The Internet is a very strange place. If you haven't realized that yet, the new comedic short "Too Many Cooks" will definitely convince you.
"Too Many Cooks" went viral today, and if you dare to click on the 11-minute spot, you will not be the same after viewing this possibly NSFW video. The short is kind of indescribable, but here's as simple as it gets. It's basically a crazy-long credit sequence that satirizes famous shows of the 1980s and 1990s. But as weird as it is, "Too Many Cooks" is also actually funny.
"Too Many Cooks" starts out riffing on shows like Full House and ALF with cheesy opening credits featuring the cast members and a feel-good, saxophone-laden song. The opening theme seems to end, and then it starts over again, showing that there's so many more people in the cast than there should be. "Too Many Cooks" hilariously lives up to its name.
In the beginning, "Too Many Cooks" seemed similar to Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney's discomforting recurring sitcom parodies on Saturday Night Live. However, "Too Many Cooks" takes a turn and an unsettling one at that. It gets even more bizarre, surreal and nefarious really fast in a way that just has to be seen to be believed.
Though "Too Many Cooks" is taking off online today with currently more than 1.3 million views on YouTube, it actually premiered on Adult Swim last month at 4 a.m. as part of the network's "Infomercials" series of faux TV spots. The short was created by Casper Kelly who also works on Adult Swim's Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell. Kelly said his inspiration behind the video was less about poking fun at sitcoms and more about playing with our expectations for these shows.
"I wanted ["Too Many Cooks"] to be how you misremember those shows," Kelly told The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog. "I think there's something about a show's opening that you get a Pavlovian reaction, where you're expecting something. To not give them that is fun."
If you're really into this sort of subversion of the cultural conscious, might I suggest also watching any of the videos from the YouTube series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. They will also probably mess you up, but just like "Too Many Cooks," the songs are undeniably catchy. Happy nightmares!
Image: Adult Swim
