Kenny vs. Spenny

Kenny vs. Spenny
Kenny vs. Spenny Logo
Created by	Kenny Hotz Spencer Rice
Directed by	Kenny Hotz Spencer Rice Sebastian Cluer
Starring	Kenny Hotz Spencer Rice
Composer	Richard Pell
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	86 (list of episodes)
Production
Cinematography	Sebastian Cluer
Editors	Duncan Christie, Marco Porsia, Jay Tipping, Jamie Hebbard
Running time	22 minutes excluding commercials
Release
Original network	MTV (2002) Demo USA Network (2002–2003) Pilot Episode CBC Television (2003–2004) Showcase (2005–2010) Comedy Central (2007)
Picture format	NTSC (2003–2008) HDTV 1080i (2008–2010)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	August 26, 2003 (2003-08-26) – December 23, 2010 (2010-12-23)
Chronology
Followed by	Testees Kenny Hotz's Triumph of the Will Single White Spenny
External links
Website

Kenny vs. Spenny was a Canadian comedy television series starring Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice, who faced each other in various competitions. The loser of each episode performed an act of humiliation, usually selected by the winner. Hotz and Rice created the series in addition to serving as executive producers, and it was typically shot in their hometown of Toronto (the pilot was filmed in Los Angeles), based mostly out of the house they shared.^[1] As of November 2008, the show airs on CBC, Global and Showcase in Canada, Comedy Central in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, The Comedy Channel in Australia, Animax and later, Sony MAX, in South Africa, Italia 2 in Italy, FX in Portugal, on Jim in Finland. The series concluded with an hour-long Christmas special that aired on December 23, 2010, at 9 pm ET/PT on Showcase.^[2] It aired in Latin America on Sony Spin for a short time.

The series was nominated for the Canadian Comedy Awards in 2010 and 2011 and for Gemini Awards in 2005, 2006, and 2008 as the best Canadian comedy series, and received a Rose d'Or nomination in Switzerland for "best international comedy series". The show has spawned several replicas of its format, including a family-friendly French Canadian version called Frank vs Girard that airs on VRAK.TV. Also following the format are Ed vs. Spencer in the United Kingdom, Juan vs. Roman in Colombia, Elton vs. Simon in Germany, Katja vs. Bridget, Dennis vs. Valerio in the Netherlands, and Sid vs. Varun in India. In 2009 the show was named #8 among the top 10 Canadian television shows of the decade.^[3]

Overview[]

Kenneth "Kenny" Joel Hotz and Spencer "Spenny" Nolan Rice are lifelong friends, who challenged each other in various ways for years before they decided to film structured competitions and introduce consequences for losing. Kenny and Spenny have contrasting personalities, which affect the way they approach each competition. Spenny usually follows the rules and his ethics very strictly. He also tries to compete in what he perceives as the intention and spirit of each competition. Kenny's approach is typically more unorthodox and "devious"; he is often willing to use any means necessary, including cheating (though he believes most of his tactics are legal), to win. Though he does not always break the rules, he is usually willing to bend them, or work around them. Kenny sometimes admits that he would not win certain competitions without cheating. Spenny will often bear the brunt of Kenny's plans and pranks until the competition is declared a draw. In one episode, Spenny remarked that he was the king of the show's "endurance competitions". Unfortunately, Spenny is often paranoid and sometimes this causes him to sabotage his own efforts and become demoralized. Kenny occasionally uses this paranoia to his advantage. For example, in one episode, Kenny phones Spenny and lies about bugging his room and recording his private conversations. As a result, Spenny reveals to the crew that he had phone sex. Other times, he will manipulate Spenny with reverse psychology. 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. At some point in the show's development, Spenny agreed to be conspired against by Kenny and Kenny's crew in exchange for being allowed to decide on each competition's rules. This is the main composition of the show's suspense, which both Kenny and Spenny argue would be lost otherwise.

Beyond their competitive styles, the contrasting personalities of the two stars is the source of much of the humor of the show. Kenny is generally portrayed as an uncouth and charismatic joker with a bizarre scatological sense of humor. He invented a variety of fictional characters such as "Silencio", "Maurice del Taco", "Goldar", "Helmut", and others, which he frequently dresses up as to entertain himself, the crew and viewers, or to antagonize or deceive Spenny. Spenny, however, is a classic straight man, and "solid citizen" who follows the rules, with a very dry sense of humor. In several episodes, Spenny uses the show's platform to promote beliefs and messages he believes to be morally necessary, such as advocating for IBS awareness in an episode that challenged the competitors to maintain their own fecal matter in their underwear as long as possible. He is quick to anger (much to the delight of Kenny), and rarely finds Kenny's behaviour amusing. As he stated in one episode, "I haven't had a belly laugh since 1987." He rarely makes jokes on camera, and when he does, the crew rarely finds them funny or entertaining. Spenny usually reacts with exasperation at Kenny's jokes, which often victimize Spenny. Kenny jokes constantly, usually at Spenny's expense through character assassination. He also verbally targets much of Spenny's family, which offends Spenny the most. Spenny's most common emotional reaction on the show is anger, usually at something Kenny has said or done. Their personalities and outlooks frequently clash in general, which leads to constant argument and sometimes escalates with physical violence. He also frequently becomes depressed, even threatening to quit the show on multiple occasions. Sometimes, Kenny's pranks move beyond simple character assassination. In one episode, he secretly gave Spenny several hits of LSD. In another, he forged a letter to Spenny from the Ontario Ministry of Health, informing Spenny that he had been in contact with someone who had HIV, and thereby deceiving Spenny into believing he had contracted the virus.

Throughout the show, Kenny employs the help of his friends and family to assist him in his plans to cheat. Spenny also employs the help of friends in some competitions, usually to provide advice or moral support, though Spenny's family is less involved, preferring to have no participation whatsoever in the show. One of Kenny's most frequent helpers is Dr. Goldfield, a herbalist, who gives him tips for many of the show's endurance competitions. Another recurring person in the show is Bobby Patton, a mutual friend who participates in two episodes.

It is clear that as the show progressed into the later seasons, Kenny and Spenny's friendship deteriorates. Kenny's pranks and schemes become progressively more devious and harmful, and Spenny's tolerance of Kenny, and his willingness to be civil, diminishes as his animosity for his "best friend" swells.^{[citation needed]} Nonetheless, the two claim to remain friends as of 2021.

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 has agreed to the choice of humiliation, in some episodes the winner attempts to extend the humiliation beyond what was agreed upon. Kenny has defined winning as not having to perform a humiliation, or perform a lesser humiliation, while Spencer has defined winning as being declared the competition winner. This difference in opinion results in disputes over who was the true 'winner' in some cases. Spenny's definition of "victory" is more sportsmanlike—in a race between two people, if the person ahead is sabotaged by the person behind, official rules designate second place as the victor of the race. Kenny's definition of "victory" is enjoying the humiliation of the loser.

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 many occasions, a competitor, usually Kenny, has cheated and still been declared the winner. The show rarely shows the aftermath of the competition, leaving it unknown how a competitor reacted upon finding out that his opponent cheated. Some episodes include the voices of Kenny and Spenny during the closing credits, commenting on an unfair loss.

Production[]

Starting with the fourth season, Kenny and Spenny were both executive producers and received credit separate from five other executive producers. Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the TV show South Park, joined the show for the fourth season and were given their own separate credit as executive producers for the ten episodes in which they were involved.^[4] Instrumental and electronic music is frequently used throughout episodes scored by Composer Richard Pell. Ride of the Valkyries, Ravel's Boléro, Sergei Prokofiev's Montagues and Capulets and Peter and the Wolf, Gioachino Rossini's La gazza ladra, Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor – 4th Movement, and music by Toronto electronica band Holy Fuck are very frequently used.

Kenny and Spenny each have their own production assistant, camera operator, and sound engineer, who film their independent exploits for each episode. In the earlier seasons, the crew was shared between Kenny and Spenny. Crew members eventually split up into two teams, some joining Kenny's "side", and others joining Spenny's.

During the Industry Standard podcast, Kenny stated the series had a budget of 100,000 CAD per episode for the first season^[5] and 350,000 CAD per episode thereafter.

Broadcasting[]

Kenny vs. Spenny was originally developed at the USA Network, where a pilot was shot for $40,000. It was deemed too outlandish by the top executives and was passed on. MTV then picked up the pilot from USA for $8,000, but ultimately did not move forward with the show. The show first aired on CBC Television. CBC cancelled the show after the first season, and Showcase Television picked up the series in late 2005. The show has switched broadcasters and been cancelled many times, including by Showcase, and again by CBC, when one of its commercials aired by accident during the network's "toddler block".^[6] Spenny has stated in multiple interviews that the main reason for CBC's cancelling of the show was because it aired right before CBC News, and news viewers tuning in early were offended by the show's humiliation segment.^[7]

It was produced by Breakthrough Films and Television since its inception. Re-runs of the first two seasons air on CBC late at night, and on CBC's Bold station weekday afternoons. Re-runs also aired on Showcase, and episodes of the show have aired on Shaw Media's Action. The show has aired on GSN in the United States. It is shown internationally on TV 2 Zulu in Denmark, Jim in Finland, the now defunct ZTV Norway, Comedy Central in Sweden, FX (repeats on Challenge) in the United Kingdom (no longer airing), The Comedy Channel in Australia, FX in Portugal, Comedy Central in Germany, Italia 2 in Italy, Comedy Central in the Netherlands and The XtraHOT channel in Israel. Fox Entertainment Group in Latin America has distributed the episodes, which can be seen on the Latin American versions of FOX channel and FX.

Episodes[]

Christmas special[]

The series finale Kenny vs. Spenny Christmas Special aired 23 December 2010 at 9 pm eastern time on Showcase.^[8]

DVD releases[]

has released all six seasons of Kenny vs. Spenny on DVD in Region 1 (Canada only). Beyond Home Entertainment has released the first three seasons on DVD in Region 4.

DVD Name	Number of episodes	Released for Region 1	Released for Region 4	Bonus features
Kenny vs Spenny: Season One	26	November 22, 2005	August 5, 2009	Kenny & Spenny commentary over two episodes, biographies, clips from international versions, Pitch
Kenny vs Spenny: Season Two	13	November 21, 2006	December 9, 2009	Season two promo, two commentaries with Kenny and Spenny, deleted scenes, season three preview
Kenny vs Spenny: Season Three	13	November 13, 2007	April 7, 2010	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 – Volume One: Uncensored (Season Four)	10	August 12, 2008	TBA	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	TBA
Kenny vs Spenny: Season Five	10	November 24, 2009	TBA	Deleted scenes, commentary with the crew, commentary with Kenny and Spenny, commentary with Kenny and Spenny and the crew
Kenny vs Spenny: Season Six	13	September 7, 2010[9]	TBA	Outtakes, photo gallery
Kenny vs. Spenny Christmas Special	1	December 23, 2010[10]	TBA

YouTube release[]

Between November 7, 2012^[11] and December 22, 2012,^[12] Kenny uploaded the series to his personal YouTube account. On the 22nd of January, 2016, Kenny took down the YouTube series (by setting the clips to private), as Spenny objected to the show being available for free.^[13] Kenny Hotz stated in a tweet a few days later that he was not happy with the removal.^[14] In the latter half of March 2018, all the videos were made available again on his channel.

In the wake of the George Floyd protests, the 2-part episode "Who Do Black Guys Like Better?" was privatized by Kenny Hotz in the middle of 2020.

Statistics[]

The records and winning percentages vary depending on the definition of a win used by each competitor. The interpretation of what constitutes cheating also varies depending on the competition and may lead to some discrepancies in the statistics.^[15]

	Wins	Losses	Draws	Winning % (W/W+L)	Win/Tie % (Ties = 1/2 Win)
Kenny	59	21	5	73.75%	72.35%
Spenny	21	59	5	26.25%	27.65%

• If competitions where Kenny cheated (16) or arguably cheated (3) and won are not counted, the record would be 40-21-5 for Kenny; If they are counted as wins for Spenny (as Spenny suggests they should),^[16] then Kenny and Spenny would be tied, each with a record of 40-40-5. Note though that Spenny cheated 8 times.

If the competition ends in a draw, there is either no humiliation, or a double humiliation. Although there have been exceptions to this rule.

In popular culture[]

Kenny Hotz appears as a non-playable character in the 2014 video game Goat Simulator for Windows PC and the protagonist of the game is a playable goat named Pilgor who is modeled after Kenny's goat from the season 4 episode "Who Can Be Tied to a Goat the Longest?"^[17]

Revival attempts[]

Both Hotz and Rice have expressed interest in a film adaptation of Kenny vs. Spenny. In a 2013 interview, Rice elaborated, "if it happens I don't think I will live through it but it will be good entertainment." Later on March 7, 2014, Hotz began the Facebook^[18] and Twitter^[19] campaign #BringBackKvS in an effort to encourage Netflix to commission a seventh season of the show.^[20] Netflix had recently resurrected the Trailer Park Boys series from its 2008 finale, and it was Hotz's intention to replicate this success. Between March and May 2014, Hotz and Rice embarked on a 13-city Kenny vs. Spenny vs. Canada comedy tour, showing and discussing rare and unseen Kenny vs. Spenny footage that had been rejected by broadcasters. The tour was filmed for a Kickstarter-funded film titled Kenny vs Spenny: On The Road, however the campaign failed to meet its goal and the film was not released.

Hotz and Rice revisited their onscreen antics in the 2020 CBC Gem special Kenny and Spenny Paldemic, which directly referenced Kenny vs. Spenny and its effect on their friendship and careers in the years since.^[21] They jointly received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Host in a Web Program or Series at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards in 2021.^[22]

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Kenny vs. Spenny

• Official website
• Dedicated section of show creator's website
• Kenny vs. Spenny at IMDb