Hope Springs Eternal…the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special II Has Arrived!

Our favorite purveyors of stop-motion mayhem are back with another season of bloody good fun.

Very few things lift my Friday afternoon spirits more than some good old fashioned inappropriate humor. You know, something nasty that doesn’t just offend but truly angers your spouse, your mom, your office mates, even your cat, that devious little bastard who mocks your very existence with his indifferent gaze, uses your herb garden as a litter box and decorates your pillows with rings of matted fur. It might be true that cats don’t dance. But it’s certainly true that cats have no sense of humor. But you do.

Don’t allow yourself to be beaten down by these humorless foes – be satisfied in the knowledge that they are just not funny but are jealous of your innate ability to seek out and find cutting edge material they have no possible way of understanding or appreciating. The problem lies with them, not you. You are perfect in every way. Don’t ever change.

All images courtesy of Adult Swim.

To reward your unflinching devotion to embarrassing family and friends with your finely tuned comedic sensibilities, the seventh season of Robot Chicken is finally here, starting with the brilliant DC Comics Special II: Villains in Paradise this coming Sunday, April 6, followed by the first Season 7 episode a week from Sunday. Lock your kids in the basement, drop your mom off at urgent care and squeeze an orange peel in the cat’s nose, it’s party time!

Seth Green, Matt Seinreich and the entire crew continue to produce some of the smartest, funniest and brilliantly conceived television you’ll ever watch. How’s that for superlatives!!! When you watch as much animation as I do, much of it “good” but not “great,” some of it downright “awful,” produced by artists who have no excuses for producing such poorly executed work, it’s important to heap praise upon the few things truly worthy of such praise.

The relative juvenile nature of Robot Chicken’s humor belies a more subtle and underappreciated aspect of the show, something that many other adult animated series flail at so miserably. The underlying humor, the writing, the timing, the acting, it’s really well done. It’s no accident this show has been so successful and received such critical accolades. It’s so hard to be funny, consistently, in episodic animated TV. They’ve done it now for seven seasons. I’ve always enjoyed the show’s format – get in, get out, hit and run humor. If you don’t like something, in five seconds, you’re bound to like the next thing flying at you. They’ve found a fantastic formula and haven’t messed with the recipe. As my father-in-law used to say, “Those boys, they sure are fart smellers.” Well, actually, it was me who said that and my father-in-law wasn’t amused.

What can I say – the show is dynamite.

One previewed episode, “G.I. Jogurt” brings us a naked fight scene where one particular sequence touches upon seminal areas of masculinity and homo-erotic tension (PHRASING!) in a most amusing way. That few seconds alone deserves another Emmy.

Watching the DC Comics special, several times I burst out laughing. One scene involving Batman and the Green Lantern should not be missed. I had to pause the DVD I was laughing so hard.

Without going too much into the plot, the new special blends legendary DC comic superheroes with contemporary societal issues, workplace dynamics, the temptations of peer pressure and of course, weaponry, making fun of anything and everything you can think of, plus a few more things you didn’t think of. Not only that, there’s blood and guts and bleeped out swearing and blurred out nudity and funny voices and even funnier stop-motion animation. It’s like a Kobe beef slider-single malt scotch shot-warm pecan pie slice-comfy lounge chair BJ-bong load all snugly wrapped up in a warm towel and comfy slippers. It’s one of life’s rare 30 minute pleasures. I highly recommend it.

Mom, you have no idea what you’re missing.   

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Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network

Dan Sarto's picture

Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.