Robot Chicken - Season 3

Not many shows have a season DVD come out two days after the finale first airs, but I guess that's what happens when you don't show any episodes for eight months for no apparent reason. If you haven't seen it before, Robot Chicken is the logical extension of Family Guy's plot-irrelevant pop culture cutaways, in that it is nothing but strung together stop-motion vignettes that rely on either parody, violence, or farting to get their laughs. You get the feeling that creator Seth Green was inspired heavily by that other show he works on, and it's reinforced by its stars doing voices for him too. Lots of people do voices for the show, which is surely one of the benefits of being a recognizable actor. This aspect reached its zenith when the finale had a rap song about King Arthur's round table to the tune of "Baby Got Back", and I realized during the credits that it was actually performed by Sir Mix-a-Lot. There will never be a better celebrity appearance on anything else, ever.

Robot Chicken is generally a pretty low-brow show, but it occasionally shows some real wit and is almost always worth a chuckle. It only fails when it's just referencing things for the sake of it, but usually there's at least a bit of creativity behind whatever mash-up of 80's cartoons and art house films they're currently throwing on screen. They also do a fair amount of meta-humor too, which is always cute in small doses. It's one of only two Adult Swim shows animated with stop-motion, and as is usually the case when it's done well, it's enjoyable to look at even if you don't like the comedy. They did win an Emmy for the animation, after all. I think it's a little overrated by a certain crowd, but I do like Robot Chicken quite a bit.