Charles Budderick "Buddy" Cole is a
fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...
created and portrayed by
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
actor-
comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing
Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...
Scott Thompson. He is an
effeminate
Effeminacy is the embodiment of traits and/or expressions in those who are not of the female sex (e.g. boys and men) that are often associated with what is generally perceived to be feminine behaviours, mannerisms, styles, or gender roles, rath ...
,
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
socialite
A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...
,
[Shirley R. Steinberg, Michael Kehler and Lindsay Cornish, ''Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1''. ABC-CLIO, 2010. .] made famous on ''
The Kids in the Hall
The Kids in the Hall is a Canadian sketch comedy troupe formed in 1984, consisting of comedians Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney and Scott Thompson. Their eponymous television show ran from 1989 to 1995, on CBC, ...
'', a popular
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
series starring the
troupe of the same name. The character also had a recurring role on ''
The Colbert Report
''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focuse ...
''.
["Buddy Cole Learns About Russia's Anti-Gay Laws, Prepares To Visit Sochi For 'The Colbert Report'"]
''Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'', February 11, 2014. He was loosely based on one of Thompson's past partners.
Fictional biography
According to the book ''Buddy Babylon'', Cole was the youngest of 23 children born to pig farmers in
Saint-Hubert-sur-le-Lac,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
.
[Cece Scott]
"Buddy Babylon: The Autobiography of Buddy Cole, by Scott Thompson & Paul Bellini"
''Quill & Quire
''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...
'', July 1998. His hard-partying lifestyle once led him into a brief
lavender marriage
A lavender marriage is a male–female mixed-orientation marriage, undertaken as a marriage of convenience to conceal the socially stigmatised sexual orientation of one or both partners. The term dates from the early 20th century and is used al ...
with a Hollywood actress named Tandy; from that marriage, he is stepfather to
conjoined twins
Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined ''Uterus, in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher in ...
named Suzanne and Pleshette.
[
Buddy owns a gay bar, Buddy's, which he purchased with money saved during a brief stint of not smoking cigarettes.
According to the "Chalet 2000" episode of ''The Kids in the Hall'', a full-length adventure starring Buddy and friends, Buddy is the nephew of comedian ]Rip Taylor
Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor Jr. (January 13, 1931 – October 6, 2019) was an American actor and comedian, known for his exuberance and flamboyant personality, including his wild moustache, toupee, and his habit of showering himself (and others ...
.
On ''The Kids in the Hall''
Most of Buddy Cole's appearances in ''The Kids in the Hall'' are monologues delivered from his gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities.
Gay bars once served as ...
, Buddy's. These monologues tend to involve reflections on his personal life and the gay community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and social ...
. He also frequently drops celebrity names, insinuating that he has many close friendships with the rich and famous. A series of ''The Kids in the Hall'' sketches portrayed his deeply personal relationship with Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
(also played by Thompson).
During the second season of ''The Kids in the Hall'', Buddy began to star in more action-packed sketches. In the first such appearance, he becomes the substitute coach of a lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
softball team. From there on, his adventures became more outrageous and surreal, from accidentally murdering a drag queen
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...
(while on a bad acid trip
A psychedelic experience (known colloquially as a trip) is a temporary altered state of consciousness induced by the consumption of a psychedelic substance (most commonly LSD, mescaline, psilocybin mushrooms, or DMT). For example, an acid tri ...
) to purchasing his very own male slave in the 1950s.
In the series' final episode, he is one in a handful of characters to get something of a resolution: Having lost his bar in a game of strip poker (he refused to remove his shirt having just put on ten pounds), he burns it down in order to win back his old boyfriend - "a firefighter
A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...
from Buffalo". Also in the last sketch is a childhood photo of Kurt Cobain (an acquaintance of Thompson's), sitting on the bar as it burns down.
After the TV series
Following the conclusion of the television series in 1995, Buddy Cole made regular appearances in Scott Thompson's one-man stage show. Buddy has been one of many characters revived for The Kids in the Hall reunion tours; he did not, however, appear in the troupe's 1996 film '' Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy'' or their 2010 reunion miniseries '' The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town''. He did appear in a sketch in the 2022 Amazon Prime revival of ''The Kids in the Hall'', reminiscing about the changes in the gay village over the years as he walked down the street with a friend, before they unexpectedly came across the last remaining glory hole
A glory hole (also spelled gloryhole and glory-hole) is a hole in a wall or partition, often between public toilet, public lavatory cubicles or adult video arcade, sex video arcade booths and lounges, for people to engage in sexual activity or ...
