The Outhouse is a comedy group from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador that became popular for their short skits that were originally posted on YouTube. The Outhouse is run by founder Justin Hawco. Their YouTube channel has over 36,700 subscribers, while their Facebook page has over 110,000 followers and 79,400 likes, as of July 2023. The group has touched on many Newfoundland topics using satire, including poverty, tradition, alcoholism, news, politics, and pop culture.
History
Early Years
In 2007, Justin Hawco created his YouTube channel JHawk23, however it was not yet known as The Outhouse. That same year, Hawco, along with friend Justin Murphy appeared in their first video titled Two guys take three roman candles. The video featured Hawco and Murphy performing a stunt where the pair were shot with Roman Candle fireworks.
Two more short videos would be uploaded to JHawk23 before the group would upload their first skit, Two Guys Remake Aladdin. This short skit featured Hawco and Markus Rose lip syncing to A Whole New World from the Disney movie, Aladdin. Between 2007 and 2010 a few more short skits would be uploaded to YouTube, including the horror short "The Man Who Eats Kidz".
Newfoundlander Vs and rise in popularity
On July 1, 2010, Hawco would upload a video to his channel titled Newfoundlander vs Honeydew Melon. The short, unscripted, skit featured an unnamed "skeet", portrayed by Justin Murphy, eating and talking about how much he loved honeydew melon. This video would become the precursor to the infamous Newfoundlander Vs series, a series that is still very popular among fans today.
Newfoundlander vs Dinner would be the next in the series, introducing long time fan favourite character, Skip, portrayed by Justin Hawco. In this episode, Skip would refer to Murphy's character as "Buddy" which coined the previously unnamed character's name. Newfoundlander vs Dinner was quickly followed by the Halloween special, Newfoundlander vs Halloween. This episode introduced the character known as Da Youngster, this character was introduced as Buddy's child.
The fourth instalment of the Newfoundlander Vs series would be Newfoundlander vs. Da Flu. This episode introduced Newfoundlander Vs mainstay's Da Wife, portrayed by Justin Murphy; Johnny Butler, portrayed by Jake Murphy; and Cecil Butler, portrayed by Dan Keating.
The next Newfoundlander Vs instalment would become the group's most popular video on YouTube and still is as of January 2021, with over 380,000 views. Newfoundlander Vs Christmas was released on December 22, 2010, which was also the group's first Christmas special. This episode also introduced another Newfoundlander Vs mainstay, Dr. Tucker, better known as The Mainlander, portrayed by Mark LeMessurier. At this point, the Newfoundlander Vs series began moving in a linear story, with call backs to previous episodes.
Newfoundlander vs. West Side was the first video by the group to have celebrity guest appearances. This episode featured Canadian Idol stars Rex Goudie and Mark Day, playing themselves.
The Newfoundland Version of ET was another short skit released by the group which featured the first appearance of another fan favourite character, Troy Buckle, portrayed by Markus Rose. This short is also cited as one of the first official "Outhouse" videos. Between 2013 and 2014, the group also introduced a Newfoundland themed superhero series titled Blue Star Man, starring Markus Rose as Blue Star Man.
Not Quite
The Not Quite series were a collection of six shorts where the group did parodies and satirical public interviews. They were released between 2014 and 2015.
The Outhouse and Mike Lynch
The group was finally given a name in 2016 when Justin Hawco created a Facebook page called The Outhouse where he re-uploaded his old YouTube videos. He would also upload the group's new videos to this page as well as continue on YouTube.
2016 also saw the introduction to new member Michael "Mike" Lynch. Lynch's first appearance on The Outhouse was on a short called The Newfoundland Video Game, where he portrayed a Goulds Skeet in a Mortal Kombat parody.
Throughout 2016, Hawco and Lynch would popularize new characters, Rodney Lee and Randy Lee, respectively, in several more shorts. Lynch would also debut his character, Cecil O'Brien, another Outhouse mainstay, in a video titled Cecil Buys A Car; however, the character's first ever appearance was in a video published by Jeremy Nolan titled Weekend at Cecil's.
