The marriage of comedy and politics dates back to MAD magazine covers, thoughts of Kevin Nealon and Norm Macdonald taking shots on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, or maybe it was Roger Abbott’s Jean Chretien impressions and the whole Air Farce troupe. More recently, Rick Mercer and Jon Stewart come to mind.
But the digital age has brought about more opportunities to push out biting comedy clips than ever before, and increasingly groups are using that tactic to involve young people. It’s not as simple as just putting up goofy clips to earn a laugh, though. Using comedy for political engagement is a tough balance.
For a smattering of Adult Swim viewers who happened to be watching infomercials at 4:00 a.m. on Halloween, history was witnessed. It was at that time, unexpectedly and without warning, that “Too Many Cooks” first aired on television.
At first, it went ignored. No-one was talking about it, and those who had watched live were likely still trying to figure out what had happened to their cable sets.
Quickly, the video raced to the front page, and in the days since, it’s become a monster impossible to handle.
Adult Swim posted the video to their YouTube channel seven days ago. It’s already racked up more than a million views since. The title words began trending on major social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Online news outlets and blogs like Buzzfeed, Gawker, Grantland, and Mashable declared the video a must-see. Even the mainstream media have jumped in, with Rolling Stone calling it an instant cult classic and Esquire deeming it a revelation.
Rian Johnson, director of Looper and the upcoming Star Wars movie, deemed it Oscar worthy.
Kyle Brown 