Gavin from Kids in The Hall Rides A Mongoose Stylist
“Mom, mom, are you on the phone?” asks Gavin, a “Kids in the The Hall” character played by Bruce McCulloch.
“Did the school nurse call? Because today she took a sample from my ear and she didn’t like what she saw.”
Thus was my introduction to Gavin, a suburban boy (played by a grown man), fully aloof to society, living in a bubble of questions, bizarre rationalities and morbid details about life at home. He wore thick thrift store glasses, a red backpack and a green mesh baseball cap featuring a “Legend of Zelda” logo.
He was approximately 9 to 10 years of age, and spent his spare time wandering his neighborhood and nearby shops, where he would ask frequent questions and make wild proclamations about life, philosophy and death. Some of which include:
“If you lose a finger on your hand-shaking hand, you can never meet someone new!”
“There’s this kid in my class, and she lives at home without any parents or guardians, and she’s 8.”
“With a common playing card, I can explain the workings of insects.”
“Onions is all I eat.”
“My mom says if there’s a depression, that I’ll have to enter a dance marathon..cause I’m the man of the house.”
And he was introduced to me on Nov. 24, 1990 (thanks IMDB) when he confronts a neighbor (played by Mark McKinney) about painting a chair outside of his house. As McKinney’s character played around with his childish quips, I began to feel a deep connection to Gavin.
Not only was he a literal sponge to the world around him, he was completely oblivious to how he was perceived by the characters he confronted. He was analytical, robotic and hilarious.
At the end of the painting your chair sketch, Gavin is bested by his neighbors in a test of knowledge, then grabs a BMX bike and says, “Okay, I’ve gotta go, I’m in the middle of a big bike race.” Gavin then grabs a red bike with white tires and grey mags and leaves. He instantly won me over.
To this day, 32 years later, whenever I leave somewhere that I rode my bike to, I say that quote out loud. And for years, I felt a kinship with him for attempting to ride BMX, not fitting in anywhere, but doing it anyway. I still do.
Though I’ve always been curious: What bike was he riding? Following the relaunch of “Kids in the The Hall” on Amazon, I stumbled on a photo of Gavin standing in front of that BMX bike and disappeared down a BMX Museum hole. After a few hours, I think I’ve finally arrived at a conclusion.
The bike is a red Mongoose Stylist, circa 1988. At least I think it is. Because “Kids in The Hall” was shot on location in Toronto, there’s a chance it’s a Canadian brand that I’m not familiar with. But the graphics match up, the raised stem matches up, and the color is spot on. The white tires and grey mags were not stock in the U.S., but perhaps that differed in Canada.
What I do know is that Gavin’s optimistic, inquisitive and straight up bizarre character made an impact on me; one that I carry with me to the current day. I hope somewhere, there’s a kid out there, asking bizarre questions about life, eating onions.
And also, I’ve gotta go too, cause I’m in a big bike race.
