Adult Swim OPO

i def. feel that the grislier stuff in "too many cooks," while producing some funny and inventive gags, feels like the creators didn't trust their basic concept enough. it feels like easy audience gratification in a "skit" (or whatever it is) that is exciting mostly for suspending normal forms of gratification to absurd lengths.

― I dunno. (amateurist), Tuesday, November 11, 2014 6:34 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno man. if it'd been just the first 4 minutes, or if it carried on the basic premise with no twist for 11 minutes, it'd be a lot less interesting/noteworthy/funny, and probably wouldn't have been deemed worth doing. at least not as a standalone program, maybe it would've been done as part of an episode of a series and nobody would've cared.

lol i responded to 'i dunno' by saying 'i dunno,' totally wasn't on purpose

Q: Sending up TV credits is one thing; where did the idea of throwing a Jason-like killer with a machete into the mix come from?

A: Well, you have to remember: These things are 11 minutes long. It sounds short, but when you have to fill that time slot and keep the attention of people who are usually watching TV at four in the morning...it's long. So I thought, I need to throw every notion I've got into this. Even when you start switching genres, and it turns into, say, a cop show — that joke may be funny for a few extra minutes and then that's going to wear off. And as soon as people get tired of that, I have to hit them with something else. That's where the idea of the killer came from.

ha! so i was right. maybe i'm just being an internet hardman, but i would have liked to see the whole thing develop over 10 minutes without giving so much time over to the serial killer antics.

or maybe they could have just developed the videodrome-like medium-specific elements even more...

ha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBoFPoGWatE

I had an idea a while back for a sitcom that was just 30 minutes of opening credits, with like 500 different characters.

― i wish i had a skateboard i could skate away on (Hurting 2), Thursday, November 21, 2013 6:47 AM (11 months ago) Bookmark

so i guess adult swim just did this? when i first heard about it i was like "i swear to god someone on ilx proposed this very thing."

― you little affront to god (reddening), Saturday, 8 November 2014 04:06 (4 days ago) Permalink

agree about the serial killer stuff, wasn't really funny, never part of my original vision

Tim and Eric's sense of humor is more complex and multi-layered than it might seem at first glance ... it's great if you like jokes that have multiple levels to them, and like really stupid stuff, too. It's like the Simpsons, some of their best jokes have at least three different levels to them, and T&E's best stuff plays with that like an art. Not to mention their great absurd and surreal material, satire of things not commonly satirized, etc.

The serial killer thing in TMC did feel a little like a crutch plus a play at the lowest common denominator, which I guess hit my snob reflex. Also, the premise was already done by MadTV over a decade ago, which took away that novelty for me, too. Basically I couldn't find anything catching to it b/t the now-ancient T&E and PFFR aesthetic, cheap and gory serial killer thing, and the premise already having been done even longer ago. I guess I just demand novelty out of my stupid pastimes, and there's still so much ground to cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYWEm3gahfo

oh wow

Well. That was a fun few days.

https://us-east.manta.joyent.com/condenast/public/vf/production/2014/11/11/54626fc21225a2f9404eadc9_CooksMindMap1.jpg

that MadTV shares some aspects of the premise, but it's waaaaaaay less dense with ideas and nowhere near as inventive with reflexive gags

xpost

wow

the problem is this stuff isn't about concept, its about execution, and the aesthetic is about certain sorts of characteristic period details, which is where this stuff shines.

also 2 minutes isn't long enough for the gag to work.

That Mad TV sketch does way more with its 2 minutes than the entire 11 minutes of TMC. It captures the characteristic period details, plays around with sitcom archetypes, takes them in funny new directions, and turns it into a total laugh package with a nice absurd ending. You don't need a jammed-in serial killer/sci-fi sub plot to make that joke. Plus it has the benefit of not plagiarizing its source material. I also think the actors and characters they created for that sketch were funnier ... the funniest in TMC being the nerd and the topless girl. Doesn't touch the black-clad manhunter, incestuous? twins eating a foot long hotdog, grumpy kingpin popping the kid's balloon, insane mercenary, etc.

If you want to see period aesthetic done right, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is good, it captures that syndicated 80s sci-fi/horror serial look and does some really funny stuff with it. And that's a decade old, too. Thumbs down. I should probably get back to work.

The Comedy is one of my favorite American movies of the last few years, but it has v little in common with T&E

hmmm not sure I would call that thing a total laugh package with a nice absurd ending

Plus it has the benefit of not plagiarizing its source material.

