Too Many Cooks (1 Viewer)

Dude, this is totally F'd up right here. http://youtu.be/QrGrOK8oZG8I just caught this and didn't know what the hell I was watching, but I couldn't look away. Totally bizarre.

It's gone viral, as the kids say. To me it's just another ugly, cynical product from people who cannot appreciate the entertainment of a previous era as anything more than an object of ridicule.

DaveHof2 said:

It's gone viral, as the kids say. To me it's just another ugly, cynical product from people who cannot appreciate the entertainment of a previous era as anything more than an object of ridicule.

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Not so much that, as the fact that stoners (well, Adult Swim, let's be honest...) don't really get out much, and most of their contact with the outside world is through the cable TV--And, since the last time most of them had interaction with their friends about what was on the movies and TV was in junior high, that's pretty much where most of their cultural knowledge plateaus: The 70's and 80's shows, Saturday-morning cartoons, and 80's/Star Wars movies, they watched as 12-yo. kids, and now still trade references over as if they were still current. It's sort of a defensive self-loathing: They laugh feigning-hipness at corny TV/movie references, in the subconscious knowledge that TV, movie, game and music refs are all the outside-world experience they know.

It's the only "language" they share, and although the joke is how "old" and kitschy the references are, ironically they have no reason between themselves to think it's needed upgrading in the last twenty or thirty years they haven't noticed passing.
Like the old saying goes, the most effective drug-test in the world is to make a joke with either "Chewbacca" or "What'chu talkin' bout, Willis?" in it and see if they laugh.

"Too Many Cooks" is the funniest short I've seen in a while. I was tearing up from laughter. It did something that's increasingly infrequent: it completely surprised me, giving me a wholly unexpected and marvelous experience. It was like the first time I saw "Dr Horrible's Sing along Blog", or played "Portal".

It's everything awesome ever in 11 minutes. We should just shut down the internet; we've done it all.

Ejanss said:

Not so much that, as the fact that stoners (well, Adult Swim, let's be honest...) don't really get out much, and most of their contact with the outside world is through the cable TV--And, since the last time most of them had interaction with their friends about what was on the movies and TV was in junior high,

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I assume you're clumsily trying to troll the thread with obviously wrong, sweeping generalizations about strawmen, since you're too smart to believe that nonsense you wrote.

Please, no trolling. That's the kind of thing that gets interesting threads locked.

DaveHof2 said:

It's gone viral, as the kids say. To me it's just another ugly, cynical product from people who cannot appreciate the entertainment of a previous era as anything more than an object of ridicule.

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I made my wife watch it. Well, the first 7 minutes. I shouldn't have. I knew she wouldn't like it. It's not for everyone. It's absurdist and meta -- and violent and weird -- and if that doesn't amuse you, it's going to be a cute idea gone horribly wrong.

I enjoyed it. Watched it twice. Nay, three times now that it's been posted here.

DaveHof2 said:

To me it's just another ugly, cynical product from people who cannot appreciate the entertainment of a previous era as anything more than an object of ridicule.

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Yeah, it's made by stereotypical hipsters who are drenched in irony and cynicism (and, amusingly, they don't even realize that they're as much of a stereotype as all the things they mock) but I have to say that there's elements in this video that are a dead-on and funny parody.

Was telling people about this short all last week. This thing crosses the line between absurdity and brilliance so many times that the line ceases to exist. Unreal. It's "The Greatest Event in Television History," as told by David Lynch.

(I think the second viewing is the best. After the initial WTF wears off, you can rewatch looking for every appearance by the creepy dude.)

The part where the chyrons and people switch places will stick with me for a while. I still hear their screams at night.

DaveHof2 said:

It's gone viral, as the kids say. To me it's just another ugly, cynical product from people who cannot appreciate the entertainment of a previous era as anything more than an object of ridicule.

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While to me it's a great short from (and for) people who have a genuine love for that previous era, yet can appreciate that its conventions (that exist due to its timeworn universality) are always ripe for satire when viewed through a more contemporary lens. To each their own, though--"eye of the beholder", and all that.

TravisR said:

Yeah, it's made by stereotypical hipsters who are drenched in irony and cynicism (and, amusingly, they don't even realize that they're as much of a stereotype as all the things they mock) but I have to say that there's elements in this video that are a dead-on and funny parody.

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The micro-parodies themselves are funny, just that the person(s) assembling them eventually lose interest halfway in structuring them together to form any sort of coherent satirical point, and just throw anything up on the screen that occurred to them, especially if it was momentary audience-contemptuous shock-humor out of nowhere--
What's with the killer? The cat? The people caught up in the credits? Huh?

Which--like one's sad, intolerant, stereotyping suggestion that the maker, or indeed many of the creative Swim talent, had been guilty of using artificial stimulants--suggests it was the product of an unnaturally low attention span. Let us not make any unfair judgments from there, lest one be accused of Internet trolling...

I thought it was funny. I didn't think too much about the motivations of the makers other than wanting to be funny and ridiculous. I loved the Wonder Woman homage.

Here's what the creator has to say about the production. http://popwatch.ew.com/2014/11/07/adult-swim-too-many-cooks/

Underneath, Smarf is a hyperalloy combat chassis; microprocessor-controlled, fully-armored, very tough. But outside, it's living tissue -- flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs.

I laughed.

Mostly, because it just didn't stop!

And on just one viewing, my wife (who was in the same room when I watched it and could hear the audio) complained about me giving her an ear worm with the tune!

Can't get the earworm-y "Too Many Cooks" theme song out of your head yet? Too fucking bad.

Someone just posted up a Chiptune version of it:

The song has been stuck in my head all day. I'm just embracing it. ToomanycooksToo-ma-ny-cooksToomanycooksTOO-ma-ny-cooks

TravisR said:

Yeah, it's made by stereotypical hipsters who are drenched in irony and cynicism (and, amusingly, they don't even realize that they're as much of a stereotype as all the things they mock) but I have to say that there's elements in this video that are a dead-on and funny parody.

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What does mean? What is a stereotypical hipster and how do you identify him? How do you know they don't realize they're the living embodiment of their own stereotype?

Here's his website and IMDb page. If writing an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force makes someone a cynical hipster, then ok.
http://hey.casperkelly.com/p/about-me.html
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1085757/?ref_=nv_sr_1


I'm confused and frustrated by the lazy labeling of the creator and audience as self-evidently short-attention span, drug addled, unemployed, basement dwellers since it's baseless and -- at least for the audience -- self-evidently wrong based on the who's watching and enjoying it.

Seems to me the target audience for this is a 40 yo; an middle-agish adult who grew up with this stuff and enjoys an amazingly absurd, meta adoration of it all.

Cameron Yee said:

I thought it was funny. I didn't think too much about the motivations of the makers other than wanting to be funny and ridiculous. I loved the Wonder Woman homage.

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That was the one part I didn't love. That one bit went on too long. It was a spin or two too many. But then the cut to the dorky guy who began spinning made up for it!I've only seen it one and half times. My favorite part is when it goes meta. When the murderer attacks Katie Adkins, and she runs off set, behind the scenes. It's perfect. That scene sequence goes on exactly the right length. The special effects are splendid, the frozen people with their labels (chyrons?) attached, in the hallway. That twist, a story beneath the story. The feeling that we've turned 90-degrees to reality and are getting a look below the surface. I love it.