SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
On Tuesday, hundreds of millions of Americans will cast ballots and decide the future of the country. People are anxious about the results, anxious about the process, doomscrolling as they wait. So...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
SHAWN COLEMAN: (Singing) It takes a lot to make a stew.
DETROW: ...It really seems like a perfect time to take a little bit of a mental break and revisit the absurdist existential art film of sorts that took the internet by storm 10 years ago this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
SHAWN COLEMAN, CHERYL ROGERS, MICHAEL MAGNO AND PATTY MACK: (Singing) Too many cooks. Too many cooks.
DETROW: That's right. We are talking "Too Many Cooks," an 11-minute-long tour de force. It first aired on Adult Swim at 4:00 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: You got to start zigging and zagging, 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) Some people say it'll spoil the broth, but that's not the American way. Too many cooks. Too many cooks will serve a helping of freedom and resist...
KELLY: And then we shift to a sci-fi environment.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: This is the story of Cooks.
KELLY: It was all done digitally, although it was made to look like '70s practical effects with, like, a spaceship on strings. So it was kind of funny to do that digitally.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Can never have too many Cooks.
KELLY: And then it goes off the rails even from that.
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, and 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.
DETROW: That is actually horrifying, when she's hiding in the closet, and he sees her through the credits. Like, that is actually a truly scary moment.
KELLY: Yes, I'm so proud of that. I'm so glad you said that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOO MANY COOKS")
COLEMAN, ROGERS, MAGNO AND MACK: Too many cooks, too many cooks, too many cooks, too many...
(SOUNDBITE OF WOMAN SCREAMING)
DETROW: Casper says the idea for this was all greenlit without him even having to pitch it.
KELLY: I had told it to some friends. And during an awkward pause at a work party, one of those friends - he said, Casper has this idea, to our boss, so I wasn't even there when it was sold in the room.
DETROW: 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 'cause he does special effects makeup and stuff, and I'm like, just bring it all. 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: So this airs at 4:00 a.m. initially, and I feel like that's a big part of the story about this. But then it hits the internet, and it becomes - I feel like it was all anybody talked about for a few weeks in 2014. When did you first realize that this had taken off and become the 2014 version of viral?
KELLY: OK. My Twitter started blowing up, and, like, people I idolized, like Rian Johnson and John Hamm, start tweeting about it, and then Rihanna. So that really made my brain explode.
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, and hats off to the composers for that. We worked really hard on that. That's sort of the heroin high I keep chasing, of what was the secret formula, and how do I do it again? But I think it was just we had a year to just kind of play around with it and show it to people and tweak it. So I think the timing of the jokes and the changes just hit just right, I think. 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, 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. Like, I'm a believer that a lot of writers aren't fully aware of what their work is about. So it flattered me and made me happy to see these interesting analyses of it.
DETROW: Does 10-years-later you think that there was something there that real-time you didn't quite realize?
KELLY: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I think there's a lot of things in there that are in my subconscious that came out. Yes.
DETROW: Can you give us one example?
KELLY: Well, I did this podcast, and they said there was a theme in all my work of being trapped. And that really haunted me 'cause there is an element of being trapped. Like, you're trapped in this loop, and you're trying to break out and trying to upset this system.
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 upset 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. And breaking norms - yes, I think...
DETROW: Yeah.
KELLY: ...There is. Yeah.
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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