Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie are a Canadian comedy group from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The Trolls currently consist of Edmonton comedians Wes Borg, Joe Bird and Paul Mather. Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Industry Integrity Progress City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canadas Location. ... Motto: Fortis et Liber (Latin: Strong and free) Official languages English Capital Edmonton Largest city Calgary Lieutenant-Governor Norman Kwong Premier Ralph Klein (PC) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 28 6 Area Total  â€¢ Land  â€¢ Water    (% of total)  Ranked 6th 661,848 km² 642,317 km² 19,531 km² (2. ... Wes Borg is a Canadian comedian, playwright and musician from Edmonton, best known (in all three capacities) as a member of the comedy troupe Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie. ...

The original Trolls - Borg, Bird, Neil Grahn and Cathleen Rootsaert - allegedly met when at least some of them worked at the same restaurant; the name "Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie" comes from a nickname the staff used for a triple hamburger to go. The troupe formed in 1987 and quickly came to national attention as perhaps the most popular performers on the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Trolls initially did sketch comedy, often on risqué or controversial subjects, along with humourous songs. One of their most famous songs, "The Toronto Song", which makes fun of Canada’s regional rivalries by insulting the city of Toronto and eventually most of the rest of the country as well, originates from this period. Today this song is often mistakenly attributed to The Arrogant Worms, despite the fact that the Worms are themselves from Toronto while the song makes it clear that its writers are from Alberta (but not Calgary). Fringe theatre is a term used to describe alternative theatre, or entertainment not of the mainstream. ... For other uses, see Toronto (disambiguation). ... The Arrogant Worms is a Canadian musical comedy trio seemingly dedicated to parodying every musical genre in existence. ... Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Onward Area: 789. ...

By 1991 the Trolls were touring with a full-blown play entitled "Kevin Costner's Naked Butt" (the play did not in fact even mention Costner, but Bird did have a brief nude scene). Another play the following year, "Saskatchebuzz", featured Saskatchewan declaring independence from the rest of Canada and quickly becoming the world's leading producer of marijuana; beneath the show’s surface humour lay commentary on such subjects as drug legalization, and the effects of farm subsidies and the Quebec sovereignty movement. This show garnered the group's most consistently positive reviews to date. At about the same time, a cassette-only album of the Trolls’ songs, Con Troupo Comedius, appeared, featuring “The Toronto Song” among others (and settling the issue of the song’s title, which fans and reviewers often rendered as “The Ontario Song” or “Ontario Sucks”). Some of this material is now more easily available on the CD Steaming Pile of Skit. Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American film actor and director who has often produced his own films. ... Motto: Multis E Gentibus Vires (Latin: From many peoples, strength) Official languages English Capital Regina Largest city Saskatoon Lieutenant-Governor Lynda M. Haverstock Premier Lorne Calvert (NDP) Parliamentary representation  - House seat  - Senate seats 14 6 Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 7th 651,036 km² 9. ... Species Cannabis indica Cannabis ruderalis Cannabis sativa Cannabis is a genus of flowering plant that includes one or more species. ... The Quebec sovereignty movement is a political movement aimed at attaining sovereignty for Quebec, a province of the Canadian federation. ...

Shortly after this, the group briefly had a television show on the CBC, but this received mixed reviews and only lasted five episodes. Much of the group’s material at the time was far too raunchy for national prime-time broadcast, and new material most reviewers considered mediocre at best was added in its place. It is sometimes remarked that opening the first episode with “The Toronto Song” may have contributed to this short lifespan, as key CBC offices are located there; though commonly made in jest, an open letter to the Toronto Star by Borg, Bird and Grahn made the same charge in apparent seriousness. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Cipher-block chaining ...

Shortly after the failure of the television show, Grahn and Rootsaert both left the group; both have since turned up on the CBC in other capacities from time to time and Rootsaert, at least, has intermittently worked with the Trolls since ceasing to be a full-time member.

At least as far as live performances outside Edmonton went, the Trolls were quiet for a few years, then spent the rest of the 1990s collaborating with other Edmonton comedians, since the remaining duo could not by themselves stage the sorts of shows they had become accustomed to. The resulting shows were generally well-received with perhaps the most popular at the time being “Piledriver”, another play which underlay a humourous narrative with commentary on serious issues, a collaboration with Guys in Disguise. The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, the last decade of the 20th Century. ...

However, it was their collaborations with Atomic Improv which would have the most lasting effect on the Trolls. This involved the Trolls extensively experimenting with improv, something they had rarely attempted in the past. Another trend which started in this period was a decreased emphasis on the more "adult" aspects of previous shows like "Piledriver" and "Kevin Costner's Naked Butt"; more recent Troll humour is much less likely to be about sex or drugs or feature extensive use of profanity compared to their earlier material. In addition, the (scripted) play “The War of 1812”, a humourous retelling of the war of the same name replete with deliberately over-the-top pro-Canadian jingoism, featured perhaps their most famous song to date, “The White House Burned (The War of 1812)”. This is yet another Trolls song that is often mistakenly attributed to the Arrogant Worms. Perhaps the most important result of this collaboration, however, was Paul Mather’s decision to join the Trolls as their first new full-time member since the original lineup. (Mather continues to be a member of Atomic Improv as well.) Improvisational comedy (also called improv or impro) is comedy that is performed with a little to no predetermination of subject matter and structure. ... The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and British Empire from 1812 to 1815, on land in North America and at sea around the world. ... Jingoism is a term describing chauvinistic patriotism, usually with a hawkish political stance. ...

Since about the same time Mather joined full-time, the group has focused on releasing CDs of their skits and songs, chiefly over the Internet rather than through traditional music stores. Perhaps their most well-known skit today is "Welcome To The Internet Helpdesk" from the album Skit Happens, which portrays a computer technical support employee struggling to help a computer-illiterate customer over the telephone. They still perform regularly in Edmonton but have not toured nationally, on the Fringe circuit or otherwise, for several years. Until mp3.com was closed, Trolls CDs were popular items at that site, which also featured free downloads of much of this material; at one point the Trolls had four of the sites top 10 selling comedy CDs. Much of the free material can now be found on the Trolls’ own web site.

Discography

• Con Troupo Comedius
• Steaming Pile of Skit
• Live @ The Hyperbole (with Junior Gone Wild)
• The Geek Album 2.0
• An Unseasonably Yellow Christmas
• Skit Happens
• Dee-Vee-Dee - a DVD featuring videos on side 1 and all their albums on side 2

External links

• Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie official website
• The group's free MP3 downloads