.
In 1998, Thompson and Paul Bellini
Paul Bellini (born September 12, 1959) is a Canadian comedy writer and television actor best known for his work on the comedy series '' The Kids in the Hall'' and '' This Hour Has 22 Minutes''. He has worked on several projects with Josh Levy and ...
co-authored the book ''Buddy Babylon: The Autobiography of Buddy Cole''.
In early 2006, Breakthrough Entertainment
Breakthrough Entertainment is a Canadian production company founded in 1986 by Peter Williamson and Ira Levy. It produces famous Canadian TV shows such as '' Jimmy Two-Shoes'' and '' Atomic Betty''.
History
On July 10, 2018, 9 Story Media Group ...
, the producers of the series ''Atomic Betty
''Atomic Betty'' (retitled ''Atomic Betty: Mission Earth'' for its third and final season) is a Canadian-French Flash animated television series produced by Atomic Cartoons, Breakthrough Entertainment and Tele Images Kids, along with the Mar ...
'' and ''Paradise Falls
''Paradise Falls'' is a weekly soap opera television series which aired nationally on the Showcase channel in Canada, starting in 2001. It was filmed in the summer cottage community of Muskoka, Ontario.
Like many major soap operas, sex is a do ...
'', announced that an animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
comedy series based on the character was in development.["Breakthrough for gay sitcom toon"]
C21 Media, April 12, 2006. ''Buddy's'' was expected to air on CBC Television
CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...
and the American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
LGBT channel Here!
Here TV is an American premium television network targeting LGBT audiences. Launched in 2002, Here TV is available nationwide on all major cable systems, fiber optics systems, and Internet TV providers as either a 24/7 premium subscription channe ...
. However, in a February 1, 2007 interview on ''Tom Green Live
''Tom Green's House Tonight'' (formerly known as ''Tom Green Live!'') is a talk show hosted by Tom Green. In addition to its primary Internet broadcast on ''TomGreen.com'', the show has been syndicated on television stations throughout North Ame ...
'', Thompson announced that the series was no longer in development. No reason for the dissolution of the show was given, but Thompson did say that Buddy Cole now had his own blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
instead, written and updated by Thompson himself.
On January 13, 2008, Thompson posted a video blog as Cole. However, it was also his last; as announced in the video (titled "Adieu to EWE"), Cole simply did not have enough time to blog.
In February 2014, Thompson appeared in character as Buddy Cole on several episodes of ''The Colbert Report
''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focuse ...
'', serving as the program's correspondent to the 2014 Winter Olympics
, ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'')
, nations = 88
, events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines)
, athletes = 2,873
, opening = 7 February 2014
, closing = 23 February 2014
, opened_by = President Vladimir Putin
, cauldron =
, stadium = Fisht Olympic ...
in Sochi
Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...
, Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. His coverage focused on Russia's anti-gay laws, including interviewing openly gay Ambassador Daniel Baer of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.[
In 2018, Thompson toured the stage show ''Après Le Déluge: The Buddy Cole Monologues'', and released a new reprint of ''Buddy Babylon''.
]
Reception
Thompson has described Buddy as a " butch queen" and an "alpha fag", pointing out that while extremely effeminate, Buddy is also very forceful and strong willed. Thompson, who is openly gay, has always directly confronted charges that Buddy is a homophobic
Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred or antipathy, m ...
stereotype. "The whole idea of Buddy Cole being considered a terrible stereotype and a terrible throwback is, I think, just tragic," he told '' Orlando Weekly'' in 2000. "I mean, most gay men are more Buddy than Sly."
References
External links
Buddy's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Buddy
Comedy television characters
Male characters in television
Fictional gay males
Fictional socialites
Fictional characters from Quebec
LGBT culture in Canada
The Kids in the Hall
Television characters introduced in 1989
Fictional LGBT characters in television