TORONTO — Comedy sketches come naturally to Kids in the Hall member Kevin McDonald.

Writing anything longer than a few minutes does not, he bemoans in his famously high-pitched tone.

"In the past 15 years I've pushed myself to learn how to write hour-and-a-half things, like movies, or half-hour things, like pilots for TV shows," McDonald said in a recent interview from Niagara Falls, Ont., where he shot a film cameo.

"At first they were like long sketches. (Then), each scene was like a sketch. And now I'm (thinking): 'Oh, maybe this scene doesn't have to have a horribly funny thing, just a mildly funny, witty thing. Because it adds to the next scene and the story's important."'

It's fitting then that his return to series television on Monday comes by way of what could be Canada's shortest show -- the four-minute "Papillon."

McDonald stars in Bite TV's offbeat farce about an ultra discount airline and its peculiar employees.

The frizzy-haired funnyman plays Darius, a nebbish co-pilot with a fear of flying. Other characters include cocky pilot Cal (David Fraser), pragmatic flight attendant Marcia (a cross-dressing Randal Edwards) and the severe -- and possibly homicidal -- flight attendant Eva (Hannah Cheesman).

The outlandish comedy -- in which the frugal airline eliminates frills such as drinks, meals and seatbelts -- was created by late author, musician, filmmaker and playwright Paul Quarrington.

McDonald says it was originally envisioned as a 30-minute sitcom but evolved into a short series. It will follow ad-free reruns of the old comedy "Made In Canada," which aired on CBC from 1998 to 2003.

"It's to me something so new that I have no idea what it's going to be like," McDonald says of the programming experiment.

"I'm going to pretend when I'm watching that it's like a short before a movie that they used to show when I was a kid, the cartoon before the movie. Sometimes I would leave the theatre and I and my friends would say, 'The cartoon was better than the movie!"'

Although the main networks still adhere to 30-minute blocks of programming for the most part, a growing number of outside-the-block examples abound on specialty channels.

It's no surprise that the kid-focused Treehouse stacks its schedule with shorts for shorties, including the 10-minute favourite "Big & Small."

But the more adult-oriented G4 also redefines TV listings with several 15-minute series including the medical spoof "Children's Hospital," metal cartoon "Metalocalypse," and surrealist "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." Meanwhile, Teletoon weighs in with the 15-minute "Moral Orel."

Bite TV -- which populates the rest of its joke-heavy lineup with critical faves "Arrested Development," "Extras," and "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" -- says the "Papillon" shorts will be packaged into 30-minute episodes at the end of August.

Other short series on Bite TV include the five-minute "Comedy Bar" and "E-Town."

McDonald says the Internet has fuelled a renaissance in comedy shorts.

"It's funny how modern technology advances make you go back. Like, now it's three-minute pop songs that are the thing," says McDonald, who co-wrote three of the 15 "Papillon" episodes with partner Paula Blair.

"That's the way the world is going."

That's also just the way McDonald's comedy brain happens to operate, he adds, noting that the shorter the script, the broader and more outlandish the comedy gets.

"If 'Papillon' (was) a 30-minute episode the comedy would become less broad, that's just the way it'll be," he says.

"It's impossible for it not to be broad right now at three or four minutes, especially with me in it because I'm a broad comic, let's face it. But to stretch it out for 30 minutes you couldn't do it that broad or that big or over-the-top comedy for that long. Even if it works all the time you would just get bored."

Still, McDonald hasn't given up on longer form comedy. He's writing a pilot for CTV called "Homeland Insecurity."

He's also preparing to tour the U.S. with fellow Kids in the Hall member Scott Thompson, with each planning 20-minute standup routines, in addition to sketches.

McDonald says Thompson is in good health after his recent battle with cancer.

"He's totally healthy and ready to go. That's why we delayed the Kids in the Hall tour a year ago because he wasn't physically ready," says McDonald, referring to talk last year that the troupe -- which includes Dave Foley, Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch -- might reunite for live shows.

The duo's comedy roadtrip kicks off in Los Angeles in August and runs through September and October. So far, there are no plans to come to Canada, he says.

"Papillon" starts Monday on Bite TV.