Too Many Cooks

'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.

Technically-skilled extrapolation of multiverse theory. Responds well to many different lenses of analysis, speaking to the vast competence of the writer and director. Additionally, this was clearly an enormous project and must have required great coordination. The cast is wonderful.

Certainly an art piece above all else. Not pleasant to watch.

Everyone I show it to, became high after! I became a cook and so did my cohort.

I'm so shocked Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim didn't have anything to do with this. There's no way to describe how amazing it was, I'll never forget it and God bless the Cooks!

There are many hidden messages and easter eggs i have encountered when watching this amazing piece of art many of which are parodies and memes of other movies, for instance when fuzzy (the fury animal) was playing the piano. This looked quite normal the first time around when watching it, but then the 6-7 time watching it you begin to realize there is a deeper meaning, a easter egg! This scene is in fact referring to a game called "Paul Of Duty" number 6 "Sack Ops 2" in a dlc map pack called Buried, deep underground buried in a western town. In the game we see a ghost playing the piano just as fuzzy did in "too many cooks"!

There are many other easter eggs as well, such as when fuzzy shoots rainbows from his hands. At first you may think it is just an ordinary scene, but as you get into the deeper many we realize this is actually miming a movie called "Harry Potter". Just as harry (the wizard in Harry Potter) can do spells and has an owl who delivers his mail the owls name is whodini the character fuzzy can perform a magic that includes love. Harry potters mom loved him very much and used love to shield him from Voldimorts spells, just how fuzzy used love to create the rainbow! But what really is love? Is it in the sky? "No its a feeling deep inside" dang I'm hungry, no your lonely, i can see it in your eyes.

Also kahoots is very fun

Much of the short movie "too many cooks" is obviously part of a easter egg that relates to other movies and games.

I now have small gritty particulates spread throughout all of my bodily tissues. Gritty particles that are singing. Poisoning my bones and eyeballs and tongue with too many cooks. I am lost to the cooks. There are too many. The singing particles are multiplying, my body is more cook than man.

*edit* Today I awoke without too many cooks in my head. There is a small chance I will survive.