Cross Eyed Bear Comedy Presents Archie Parody

Credit: TrevorJansen.com

Cross Eyed Bear Comedy | Michael Cope & Rys Finnick

Cross Eyed Bear Comedy

Vancouver comedy troupe Cross Eyed Bear evokes the comic styles of Archie, Bart, Andy and Steve

The fresh-faced comedy team Cross Eyed Bear is making ripples in Vancouver and across the web with their faux movie trailer Riverdale, a darkly humorous revision of the venerable and wholesome Archie comics.

As much as Archie comics are a light romp through puberty, Riverdale is the exact opposite. The humour lands you right in the middle of a belly laugh and a sucker punch.

The tale of these familiar characters is put through the wringer and suddenly they are both caricatures and grimly recognizable. What do you think a couple of comedians would do with two girls competing for one boy’s attention? Why is Reggie such a prick? How did Moose get so big? And why does Jughead always eat himself into a stupour?

No spoilers! Watch the video yourself.

Still reading? Then you got the joke and may be interested in more.

Michael Cope and Rhys Finnick are Cross Eyed Bear

Cross Eyed Bear is the brainchild of writers/performers Michael Cope and Rhys Finnick. The troupe’s name apparently came about when Rhys misheard what a friend said and the absurdity seemed to encompass what they were about.

They also snickered at the Urban Dictionary definition when they looked at what Google had to say about their choice. A name was born!

The idea for Riverdale began when Rhys started conceptualizing a dark graphic novel featuring the Archie gang. Michael and Rhys started riffing out scenarios and very quickly they had a lot of great material. Ideas in hand, they went to speak with Andrew DeVilliers of Point Blank Creative and the rest is history.

Vancouver comedian Michael Cope can’t get any respect.

They have other comedy videos, which they integrate into multi-media sketch comedy shows. On stage they are just as experimental and uncompromising, which elicits laughter, groans and often a mix of the two.

“We’re decidedly creatures of the Simpsons generation, drawing from layered absurdities and non sequiturs,” says Michael Cope.

“But our roots go farther back to acts like Kaufman or Martin, creating stage shows that might upset your initial expectations. We want to bring the private jokes we tell each other to the stage. Let taste be damned and create that kind of intimate experience you wouldn’t get with safer material. We basically want to be drinking buddies with the audience, maybe give them the piss a bit, but make sure we all have a raunchy good time in the end.”

Rhys Finnick has mastered the comedic art of being socially awkward.

They claim there is no such thing as a tough room, unless it’s empty. When things go wrong, they do as they always do: “Drink the problems away.”

Be sure to catch their performances at ITSAZOO Productions’s 10×10 show on April 29 at Spectral Theatre, or go to their full-length show “The Cross Eyed Bear presents LeFevre presents Mike’s Annual Birthday,” also at Spectral Theatre on May 26–28.

“We’ll likely be serving a shitty cake. Mark that on your calendar.”