ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
If you've already voted and you're not out volunteering, Election Day can feel like an interminable loop, which brings to mind an absurdist viral video which coincidentally premiered 10 years ago last week. Our co-host, Scott Detrow, recently spoke to the creator.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
SHAWN COLEMAN, CHERYL ROGERS, MICHAEL MAGNO AND PATTY MACK: (Singing) Too many cooks. Too many cooks.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
That's right. We are talking "Too Many Cooks," an 11-minute-long tour de force. It first aired on Adult Swim at 4 a.m. and made its way online, where it has since racked up 26 million views. How can we even begin to describe "Too Many Cooks"?
CASPER KELLY: It is a joke of a sitcom intro with people looking and smiling at the camera, and then the joke is it doesn't stop.
DETROW: That's Casper Kelly, who wrote and directed it.
KELLY: Starts off sort of normal sitcom, and the music - it's constructed in a way that you feel like it's about to wrap up.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
COLEMAN, ROGERS, MAGNO AND MACK: (Singing) Too many cooks. A family...
KELLY: Then it continues again with more family members, and it does this for a few times.
DETROW: And, doing our best to describe "Too Many Cooks" on the radio, it just gets weirder and weirder.
KELLY: So it starts changing genres, into a murder show or a "Falcon Crest"-type soap opera or even an animated "G.I. Joe"-type show.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
COLEMAN, ROGERS, MAGNO AND MACK: (Singing) ...Spoil the broth, but that's not the American way. Too many cooks. Too many cooks...
KELLY: And then it goes off the rails even from that (laughter).
DETROW: Eventually becoming a meta slasher film of sorts.
KELLY: Our heroine is frozen 'cause they do these freeze frames, and she's able to break out of that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
COLEMAN, ROGERS, MAGNO AND MACK: (Singing) Too many...
(SOUNDBITE OF STATIC BUZZING)
KELLY: And she runs off the set. The killer starts chasing her, but her credits are sort of attached to her, floating in front of her, so he's got this sort of beacon of light to follow as he's chasing her down.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DETROW: Casper says the idea for this was all greenlit without him even having to pitch it. The filming process took two to three days.
KELLY: Very run and gun - we used extras 'cause most people didn't have lines. Like, I had a friend, Shane Morton, who just had a bunch of monster costumes. Just throw it all in a truck, and bring it over here, you know? So they're - we'll just try stuff, you know?
DETROW: What do you think it was that dug in on people? - I mean, other than the music that's still in my head 10 years later.
KELLY: I do think the music was a big part, but I really don't know. I'm looking for someone else to tell me.
DETROW: I feel like I've seen lots of deep thoughts on what this meant, like, "Too Many Cooks" really captured the political chaos of the coming decade or the coming fracturing of the media landscape. Have you ever encountered hot, big academic takes on it like that, and what do you think?
KELLY: Yeah. I enjoy that stuff, and I've read some that I really agree with. And I sort of wrote it intuitively 'cause your intuition is smarter than your conscious mind, so it's saying things that you're not even aware of.
DETROW: Can you give us one example?
KELLY: I did this podcast, and they said there was a theme in all my work of being trapped. Like, you're trapped in this loop, and you're trying to break out.
DETROW: I can see that.
KELLY: But I think also there's some element of the killer doesn't belong and wants to belong and wants to destroy it, wants to break the system. And the system keeps trying to reset itself to return to some sort of normalcy, and he keeps trying to break it.
DETROW: I think we've had a lot of things in the world that have given us reason to think about...
KELLY: Yes.
DETROW: ...Those big themes ever since.
KELLY: Yes.
DETROW: Casper Kelly, thank you for helping me kill time in my pre-election anxiousness by talking about "Too Many Cooks."
KELLY: Scott, thank you as well. You saved me from refreshing websites, and I appreciate it.
DETROW: Anytime.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
COLEMAN, ROGERS, MAGNO AND MACK: (Singing) Too many cooks will spoil the broth, but they'll fill our hearts with so much, so much love. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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