Whatever, that theme song was Vanilla-Ice-one-note-off-is-totally-different from 227's.

welp, i was looking for a new display name

"Too Many Cooks" is about 1000x times more intricate than the MadTV sketch.

xp I'm hoping you realize that was a riff on goofy movie critic phrasings

I don't think being intricate is any indication something's good. I guess you can't argue taste, though, no point in bothering.

hmmm not sure I would call that thing a total laugh package with a nice absurd ending

― iatee, Tuesday, November 11, 2014 10:58 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, he did say it was a laugh package, presumably someone already took the laughs out .

Mad TV was always pretty reliable at delivering a soggy and laugh-free version of any halfway good idea. Except Luann Lockhart, which is still one of my favorite comedic characters ever (I'm sure it helps immensely that Crista Flanagan was flying solo in most of those bits).

mad tv was planted by lorne michaels to make snl seem watchable

The VH-1 theory, I hear ya.

there were some great madtv sketches, working with a sort of cultural vocabulary that the snl writers just don't seem to be able to nail.
e.g.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stluj3krlP8

i loved mad t.v. ilx always made fun of me for loving that show. fuck the haterz! way better than snl. too many sad randy newman fans on ilx. get all indignant when they made fun of randy...

even when I disagree with scott I agree with him

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/too-many-cooks/

that casper kelly dude must be giving about ten interviews a day at this point.

MadTV's celebrity sketches always made me laugh. One of the guys did a spot-on Dane Cook impersonation that I still think about from time to time, it's really great. That said I didn't like any of their recurring characters and they often went way too far in an unfunny direction. I think Key & Peele talked about this to some extent because they were on the show in its final seasons, that it was difficult to really do anything too adventurous as their audience was mostly teenagers. Probably still better than most concurrent SNLs!

they're running too many cooks twice a night every night at midnight and three

Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!) Too many plays! (Too many plays!)

xps thanks for the link amateurist

I only watched this twice, a week ago, and that damn song is still running through my head clear as a bell.

That said I didn't like any of their recurring characters and they often went way too far in an unfunny direction.

I couldn't watch it because it felt like 35 minutes of Swan and that manchild showing his underwear to the camera.

I'm sure they had funny sketches but fuck if I was ever going to sift through all their bad ones to find them.

The only part in "Too Many Cooks" that I didn't really care much for and which struck me more as "typical Adult Swim" stuff was the Wonder Woman gag.

http://popculturespectrum.com/?tag=shawn-coleman

xxpost Luann Lockhart. That's all you need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20ygZIdyDJM

the Wonder Woman gag.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6xZOUXNyQg

Yes! Was trying to remember the artist who did that.

The only part in "Too Many Cooks" that I didn't really care much for and which struck me more as "typical Adult Swim" stuff was the Wonder Woman gag.

― MarkoP, Wednesday, November 12, 2014 4:34 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah clearly they were letting it go on a little too long for the 'payoff' at the end but it was the only time when i was like ok are they just padding this thing out to fill the timeslot they were given? the hawk loop also went on for too long but at least musically it was catchy enough that i didn't mind.

i loved mad t.v. ilx always made fun of me for loving that show. fuck the haterz! way better than snl. too many sad randy newman fans on ilx. get all indignant when they made fun of randy...

― scott seward, Wednesday, 12 November 2014 17:39 (Yesterday) Permalink

I think about the randy Newman sketch every once in a while

https://twitter.com/adultswim/status/532929012491116545

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Kind of weird to me that "Too Many Cooks", which is probably the weakest example I've seen of a style of surreal horror comedy that Adult Swim normally does really well, is blowing up so big. I thought "The Newbridge Tourism Board" fake infomercial was much funnier, but I would 'cause I am a Scharpling fan.

xxp alright, that got me

I'm a huge Scharpling fan, and as a Scharpling fan, I have to concede that the Newbridge infomercial was mostly for Scharpling fans (i.e. I can't imagine that it's going to convert many people who were previously unfamiliar with Scharpling & Wurster).

The popularity of "Too Many Cooks" seems linked to the nostalgic touchstones (Roseanne, GI Joe, etc) it employs up until the serial killer stuff starts happening. Really the only explanation I can think of for it's mass appeal.

The Newbridge infomercial was fantastic, but very niche in a lot of it's humor. Felt like I was watching Tom Goes to the Mayor again (a good thing)