Editor's Note, 11/20

What a time to be alive. Indeed, how glorious it is that we live in an age where no cultural institution is sacred enough to be spared from the warped skewering of Adult Swim. Adult Swim, also known as Cartoon Network’s late-night big brother, has long been a haven for alternative comedy and the cartoons that little ten year-olds can’t watch because it would taint their young minds. The programming block is much more than just a dumping ground for Family Guy and King of the Hill reruns, however. The original content churned out by Adult Swim in the past several years has been consistently high-quality, such as cult objects like The Boondocks, Childrens Hospital, Eagleheart and The Heart She Holler. But how many people do you ever hear talking about Adult Swim? Maybe high school or college guys. Maybe critics. This is largely unacceptable. However, a new day has arisen for Adult Swim, and it’s all thanks to Too Many Cooks.

“What is Too Many Cooks?” you might say to yourself. Well, it’s only the weirdest, wildest video to go viral this year. You may have seen it, along with three million other people who are probably equally as confused as you are. Created by Casper Kelly, Too Many Cooks initially appears to be a family sitcom intro in the vein of ‘80s and ‘90s cultural touchstones like Family Matters and Full House. The video starts with a montage of cast members for the sitcom Too Many Cooks over an insidiously catchy theme song filled with delightful non-sequiturs such as “Too many cooks will spoil the broth.” Then it keeps going, and going, and going…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrGrOK8oZG8

Verily, Too Many Cooks is eleven minutes well spent. In deference to those who would inevitably cry “Spoiler!,” I won’t detail here the curlicues into which the video eventually contorts, but rest assured that an entire decade of culture is effortlessly parodied with a dose of surreal humor to boot. The video aired at 4:00 AM a few weeks ago on Adult Swim, where only the night owls and the programming block’s devotees would have even seen this. I can only imagine the shock of seeing something so impossibly strange—even by the highly weird standards of Adult Swim—in the wee hours of the morning. This impossible strangeness is what has propelled it to fame, getting coverage from news sources such as CNN and BBC.

To be honest, I’m still grappling with how Too Many Cooks is as popular as it is. The crazy thing is that this is the second alternative comedy video to go viral (i.e. many millions of views) this week—the other one being Tim and Eric’s creepy Totino’s Pizza Roll commercial. The short itself defies logic with its twists and turns, and it’s deeply weird to see how the public has ravenously consumed this to the extent that it has. In my idle time, I find myself humming the theme song, and I have sung the lyrics in the shower many a time. Yet, it baffles me that Anderson Cooper has seen this.

When you put a little thought into it, it might not be that baffling. The sitcom is a universal cultural icon. Even going back to the ‘80s and ‘90s sitcoms that Too Many Cooks loves so much, I do not know a single person over the age of seventeen who hasn’t watched at least one of these shows. Programs like Full House and Boy Meets World have become integral parts of our childhoods, whether it be through reruns or watching them as they aired. The beginning of Too Many Cooks elicits a wave of nostalgia for childhood, and the memories are sweet and fond. Of course, it all goes haywire within five minutes of its bloody end.

Indeed, even the bizarre appeal of the surreal second part might not be difficult to understand. The rise of “normcore” has overshadowed the fact that humans are incredibly willing to consume strange culture that deviates from the standard. Fiction, especially in this day in age, acts as a bizarre funhouse that can distort reality to varying extents yet still reflect our daily lives. This is evident in popular shows like SpongeBob Squarepants and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that imagine impossible worlds with possible people. Even a show like Scandal that is seemingly rooted in a plausible reality has its own weird fun. A devious DC fixer having an affair with the President of the United States, who is colluding with Senate to authorize hits and other nefarious deeds? It would never happen. It’s too far-fetched! Yet, it’s altogether too possible, as these characters exist in real life in far less sordid circumstances. But the mind wanders.

Regardless of the deeper questions, Too Many Cooks functions as a wonderful piece of entertainment that demands to be seen. It is unassuming yet incredibly ambitious in a way that is not often seen in culture today. The mundanity of Too Many Cooks belies its deranged heart, and the moment where the family sitcom turns to nightmarish hell-scape ranks very highly on my list of indelible moments of 2014. So do yourself a favor. Give into the weirdness of Too Many Cooks. Too many viewers could never spoil this deliciously strange broth.