These episodes blend kinship, neighborliness, and a healthy swig of inappropriate humor to round it all out.
Letterkenny is a bit of an anomaly in these times. At first blush, it is a series about a small group of rural Canadians who stick to traditional values. Men fight. Women cook. And all they seem to get up to is farming and drinking. But to see only those themes is to miss the massive heart and the fundamental respect of humanity that is the true center of Letterkenny.
At its elemental level, Letterkenny believes that people are good and deserve love. That message of dignity and affection threads throughout the episodes alongside some awfully hilarious recurring discussions and callbacks. The series feels inclusive because the audience gets to see the inside jokes develop at a cellular level, only to be repeated season after season. Lest all of this kindness give the wrong impression, Letterkenny also thrives in the crude. There is plenty of farting, spitting, hoovering drugs, and discussion of sex acts to complement the show’s squishy middle. Much of that impeccable balance is owed to co-creators Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney. Tierney has directed the entire series to date, and the two have written nearly all of the episodes together.
The best episodes of Letterkenny have all of these elements blissfully blended together: kinship, warmth, neighborliness, and a healthy swig of inappropriate humor to round it all out. We've rounded up the 10 episodes that do all of that — and then some — and ranked them below. Season 8 of Letterkenny comes with its own emotional lows and heartbreak, but “Yard Sale Saturday” is not about that. It is all about the skill of bartering — or “dickering’ as they say repeatedly —- and the thrill of the hunt for those hidden gems somewhere on the various yard sale spreads across town. For all of Dierks’ (Tyler Hynes) later shortcomings, here he is in his prime as the handsome, confident, vocally ticking American that Katie falls for quick and hard. Seeing Wayne’s (Kesso) usually tight lip curl at the very mention of Dierks is a special treat unto itself, especially considering he can’t even say the Yankee’s name without making it sound like merely saying the name turns his mouth sour.
Making something very serious out of something that could be very silly is a Letterkenny tradition 10 seasons deep, and the spelling bee might be the greatest example of that. The whole town comes together to cheer on a selected group of spellers while they duke it out using their chosen weapons of consonants and vowels. Illegal betting, big-city slams, and an inspired outburst by Squirrely Dan (K. Trevor Wilson) all fill the auditorium to make the perfect setting for the competition. However, the true triumph of the episode all takes place on stage. Under the bright lights, in front of a microphone, the hockey players’s wits feel a bit dimmer, and McMurray (Dan Petronijevic) mumbles a touch more incoherently.
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