Foil Arms and Hog
By Charlotte Dekle
The Irish comedy trio of Foil Arms and Hog has been slowly but surely becoming a greater part of my life since I discovered them earlier this year. Sure, I didn’t understand some of the references but they were funny nonetheless. The humor is universal, not just Irish. Just as a side note if you decide to venture on and begin binge-watching their content: craic (pronounced like crack) means a good time or fun and not the drug. I just want to say that because watching them is good craic. The sketch comedy group comprising Sean Finegan (Foil), Conor McKenna (Arms) and Sean Flanagan (Hog) each are hilarious in their own individual way. You might wonder where did those oddly specific names derive from? Well, Foil (Sean Finegan) was the comedic foil, Arms (Conor McKenna) was ‘All arms and legs’ and Hog (Sean Flanagan) ostensibly hogged the spotlight. The fact that they are an IRISH sketch comedy group explains why there are two Sean’s with similar surnames. If you, like me, can sometimes not understand what the heck they are saying, most of the videos have English closed captions. Back to the content, they have new videos every Thursday and they are all delightfully funny. They do not have a specific genre of comedy but they mainly do observational or topical humor. My personal favorites are The Military Captures an Actor, Heartbreak Emergency Room, One Man Play, Bad Sign Language Ruins Political Rally, and US Immigration. But some of the popular ones are When Irish People Can’t Speak Irish, An Englishman Plays Risk, Quarantine Maths Class Disaster, WTF Is Brexit, and How To Speak Dublin (very Irish but still funny). They also have videos entirely dedicated to puns (see: the Wordplay Hotel, Wordplay Restaurant, etc.), videos where they sing (see: Narcissistic Songs Collection, Songs For The Elderly, Three Drunk Monks, etc.), and a whole array of Lockdown related content if you need to laugh about this outrageous world we live in (see: The Hidden Benefits of Face Masks, Lockdown Song, etc.) I request watching where they rank the top 10 sketches of the decade if you want to get a feel of what they do. So, if you’re 21 or over, grab a pint and enjoy the craic and absurdity of Foil, Arms, and Hog. Doomdah!
This is them ranking their Top 10 Sketches of the Decade if you want a little bit of everything - https://youtu.be/bCf1eN45aSY