Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie (aka 'The Trolls') was a Canadian comedy group from

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

formed in 1987. Their credits include numerous stage productions, a television show and five albums. The Trolls did sketch comedy, often on risqué or controversial subjects, along with humorous songs. One of their songs, "

The Toronto Song Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie (aka 'The Trolls') was a Canadian comedy group from Edmonton, Alberta formed in 1987. Their credits include numerous stage productions, a television show and five albums. The Trolls did sketch comedy, often on risqu� ...

" (which is often incorrectly attributed to

The Arrogant Worms The Arrogant Worms are a Canadian musical comedy trio founded in 1991 that parodies many musical genres. They are well known for their humorous on-stage banter in addition to their music. The members since 1995 are Trevor Strong (vocals), Mike McC ...

), makes fun of Canada's regional rivalries by insulting the city of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

and eventually most of the rest of the country. The Trolls also composed musical parodies of historical events such as the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, and Canada's 1999 division of Nunavut from the Northwest Territories; the song "Nunavut" opens with "We'll keep Canada... and you can have Nunavut!" (pronouncing it "None-of-it").

History

Childhood friends Wes Borg and musician and actor Joe Bird met actress Cathleen Rootsaert at a

Rapid Fire Theatre ''Rapid Fire Theatre'' (RFT) is an improvisational theatre company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. History The origins of the company stretch to 1981, when Edmonton's Theatre Network became the third company in the world to regularly prod ...

Theatresports Theatresports is a form of improvisational theatre, which uses the format of a competition for dramatic effect. Opposing teams can perform scenes based on audience suggestions, with ratings by the audience or by a panel of judges. Developed by di ...

comedy jam and formed the group. Neil Grahn was recruited later. Their name allegedly came from a restaurant which called hamburgers-to-go "Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie". They immediately began performing and, by 1991, were touring with a play they called ''Kevin Costner's Naked Butt''. They caught the attention of CBC Television, which gave them a show but it was canceled after five episodes. Also in 1992, they released their debut album, ''Con Troupo Comedius''. In 1993, the CBC paid the group $60,000 to write 10 scripts for a possible new show. The network then rejected the scripts. In April 1994, The Trolls produced the scripts, turning the stage at the Roxy Theatre (Edmonton) into a replica of a real CBC studio. Rootsaert and Grahn left the group; Borg and Bird joined Atomic Improv began collaborating with other Edmonton musicians and comedians, getting heavily into

Improvisational theatre Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...

(improv). In 1995, The Trolls performed with the band

Jr. Gone Wild Jr. Gone Wild is a Canadian country/ punk rock band based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The band toured for a number of years and recorded several albums in the 1980s and 1990s. After disbanding in 1995, the group began performing and recording ...

at the

Garneau Theatre The Garneau Theatre is a historic movie theatre located on 109 Street in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The theatre originally operated independently until it joined with Famous Players in 1941. It closed in late 1990, and reopened in December 1991 u ...

in Edmonton and released the album ''Jr. Gone Wild & Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie – Live At The Hyperbole''. In 2000, they collaborated with the Cross-dressing comedy troupe Guys in Disguise on the scripted play ''Piledriver'', which was about a group of gay wrestlers on tour through the

Bible Belt The Bible Belt is a region of the Southern United States in which socially conservative Protestant Christianity plays a strong role in society and politics, and church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's a ...

in the 1970s. Their play ''The War of 1812'', a humorous retelling of the war of the same name replete with deliberately over-the-top pro-Canadian jingoism, produced another of the group's most famous song, "The White House Burned (The War of 1812)". As a result of this production, comedy writer Paul Mather joined the group. Grahn returned and he and Borg hosted ''The Geek Show'' which aired on

Canadian Learning Television Oprah Winfrey Network, more commonly shortened to OWN, is a Canadian English language discretionary service channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel was launched in September 1, 1999 as Canadian Learning Television (CLT) by Learning and ...

, BookTV and

Access Access may refer to: Companies and organizations * ACCESS (Australia), an Australian youth network * Access (credit card), a former credit card in the United Kingdom * Access Co., a Japanese software company * Access Healthcare, an Indian BPO se ...

in 2004-2005. By 2005, the group had broken up. Borg moved to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The ...

in 2007 and became a fixture in that city's entertainment scene. Mather moved to

and wrote for

Corner Gas ''Corner Gas'' is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV, CTV2, CTV Comedy Channel, Much, MTV, E! and are streaming on Crave and Amazon Prime. The seri ...

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and the Rick Mercer Report. Rootsaert is an actor and director; Grahn is a writer and producer. On April 1, 2009, Joe Bird died of a heart attack, at age 41. His life was celebrated annually at the Empress Pub in Edmonton, until it closed in 2020. Joe's songs are much loved by the Edmonton community, and musicians are working to ensure these songs are remembered.

Discography

*''Con Troupo Comedius'', 1992, Independent *''Jr. Gone Wild & Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie – Live At The Hyperbole'', 1995, Stony Plain Music *''Steaming Pile of Skit'', 2001, Independent *''The Geek Album 2.0'', 2002, Independent *''Skit Happens'', 2003, Independent

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie Musical groups with year of establishment missing Musical groups from Edmonton Canadian comedy musical groups Comedy collectives