Competitions sometimes take the familiar form of performing a task the best, such as catching the largest fish; but they are more often unusual tasks, such as who can be tied to a goat the longest. The other typical style of competition is endurance to see who can do or abstain from something the longest.

Competition rules

Each episode typically begins with the roommates on their couch explaining the competition to the audience. In early episodes, no rules were made explicit on camera. Later, the criteria which defined the competition were made clear on the couch (defining the exact task to be performed or avoided of the competition). For a period of time, Spenny outlined rules on a whiteboard at the beginning of each episode to attempt to close loopholes he thought Kenny might use. Kenny, however, also had to agree to the rules for them to be official. The whiteboard rules have been discontinued, and rules are often discussed and agreed upon during the couch scene. There are sometimes other rules declared to have been agreed upon before filming. The roommates' actions or inactions during competitions often imply additional rules which are not explicitly declared in an episode. In the most recent episodes, there has typically been a return to not making the rules clear to the audience at the beginning of episodes.

In the fourth season episode "First Guy to Get a Stain Loses", there was a return to the whiteboard rules, but they were interrupted by Kenny's antics. Spenny noted that broadcasters often complain that the rules are not properly thought out in advance. For competitions where a qualitative decision is required (such as who does something better), a method of judgment or refereeing is usually agreed upon in advance. Endurance competitions often have a time limit of three days at which point, if neither competitor has won, a draw is declared, or occasionally a tie-breaker competition is performed.

The main entertainment in the series, besides the nature of the competitions, stems from the contrasting personalities of Kenny and Spenny, which usually impact the way each approaches the competitions. Kenny's approach is typically more unorthodox; he is often willing to use any means necessary—including cheating—to win. Though he doesn't always break the rules, he is usually willing to bend them. Kenny sometimes admits to the belief that he would not win certain competitions without cheating.

On the other hand, Spenny almost always follows very strictly both the rules and his ethics. He not only follows the letter of the rules, but also what he perceives as the intention and spirit of the competition statement. Spenny will often bear the brunt of Kenny's plans and pranks. Spenny is often paranoid and sometimes this causes him to sabotage his own efforts. Additionally, Kenny occasionally uses the paranoia to his advantage. Kenny has also occasionally used his position as executive producer to threaten crew members and force them to help him and/or not help Spenny.

Beyond their competitive styles, the contrasting personalities of the two offer much of the humour of the show. Kenny is generally portrayed as an uncouth "frat boy" type with a penchant for toilet humour. Spenny is a classic straight man, as he stated in one episode "I haven't laughed since 1987". He rarely laughs or makes jokes on camera. Instead Spenny usually reacts with exasperation to Kenny's antics, which are often directed at him. Spenny's most common emotional reaction on the show is anger at some act which Kenny has committed. A recurring motif on the show is Kenny's assertion that Spenny is a closeted homosexual, and furthermore that Spenny is in love with him. During competitions Kenny will often arrange events in order to portray Spenny as gay, such as in the "first one to get a boner loses" competition where he arranged for a male stripper to give Spenny a lap dance, or in the "who can impersonate the other guy better" challenge where Kenny left sex toys and gay pornography lying around Spenny's room. Spenny normally reacts to these portrayals with extreme anger. Occasionally, Kenny's pranks move beyond simple character assassination. In one instance he secretly gave Spenny four hits of LSD. In another he forged a letter to Spenny from the Canadian health ministry, informing Spenny that he had been in contact with someone who was HIV positive.

Winning

The winner of the competition gets to assign a "humiliation", an embarrassing task, that the loser must perform; although it is implied that the loser must agree to the choice of humiliation in various episodes where the winner attempts to extend the humiliation beyond what was agreed upon.

The show is usually less focused on who will actually win the competition and more on how each competitor will go about trying to win. This is evidenced by the fact that the person who performs the humiliation is not always technically the loser based on the rules—they just do not know about the rules broken by the winner. On several occasions, Kenny has cheated and still been declared the winner. The show also rarely shows the aftermath of the competition, leaving it unknown how a competitor reacted upon finding out that his opponent cheated. However, in some episodes, the ending credits will have the voices of Kenny and Spenny commenting on an unfair loss.

There is inconsistency in the use of the footage shot during the competition. In "Who Can Dance the Longest?", Spenny had to explicitly state in the opening rules that he would be allowed to check the tape of Kenny before a winner was declared. The only other occasions when the footage is used in determining a loser is when there is a close call that needs to be made as to which roommate did something first, or whether or not one competitor did something in a close call. In some episodes, Kenny has used the footage to prove things to Spenny. In others, it is not used where it could be.

