TRAILER PARK BOYS. The Series That Became a Phenomenon

In 2004, the Canadian rock supergroup “The Big Dirty Band” was formed, featuring Jeff Burrows from “The Tea Party”, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson from “Rush”, Ian Thornley from “Big Wreck”, Adam Gontier from “Three Days Grace”, and Die Mannequin vocalist Care Failure. They came together to record a cover of “The Clash” classic “I Fought the Law,” which promoted the first of three feature-length “Trailer Park Boys” films, “Trailer Park Boys: The Movie”. Following developments in the Canadian rock scene, particularly updates about “The Tea Party”, I stumbled upon the music video for “I Fought the Law”—and that’s how I discovered Julian, Ricky, and Bubbles.

Filmed initially on a real trailer park in Halifax and in production since 1999, the mockumentary comedy series “Trailer Park Boys” is one of the greatest international successes in Canadian pop culture. The story revolves around three friends living in the Sunnyvale trailer park in Nova Scotia, who constantly devise brilliant business ideas and make failproof plans to make a fortune. Along the way, they try to outwit the perpetually drunk park supervisor Jim Lahey and his shirtless, cheeseburger-devouring partner Randy. Due to their creative “entrepreneurship,” Ricky and Julian regularly end up in jail, while good-hearted Bubbles, a cat lover and occasional shopping cart repairman, awaits their return, hoping they’ll eventually choose an honest living to bring peace to Sunnyvale.

“Trailer Park Boys” has spawned over a dozen seasons, an animated series, three feature films, a social media miniseries (“Park After Dark”), and live shows in Canada, the United States, and Europe. As one of Canada’s most popular shows globally, it’s aired by Netflix as well as TV channels in the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Portugal, and Germany. The show’s characters have inspired countless memes, GIFs, and fan art.

Apart from its hilarious, absurd humor (which can be initially divisive due to its controversial, edgy nature, but is truly worth a watch), the series has another advantage: it’s filled with references to Canadian culture and lifestyle. The Canadian accent and vocabulary are one thing, but Bubbles, a massive “Rush” fan, meets Alex Lifeson, the band’s guitarist. Guest stars also include Halifax-native Denny Doherty, founding member of “The Mamas and the Papas”, and Elliot Page, who appeared in a few episodes of the first season. Ricky lives in a car that he cleans with a hockey stick and even coaches a youth hockey league at one point. Several hockey players, including Halifax-born Nathan MacKinnon, appear in the show. Jim Lahey primarily drinks Canadian whiskey “Alberta Premium” (though the brand isn’t named, the bottle shape and label are unmistakable), while Bubbles fears encountering a Sasquatch—the Canadian equivalent of Bigfoot and a figure in Canadian comics as part of “Alpha Flight”. The characters shop at Canadian stores like “Zellers” and “Canadian Tire”, dine at chains like “Swiss Chalet” and “King of Donair” (founded in Halifax), and the policewoman regularly sips “Tim Hortons” coffee in her squad car.

“Trailer Park Boys” crossed the borders of Canadian pop culture to become a worldwide phenomenon. People dress up as the characters for Halloween, and the internet overflows with memes inspired by the show. Over time, guest stars like Snoop Dogg, Tom Arnold, and Jimmy Kimmel joined the cast; Kimmel even invited Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles to his show.

The actors portraying the main characters—Robb Wells (Ricky), John Paul Tremblay (Julian), and Mike Smith (Bubbles)—have built their entire careers around these Sunnyvale residents, with few other roles in their filmographies. Notably, Wells, Tremblay, and Smith eventually bought the rights to the series from Canadian station “Showcase”, which produced the first seven seasons, and brought it to Netflix. The platform produced additional seasons, injecting fresh life into the story, which was beginning to feel a bit worn out under Showcase’s banner.

In “Canadian Television: Text and Context”, M. Bredin, S. Henderson, and S.A. Matheson describe the show as follows:

“Trailer Park Boys” is a strange and wonderful show, a unique phenomenon in Canadian television. It’s an anti-bourgeois soap opera, a humorous tribute to life at the bottom of the social ladder. Canadian society, raised in a country that takes care of its people with things like public health care, cares about those who are worse off. That’s who we are. “Trailer Park Boys” is about this: the need for friends, family, and community”

In his essay “I’m a Criminal… It’s All I Know: Comedy, Crime, and Critical Thinking in “Trailer Park Boys”” in “The Spaces and Places of Canadian Popular Culture”, Dawne Clarke highlights another critical aspect of the show: it lightly, humorously, yet socially points to the issue of chronic poverty, which becomes the main reason Julian, Ricky, and Bubbles are always scheming. It also shows how lack of education, once ingrained, is challenging to overcome in adulthood and contributes to learned helplessness—for instance, not knowing how to complete forms or applications that could improve the characters’ quality of life. The characters live in a vicious cycle—committing petty crimes to escape poverty, landing in jail, and spending time planning the next “brilliant” scheme to elevate their material and social status. They can’t imagine a different life for themselves.

In 2017, John Dunsworth, the Canadian film, television, and theater actor who masterfully portrayed Jim Lahey, passed away. It’s worth noting, given his character’s issues with alcoholism, that Dunsworth was never drunk on set. His performance is so convincing that many viewers likely wondered otherwise.

“Trailer Park Boys” is worth checking out, not only because it’s a good comedy but also for its many uniquely Canadian quirks. And for fans of Canadian culture, this show is a must-watch. Know what I’m sayin’? as Sunnyvale’s gangsta rapper J-Roc, who lives with his mom, would say.