Robot Chicken: The Complete Second Season

Review by: Zak Santucci
ZakSantucci@TheCinemaSource.com

When I was younger, I used to watch this show on Comedy Central called Short Attention Span Theatre. It was a talk show format, but basically consisted of a combination of in studio and videotaped skits created by a multitude of different contributors. I bring this up just in case anyone watching Robot Chicken, the brainchild of Seth Green and Adam Goldberg, were wondering why it didn’t have this much more appropriate name.

To explain, Robot Chicken’s premise is a mad scientist creates a half-robot, half-chicken and makes him watch clips of warped television shows (I think). In a world where obscure references and the adult imaginings of beloved childhood favorites are the hip thing in comedy, this show caters to the most bare bones version of that. With no plot and no regular characters this 11 minute show has sketches that can run anywhere from 4 minutes to 4 seconds. Jokes range from the surprisingly clever to the absolute moronic.

I’m not the biggest Robot Chicken expert. To qualify further, I got my fair share of chuckles from the first season on television, but never saw an episode of this season when it aired. When I popped in the DVD, the first few episodes I found hysterical. As it wore on, they got less and less funny, with only the occasional gem. I don’t know if the erratic style got old, the sometimes both forced and esoteric humor got old, or if just the later episodes in the season weren’t as funny. The only problem is, after watching ten 80’s cartoons redone in an overtly violent or sexual way, I stopped being surprised and amused. The saving grace is, if you didn’t like one joke, you might like the next one, or the one after that. It’s hard to go more than 5 minutes without at least thinking “Well, that was funny.” Therefore, the comedy factor is much higher than most. And having segments like “My Little Ponies of the Apocalypse” in your permanent DVD collection might just make it worth the purchase alone.

The one thing that really detracted from the show, is that while some jokes became more developed and edgy than the first season, overall the show started to jump that shark a bit early. Even after their pretty special first season, I didn’t find Robot Chicken to be a social phenomenon, but that’s how they treated themselves. Maybe it’s just me, but the self-referential humor like the “Robot Chicken Sells Out” segment seemed much too cocky for me. A show of non-sequitors shouldn’t have that many recurring characters or have to say out loud how “indie” they are. It is sort of like that twinge of embarrassment I felt when Family Guy came back and the greased up deaf guy came into the screen and said “Thanks for having us back!” A show that acts like it’s an expert at ...