Following my little rant about the MPAA the other day (and following hot on the heels of a recently rejected article to SFX in which I vehemently supported the downloading of Doctor Who) I stumbled across this story. On the very same day I gave a lecture about the very same thing; and with pretty much the same attitude. Luckily my lecture wasn't in front of a packed house, just two dozen sleepy-eyed students at 9am. So I think I'm safe as long as I don't blog about it.
Anyway, the MPAA couldn't have chosen a worst time to exact their vengeance - just as I discover the funniest, (not available in my country) television show since Mystery Science Theater 3000. It's called Robot Chicken and it's a work of deranged genius. And it's brought to you by the same bloke who played the werewolf in Buffy, and who was told to "zip it" by Dr Evil so many times it stopped being funny. Yeah, him. Seth Green. My new comedy god.
If anyone remembers The Adam and Joe Show they might recognise the central conceit of Robot Chicken, which is essentially stop-motion action figures appearing in comedy sketches; very, very dark sketches. OK, so it's not a completely original idea, although I doubt whether Seth has seen Adam and Joe as it was popular long *before* BitTorrent came out.
And besides, it's much, much funnier.
The cultural references are great. Just off the top of my head you've got Burt Reynolds, Mark Hammil and the Fat One from N Sync. And they provide their own voices too! Which is odd, because this show is anything but affectionate. It even features the Darkest Sketch Ever, which involves the brutal double homicide of some poor kid's mother and the tooth fairy.
Stand-out moments so far have to include Harrison Ford voted in to save the world from an asteroid strike ("I'm an actor. You are all insane."), or the wonderful Cannonball Run homage featuring Vin Disel, Evil Kneval, Mario and Luigi, Batman, the cops from CHIPs and the ever-so homoerotic Dukes of Hazzard. It's either that or the Battlestar Galactica blooper reel which shows just how useless the Cylons really were.
And if you ever want to know what would happen if James T Kirk went into business with Kahn Noonian Singh then look no further. Ever wondered what would happen if Keanu Reeves had replaced David Duchovny in the X-Files? It's not pretty. And where else can you confront the stark reality of Optimus Prime suffering from prostrate cancer?
It will probably be a difficult job hunting this chicken down, which is a shame. I wouldn't be so mad at the MPAA if a legal alternative existed. I'd happily pay good money for comedy this golden and the moment I can throw some cash at these guys (DVD? Oh sorry, I'm not supposed to that either, am I?) I'll be there with my credit card. All we can really hope for is that a British broadcaster, who isn't afraid of the Americanisms and genuinely disturbing content, picks it up. I've sent some episodes to SFX in the vain hope that they'll do a report on it to kick-start some UK interest, and if it works then I'll be completely vindicated. Which would help me if it ever comes to defending my job.
Finally, did anyone catch The Fall on Jools Holland tonight? An outstanding performance in which the ever-crackers Mark E Smith did a bloody good impression of Bester from Babylon 5. It's a funny old world.
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