Too Many Cooks
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About
Too Many Cooks is a viral video comprised of an 11-minute parody of opening themes from various 1980s TV family sitcoms produced by and aired on Adult Swim in late October 2014. Upon its YouTube debut in early November, the video became an instant viral hit and received critical acclaim for its experimental comedy value and absurdist aesthetics.
Origin
The video was created by Casper Kelly, an Adult Swim producer who works on the network’s show Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell. He pitched the idea to then-current Squidbillies writer-producer Jim Fortier, who then sent it to Adult Swim executive Mike Lazzo, who loved the idea. Kelly shot the original footage in the course of 72 hours in late October 2013, the entire cast being composed of extras from the Atlanta area.
According to extra Katie Adkins, the cast were not presented with a clearly explained script, but rather coached on the go, in a somewhat nonchalant manner.[23] Over the following year, Kelly worked on editing the video, with some help from friends and co-workers.
The final cut eventually premiered at 4 a.m. (EST) on October 28th, 2014, as part of Adult Swim’s “Infomercials” series. A week later, on November 7th, the clip was uploaded to the network’s official YouTube channel, garnering over 320,000 views and 7,000 likes within the first 24 hours. It currently holds over 8,000,000 views, making it the second most-watched video on the Adult Swim YouTube channel.
Spread
On the day of its online premiere, discussions about the video virtually took over all major social media platforms, with the video’s title “Too Many Cooks” becoming trending keywords on Twitter[14], Google, Tumblr[15] and Facebook.[16]
News Media Coverage
The video was subsequently declared a must-watch item of the day by a wide spectrum of viral media news outlets in the blogosphere, including BuzzFeed[10], Gawker[8], IGN[6] and Mashable[9], as well as U.S. entertainment news sites, including E! Online[11], Hollywood Reporter[12], Entertainment Weekly[11] and Rolling Stones.[4] Soon, many of the aforementioned publications ran follow-up interviews with the creator of the video, Casper Kelly.
Analysis
In the following days, several entertainment news sites and major U.S. news outlets began running op-ed articles in analyzing the possible ingredients of the video's viral success overnight, such as the Washington Free Beacon's "What ‘Too Many Cooks’ Tells Us About 2016 and the Resiliency of the Patriarchy (GIFs),"[19] The Guardian's " Can You Spot All the References to Other TV Shows?,"[22] The New Yorker's "Looking for Meaning in “Too Many Cooks,”[20] The Washington Post's "Too Many Cooks’: What you’re in for with the viral video of the week"[21] and Vanity Fair's "This Insane “Too Many Cooks” Flow Chart Just Might Blow Your Mind,"[18] which featured artist John Hogan's two free thought-association flowcharts based on his own viewing experience of the original video.
Covers and Parodies
On November 11th, YouTuber Rush Coil released an 8-bit NES chiptune remix of the theme song. On November 12th, YouTube comedy troupe Tough Pigs uploaded the first known parody of the video starring the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. Later that same day, The Pet Collective released a similar parody of the video featuring kittens. In March 2015, CNN released a parody of the video joking about the number of candidates for the 2015 presidential election. (shown below, from top left, clockwise).
Search Interest
External References
[1] Adult Swim – Infomercials
[2] CNET – 'Too Many Cooks' parodies '80s TV, with a sinister twist
[3] Huffington Post – 'Too Many Cooks' Is The Weirdest '90s Sitcom Parody You'll Ever See
[4] Rolling Stone – 'Too Many Cooks' Creator Casper Kelly on the Making of an Instant Cult Classic
[5] The Atlantic – The Less You Know About Too Many Cooks, The Better
[6] IGN – ADULT SWIM'S TOO MANY COOKS TAKES SITCOM PARODY TO THE NEXT LEVEL
[7] Wall Street Journal – Inside Adult Swim’s ‘Too Many Cooks’
[8] Gawker – This Hilarious, Endless Video Is Designed to Fool Stoners at 4 a.m.
[9] Mashable – Adult Swim's 'Too Many Cooks' is the most absurd 11 minutes of TV ever
[10] BuzzFeed – ‘Too Many Cooks’ Infomercial Might Be The Craziest Thing Adult Swim Has Ever Aired
[11] E! Online – Too Many Cooks Is the Strangest Thing You'll See Today
[12] Hollywood Reporter – 'Too Many Cooks': See the Insane Viral Video Hollywood Is Buzzing About
[13] Entertainment Weekly – 'Too Many Cooks' creator tries to explain his awesomely bizarre Adult Swim short
[14] Twitter – Search Results for #TooManyCooks
[15] Tumblr – Search Results for #TooManyCooks
[16] Facebook – Search Results for #TooManyCooks
[17] Vanity Fair – This Insane “Too Many Cooks” Flow Chart Just Might Blow Your Mind
[18] New York Magazine – How to Get the ‘Too Many Cooks’ Song Out of Your Head
[19] Washington Free Beacon – What ‘Too Many Cooks’ Tells Us About 2016 and the Resiliency of the Patriarchy
[20] New Yorker – Looking for Meaning in 'Too Many Cooks'
[21] The Washington Post – ‘Too Many Cooks’: What you’re in for with the viral video of the week
[22] The Guardian – Too Many Cooks: can you spot all the references to other TV shows?
[23] IGN – TOO MANY COOKS' KATIE ADKINS ON WHAT IT'S LIKE WHEN YOUR WACKY SHORT FILM GOES VIRAL
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