The two roommates each have a different opinion on who is the ultimate "winner" of a challenge. Kenny believes that the purpose of the competition is to avoid humiliation, and thus, he has won if Spenny does the humiliation. Spenny, on the other hand believes that Kenny cheating or derailing a competition he knows he's going to lose should at least be considered when looking at who ultimately won.

If the competition is a tie (where either they both lost or they both win) , no humiliations are issued, although if Kenny and Spenny agree to forfeit the competition (a draw) , both receive a humiliation dictated by the shows camera crews. Double humiliations happen rarely, but it did happen in "Who Can Stay In The Woods The Longest", and the crew decided that Kenny and Spenny had to make out.

Production

As of the fourth season, Kenny and Spenny are both executive producers, and receive a credit separate from five other executive producers. Also beginning in the fourth season, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have joined the show and are also given their own separate credit as executive producers. Both Kenny and Spenny are credited as directors as well. Instrumental and electronica music is frequently used throughout episodes. King Crimson's The Court of the Crimson King, Ride of the Valkyries, Ravel's Boléro, Sergei Prokofiev's Montagues and Capulets and music by Toronto electronica band Holy Fuck is very frequently used.

Typically, Kenny and Spenny each have their own production assistant, camera operator and sound engineer who film their independent exploits for each episode.

Broadcasting

The show originally aired on CBC. After the second season, the show was cancelled, then Showcase picked up the series in the late 2005. However, re-runs of the first two seasons still air on CBC during late night hours. The show has aired in the past on GSN in the United States, but now airs on Comedy Central. The series also airs internationally on TV 2 Zulu in Denmark, JIM in Finland, TV6 in Sweden, FX (Repeats on Challenge) in the United Kingdom, The Comedy Channel in Australia, SIC Radical in Portugal, Comedy Central in Germany, and The XtraHOT channel in Israel. Fox Entertainment Group in Latin America has also distributed the episodes and can be seen on the Latin American versions of FOX channel and FX.

Episodes

Main article: List of Kenny vs. Spenny episodes

DVD releases

DVD Name	# of Eps	Release dates			Bonus Features
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
Kenny vs Spenny: Season One	24	November 22, 2005			Kenny & Spenny commentary over two episodes, biographies, clips from international versions, Pitch.
Kenny vs Spenny: Season Two	15	November 21, 2006			Season two promo, two commentaries with Kenny and Spenny, deleted scenes, season three preview.
Kenny vs Spenny: Season Three	13	November 13, 2007			Kenny's never-before-seen version of "Who Can Make a Better Porno?", two commentaries with Kenny & Spenny, crew commentary, deleted scenes.
Comedy Central’s Kenny vs. Spenny - Season One: Uncensored	10	August 12, 2008			Deleted Scenes, additional scenes, commentary tracks, Kenny answers fan mail, Kenny and Spenny reflect on past competitions, Kenny and Spenny's hot mix, Who can pick the biggest booger?, Kenny and Spenny: Men on the Street.
Kenny vs Spenny: Season Four	10	August 26, 2008			Pilot Episode: Who Can Gain The Most Weight?, Alternate Versions of: First Guy to Stop Singing Loses and Who Can Make the Best Viral Video?, Bonus Footage, Deleted Scenes

Season 5

Season 5 is currently in production. There will be ten episodes, one of them being "Who Can Piss More People Off?".

Episodes for the season are:

• Who Can Keep a poop in Their Pants the Longest?
• Who Can Piss More People Off?
• Who Can Get Laid By More Women?
• Who Can Wear a Gorilla Suit the Longest?
• Who's the Best Professional Wrestler?
• First One to Touch the Ground Loses
• Who's a Better Soldier?
• Who's the Better Jew?
• Who Can Smoke More Weed?
• Who Do Handicapped People Like More?

Season 5 premieres on October 20, 2008 in Canada on Showcase at 9 p.m. ET.

Statistics

• If competitions where Kenny cheated (14) or arguably cheated (6) and won are not counted, the record would be 21-19-4 for Kenny; If they are counted as wins for Spenny (as Spenny suggests they should), then Spenny would be leading 38-21-4.

External links

• Kenny vs. Spenny official website
• Kenny vs Spenny wiki
• Showcase Kenny vs. Spenny site
• Kenny Hotz official website
• Kenny vs. Spenny episode guide on Tv.com
• Kenny Hotz's MSN blog
• Kenny Hotz's MySpace
• Kenny Hotz official merchandise
• Sebastian "Sebby" Cluer official website
• Kenny Hotz at IMDb
• Spencer Rice at IMDb
• Sebastian Cluer at IMDb
• Kenny Vs Spenny Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos