Editing CODCO (section)

==Segments and characters==
''CODCO'' shared several characteristics with ''The Kids in the Hall'', including the presence of openly [[gay]] members and the use of [[drag (clothing)|drag]]<ref name=summers>[[Claude J. Summers]], ''The Queer Encyclopedia of Film & Television''. [[Cleis Press]], 2005. {{ISBN|978-1573442091}}. p. 64.</ref> — although where ''The Kids in the Hall'' often revelled in [[absurdist humour]], ''CODCO'''s sketches were typically based around social commentary and [[satire]], often with a strongly political edge.<ref name=programmingreality>Zoë Druick and Aspa Kotsopoulos, ''Programming Reality: Perspectives on English-Canadian Television''. [[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]], 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-55458-010-1}}.</ref> Their sketches were also strongly reflective of the troupe's background on the stage, sometimes playing more as humorous character or scene studies than as conventional sketch comedy.<ref name=mbc />

Recurring characters included the Friday Night Girls (Walsh and Jones), a homely, dateless pair of female friends whose Friday nights rarely consisted of anything more exciting than riding the [[Metrobus (St. John's)|Metrobus]];<ref name=mbc /> Dakey Dunn (Walsh), an unexpectedly insightful macho lout;<ref name=mbc /> Frank Arsenpuffin (Andy Jones), a hapless talk show host faced with a succession of horrifying guests; Marg at the Mental (Sexton), a patient in a [[psychiatric hospital]]; and Jerome and Duncan (Sexton and Malone), a flamboyant pair of gay lawyers.<ref name=mbc /><ref name=summers /> Thomey sometimes appeared on the show as Newfoundland separatist Jerry Boyle, a character he would later reprise on ''[[This Hour Has 22 Minutes]]''.

Another recurring sketch, House of Budgell, was essentially an ongoing [[soap opera]] set in a [[boarding house]].<ref name=programmingreality /> Wake of the Week focused on the Furlong sisters, a pair of elderly spinsters who regularly crashed [[funeral wake]]s, while The Byrd Family focused on a family of hardened criminals. Another of the show's most famous sketches parodied Canadian literary icon ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]''; instead of [[Prince Edward Island]], Anne lived in a dreary Newfoundland fishing outport called Green Gut.<ref name=revisiting>"Revisiting CODCO". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', February 25, 2009.</ref> In another, a Newfoundlander brings his girlfriend from [[Toronto]] home to meet his parents; the sketch escalates to the brink of violence as the parents tried to explain why the [[Mi'kmaq people|Mi'kmaq]], not Newfoundlanders, were responsible for the extinction of the [[Beothuk]].

Malone performed a number of celebrity impersonations, including [[Margaret Thatcher]] and Canadian television journalist [[Barbara Frum]],<ref name=programmingreality /> while Sexton did recurring impersonations of [[Barbara Walters]] and [[Tammy Faye Bakker]]. In one famous sketch, Malone as Frum moderated a debate between Jones as a gay teacher who had been fired from his job for testing [[HIV-positive]] and Sexton as Clarabelle Otterhead, the homophobic president of a lobby group called Citizens Outraged by Weird Sex (or COWS).<ref>[http://www.thetelegram.com/Entertainment/2009-12-21/article-1442161/Queens-pay-tribute-to-clown-prince/1 "Queens pay tribute to clown prince"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130411232805/http://www.thetelegram.com/Entertainment/2009-12-21/article-1442161/Queens-pay-tribute-to-clown-prince/1 |date=2013-04-11 }}. ''[[The Telegram]]'', December 21, 2009.</ref> The troupe also parodied the conventions of television news through mock local newscasts; in one such sketch, a [[racism|racist]] anchor character loudly blamed [[Africa]] for [[AIDS]]: "It's all your fault, it's all your fault. Nah nah nah nah nah nah. You're black, you're black, take your dirty bugs back. You're screwing green monkeys and giving it to our junkies. We give you all our foreign aid, and all we gets back is AIDS, AIDS, AIDS."<ref name=programmingreality />

Parody [[music videos]] were also a frequent feature of the show. In a transparent spoof of Quebec pop idol [[Mitsou]], Cathy Jones played ''Jansu'', a shallow, self-promoting pop singer who tried to be topical with lyrics such as "it's a political world/so separate your garbage!". Sexton parodied [[body image]] as Dusty Springroll, who sang an ode to the fashionability of [[bulimia]]. Figures such as [[Anne Murray]] and [[Bruce Cockburn]] were parodied in commercials for compilation albums with satirical lyrics set to the melodies of real songs by the artists, while another sketch was set in a café holding a [[Leonard Cohen]] impersonation contest.<ref name=revisiting />