Too Many Cooks (short)

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Too Many Cooks
250px
The main title screen, with a font similar to that of Full House[1]
Genre Dark comedy
Surreal humor
Written by Casper Kelly
Directed by Casper Kelly
Starring <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
  • Ken DeLozier
  • William Tokarsky
  • Tara Ochs
  • Katie Adkins
Composer(s) <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
Production
Producer(s) <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
Cinematography Adam Pinney
Editor(s) Paul Painter
Running time 11 minutes
Release
Original network Adult Swim
Picture format 16:9 HDTV
Original release October 28, 2014 (2014-10-28)
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

"Too Many Cooks" is a surreal dark comedy short that originally aired as a special during Adult Swim's "infomercials" block on October 28, 2014, at 4:00 am Eastern Time.[2][3] It was written and directed by Casper Kelly and produced by Williams Street Productions. After its original airing, the piece became a viral video online and was repeated each night at midnight Eastern Time during the week of November 11, 2014.

Premise

The video begins as a parody of opening credits sequences of 1980s and 1990s American situation comedies, then television crime dramas, prime time soap operas, Saturday-morning cartoons, superhero live-action series, and science fiction television shows. In the middle of that sequence, it morphs into a surreal narrative that includes slasher film elements, in which many of the multitude of stock characters introduced in the opening credits are murdered, cooked, and eaten by a maniac with a machete.[4] One of the characters is Smarf, an anthropomorphic cat.

Development and production

According to Kelly, he conveyed the concept of the short to his Squidbillies writer-producer friend Jim Fortier, who in turn described it to Adult Swim executive Mike Lazzo, who loved the idea. The footage was filmed over a period of three days in October 2013 with a cast completely composed of extras from the Atlanta area.[5] Post-production took a year, with Kelly recruiting friends and co-workers to help with the process.[6]

While the video depicts the opening credits of a fictional television show, most of the cast members' real names were used.[5][7][8][9][10][11] According to Katie Adkins, actors were not presented with a clearly explained script, but rather coached on the go, in a somewhat nonchalant manner.[12]

Among the series openings parodied are those of Full House, Wonder Woman, The Brady Bunch, Dallas, Falcon Crest, ALF, G.I. JOE, Roseanne, Family Matters, T. J. Hooker, and the Law & Order franchise.[13] The short briefly references avant-garde film director Lars von Trier.[14]

Reception

Upon its release by a third party on YouTube, "Too Many Cooks" became a viral video,[15] with Rolling Stone calling it an "instant cult classic".[5] Director Rian Johnson said that, "no joke", "Too Many Cooks" should have been nominated for an Academy Award for best short.[16][17] Comedians including Penn Jillette, Simon Pegg, Zach Braff, and Richard Kelly tweeted their positive reactions to "Too Many Cooks".[18]

David Sims of The Atlantic wrote that "Too Many Cooks" relied on "the classic anti-comedy premise of taking so long with something that it goes from being funny, to being not very funny, to being boring, to suddenly becoming hilarious again. More than that, it's an excellent piece of non-narrative sketch comedy that sets out boundaries for its own weird reality and then goes about breaking them over and over again."[19]

"Too Many Cooks" has also received rapid attention from scholars. Dr. Julian Darius called it "a sublime postmodern masterpiece" and analyzed its metafictional aspects.[20]

CNN created a parody of the video in March 2015, using it to mock the number of potential candidates in the 2016 United States Presidential Election.[21]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ There's a new family on the block-- the PROGRAMMING block! TV! Too Many Cooks, tonight at 4am on @adultswim http://t.co/7T4wvXfVmm Shawn Coleman on Twitter. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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