"Too Many Cooks", which aired on Adult Swim in the wee hours of last week and quickly became the Internet's weird darling baby, is probably the most twisted parody in the universe of parodies. Which is why everyone won't shut up about it. The mastermind behind "Too Many Cooks" is Casper Kelly, who also wrote Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Starting off as a spoof on ‘80s-‘90s sitcoms Growing Pains and Family Ties, Too Many Cooks features the Lovably Gullible Dad, The Nerdy Little Sister Who’s Always Doing Homework, The Cute Baby Who Always Has The Keys, and The Couch That Everyone Always Dog Piles On.
It seems innocuous at first, but then slowly segues into something way, way more nebulous. Characters start getting their heads chopped off, their name captions become living, breathing entities, and there’s a cat who emits rainbow light from its paws. In other words, where the HELL has this been all my life?
"Too Many Cooks" goes from nostalgia-inducing to surrealistic violence within a span of three minutes, and it's the most refreshingly WTF thing the internet has experienced in awhile. Other character tropes include the Tough Single-Minded Buddy Cops, The Demanding FBI Boss Guy, The Girl Who Hides From A Psycho Killer By Hiding In The Closet, cartoon G.I. Joes, and a Solemnly Patriotic Falcon who keeps getting a repeated, creepy close-up. Basically every character from every TV genre makes a cameo. It’s glorious. And bizarre. And quasi-Dadaist. And really just lends itself to be obsessed over for the next few months (or however long our attention span is, which to be honest, is not that long).
There’s even a reoccurring disheveled, sketchy, bearded dude lurking throughout the video, wreaking havoc. When asked about this nefarious, mystery man, Kelly told Vulture, “There is all this cheerful stuff and you just want something unhappy to start emerging. We put him throughout. We hid him in various places and no one would notice it the first time they watched.” Go ahead…watch it again. Not that you needed an excuse.
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