(Adult Swim / Madman)

Seth Green and Matthew Senreich’s stop-motion animated Robot Chicken is back for yet another series of outlandish but oft-silly sketches played out with everyone’s favourite pop and not-so-pop culture icons using nothing but toys. Where Robot Chicken really shines with sketches is when they reference something from my childhood – like the hilarious Billy Dee Williams defending Lando’s decisions in Star Wars, Star Trek’s The Wrath Of Khan played out in a five minute Italian Opera, or something as simple as Rambo firing two massive machine guns while grunting "I have trouble expressing myself!" For everything the show does right, unfortunately there is content that is just so wrong. Some of it fails because it’s stupid, other sketches fall short because they rely to heavily on shock factor and others simply aren’t funny. Like the lost opportunity in a Harry & The Hendersons’ alternate ending where Harry starts to masturbate while the Hendersons watch; likewise with a Batman and Joker spin off of The Shawshank Redemption that has a very shitty ending. It’s at a point now where one third of the show is pure gold, but everything else is a roughly drawn treasure map that doesn’t lead to anything. As the originality of the show has waned, the sad realisation that you’re essentially watching two boys play with toys has made me more inclined to take on a very parental tone and say, ‘okay, one more season and then you will have to put those toys away’.

***

BLIP