'Too many cooks' is a delightful absurdist parody, a send-up of television and credit sequences we've all been familiar with. Family comedies like 'Step by step' or 'Full house'; crime thrillers like 'Miami Vice' or procedurals like 'Law & Order'; space operas like 'Battlestar Galactica' or animated kids' shows like 'G. I. Joe'; even family dramas like 'Dynasty' or medical shows like 'General Hospital' - nothing escapes the vision of writer-director Casper Kelly.
There is no overarching plot per se, only a building, elongated spoof of TV, with a bouncy, happy-go-lucky theme song that just keeps going, and going, and going. As the scene changes to take on other genres, so the song goes through permutations that reflect the tone of themes such series would bear.
Living organisms pass on DNA as they reproduce, sometimes resulting in a mutation that produces a change in the biology of offspring. As 'Too many cooks' continues and scenes change, glitches begin to appear in the straightforward credit sequences that portend dastardly goings-on - including some notable blood and gore. And then the short gets meta, as title cards themselves become visible to the characters they label.
Things get very weird. And there's still no plot. 'Too many cooks' is an 11-minute lesson in surrealism, with no narrative to follow, deeper meaning to parse, or interpretation to make - only a loosely related series of scenes. The comedic punch is in the absurdity, and as a result the short is one that viewers will either love or hate.
Anyone familiar with the type of shows that have populated Cartoon Network's Adult Swim over the years are likely to think 'Too many cooks' hilarious; there's no reason it can't find favor with a general audience, but it's probably a lot to take in if one isn't already familiar with the company it keeps.
Seven years after its debut, 'Too many cooks' remains wonderfully entertaining, and worth watching again and again as the song sticks firmly in our minds.
