Christmas is fast approaching and it’s getting to that time when every show has a Christmas special lined up. Something festive with lots of warm, fuzzy feelings buzzing around. Well, Robot Chicken are pretty sick and tired of that trend and have decided to take it to another level, celebrating every Holiday in one special show!
Robot Chicken first appeared on American television back in February 2005, featuring stop-motion animated sketches. The TV show was originally based on photo comic-strip, Twisted ToyFare Theatre, featured in ToyFare: The Toy Magazine. The show was created and is executive produced by FAMILY GUY’s Seth Green and Matthew Senreich and is best known for it’s comedic parodies of a number of pop culture subjects, using claymation, action figures and children’s toys.
The main cast includes many of today’s well known voice actors including the shows creator, Seth Green, AMERICAN DAD creator Seth MacFarlane, Mila Kunis, Brecklin Meyer, Matthew Senreich, Tom Root, Dan Milano and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
The gang tackle the Christmas season by cramming in a every celebrated holiday they could think of in a rough 11 minute show. As they do, they go about it in their comedic, slightly disturbing fashion. Never thought you’d see King Triton make love to a dolphin? Think again. Want to watch Baby New Year attack a dieter as they fall off the wagon? You got it. You have to give it to them, ROBOT CHICKEN certainly are creative.
However, the Holiday Special is, unfortunately, pretty hit and miss. While the actual Christmas sketches, involving Santa Claus and Superman and the Mothers Day sketch, which mourns the loss of all Disney’s fallen Mothers, are genuinely pretty amusing, mostly due to the recognizable, still current characters; the rest are underwhelming.
While the show is known for it’s edge-of-offensive jokes and sketches, certain aspects of the Holiday Special fall under the cringe category. For example the longer sketch of a Jewish young man rapping about his wealth of gelt is at best, catchy and at work – offensively stereotypical. While the St. Patrick’s Day/Halloween/Thanksgiving sketch involving once adorable Chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore gets pretty old, pretty quick.
While Robot Chicken’s Holiday Special does hit notes of offense and cringe, there are a few laughs and there’s no doubt that fans of the show will find this equally amusing and off-beat. With the best sketch by far being the actual Christmas themed sketch, one questions why they didn’t just go all out for a hearty Christmas special? Still, who doesn’t want to see The Smurfs get homicidal, right?
The Robot Chicken Lots of Holidays (But Don’t Worry Christmas Is Still In There So Pull The Stick Out Of Your Ass Fox News) Special premieres Sunday, December 10th and 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim.
