Are you watching your favorite Canadian TV comedy “Letterkenny” when you wonder: “Wait… Which one is Ron and which one is Dax?”
The exclusive Hulu series, ridiculing rural life in the Great White North, boasts one of the most unique ensembles among all modern sitcoms. In fact, each character boasts enough fascinating quirks and unforgettable funny qualities to make them all easy to distinguish from each other… well, with the exception of two members of the cast of Letterkenny, whom we are going to discuss in this article.
Even the most die-hard fans of the sitcom, which recently debuted its first spin-off Shoresy on Hulu, often face difficulties trying to distinguish between two married training partners. I admit that — despite their different physical characteristics — every time I mentioned them in an article about Letterkenny, I had to rely on Internet research to confirm that James Daly is Ron (aka “Ronzi”) and Gregory. Waters plays Dax (also known as “Daxy”).
Apparently, this problem has not escaped the attention of even Jacob Tierney, who created Letterkenny with Wayne actor Jared Keeso and who also plays the role of a local MoD3an employee set up by the pastor, Glen. The actor and director recently gave an interview to EW about the show’s slow, pressure-cooker success story, and when asked about any past characters he’d like to bring back, he said the following:
There are enough of them. I can barely fit them all in a damn frame. [Laughs] I don’t need more actors; I have a lot. I hardly know which is Reilly and which is Jonesy. I do not know who is Dax and who is Ron.
Thus, Tierney not only tries to distinguish Dax from Ron, but also faces the same problem when he identifies his gym mates, Reilly (Dylan Playfair) and Jonesy (Andrew Herr). Curiously, this reflects a constant joke in the series that Wayne often cannot (or perhaps refuses) to remember the names of best friends playing hockey.
EW screenwriter Tyler Aquilina then reveals that he’s not sure what’s what when Dax and Ron are on screen too. This prompts Tierney’s next response, jokingly claiming that Daly and Waters may be just as ignorant:
I don’t think they know! I think they learn both phrases, and then just flip a coin to see who says what.
Reflecting on this topic and remembering the best episodes of Letterkenny, I often can’t distinguish another pair of training buddies named Tyson and Joint Boy, played by Jay Bertin and Joel Gagne, respectively. I also tend to forget whether Sash is playing Striga Ali, and Nadine Bhabha is playing her friend Bianca, or vice versa (the first turned out to be correct). Finally, I recall a time when I genuinely wondered if I was looking at Wayne’s French-Canadian ex-girlfriend, Marie-Frederic (Magalie Lepin Blondeau), when in fact it was Kim Clothier as Anik, Daryl’s French-Canadian ex-girlfriend. (Nathan Dales).
Fortunately, I suppose it doesn’t always matter if we see a double impression of any of these characters, because in most cases they come bundled, especially Ronzi and Daxi. Maybe one day, if the creators really want to make it easier for fans to solve this puzzle, it will help make the couple the stars of their own spin-off. I would give him a Texas size 10-4.
