Robot Chicken is a show currently found during the Adult Swim portion of Cartoon Network on the weekends. For the most part, it is comprised of several segments - some related, some not - that parody ... well, just about anything you can think of (or something close to it).

Created by Seth Green (best known, to me anyway, as "Scott" from the Austin Powers films) and Matthew Senreich (who I don't know at all), I think it's almost impossible to explain what the show is. Think of Morpheus' "explanation" of The Matrix ... I can't tell you what Robot Chicken is; you have to see if for yourself.

Quasi-cult shows like this owe a deep gratitude to dopes like me as well as to ReplayTV/Tivo as, due to the odd hours the show appears (at least for working stiffs of the world), chances are the show would have been made, quitely talked about by a chosen few who found themselves up drinking and/or vomiting late one Sunday night, and then vanished into the great ether, never realizing any real level of glory or following.

This is one of those shows, like Beavis & Butthead, The Simpsons, South Park, or Family Guy that one can receive some reticent guilty pleasure of being able to tell yourself (and, if you're dumb, others out loud) that you remember watching the series from its very first episode.

Somewhere I heard that Seth & Matt came up with the title of the show from a Chinese take-out menu while they were creating the show. Urban Legend? Maybe The Shadow knows, but not I.

So far as I've seen, the vast majority of the show is "performed" by dolls in a sort-of Claymation type production. Would you laugh at a "live" news report about Skeletor suicide-jumping to his death? How about Prince Adam (aka He-Man) working as mall security? Perhaps William Shatner's wig being a secret agent? Or maybe a dramatization where Optimus Prime dies from Prostate Cancer, and transforms into a coffin? If so, well buddy, we've got just the thing for you here. If not, well, then piss off.

For my money, this show is incredibly fast-paced for the most part ... it puts Airplane! and the aforementioned Family Guy to shame as far as sheer speed.

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