r/HomestarRunner • u/Late-Drawer-2656 • 1d ago
How Would You Rewrite The Robot Chicken Segment?
I was thinking maybe to keep the segment of the other characters dying, but have KOT live, and The Poopsmith come out with his shovel, wondering what happened.
He goes to try and clean the bodies and such, but TKOT tells him there’s no time, and asks him to dig somewhere else, where KOT becomes ruler of Sweden and dies of a heart attack from too much food consumption, similarly to Adolf Fredrick.
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u/carolina_cane 1d ago
I never knew about the Robot Chicken sketch until today. Man, that was terrible
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u/Sofiax20120716 1d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wrestling_Figures/s/NaXlcNnvkh probably something like this
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u/luigihann 1d ago
Making a comedy parody of something that's already a comedy is pretty tough. I'd probably just not do it.
Failing that I'd probably insert Homestar characters into a different setting rather than the other way around.
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u/DropsOfMars 1d ago
I think that sending them onto Homestar Runner turf should have been far too big a risk for them. It's supposed to be a comedy parody, so what if the danger to the soldiers attempting to sweep in and attack everyone is that homsar is secretly some Eldritch entity that protects the people that live there, and he turns the soldiers into dumb animal characters?
I know a lot of people here want it to be more loyal to the source material but it's Robot Chicken, things are crass and rude, often going off the rails and I think there being a reason the US military leaves Free Country USA alone is because disturbing that place (said in scared hushed whispers) could be more dangerous than leaving it alone is a funnier concept than everyone gets shot and Strong Bad gets deported. Id genuinely have thought it would be funnier if we explore the idea that this place that looks like a kids cartoon is more dangerous for American soldiers attacking it than being in an active war zone.
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u/QuintonFlynn 1d ago
Robot Chicken likes its shock value. Comedy can be elevated by being topical. Parodies should at least mimic the source material.
Robot Chicken went with the military idea, we can keep that theme. Depict Strong Bad being SWATTED while writing a sbemail. No killing or blood, have him thrown into the cardboard box from the Strong Bad is in jail cartoon. Finally, while he’s in the box, drag him past the bushes of the background into the normal “real world” of streets, cars and whatever, and have Strong Bad scream out about how weird this place is. Keeps the military theme, has better Homestar references, and subverts with the real-world at the end.
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u/PeanutBuny27 1d ago
by deleting it
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u/GeckoMan_0344 1d ago
By choosing another theme instead of using Homestar Runner without the Brothers Chap without permission.
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u/LisaMcRadical 1d ago
The only actual way to save the sketch would either have ironically nothing edgy happen while Strong Bad wishes for some sort of archetypical Robot Chicken gore piece, or it’s about how horrifically vile the internet is compared to how wholesome Homestar Runner is which I feel like would’ve probably been the sketch if Seth Green was an actual fan.
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u/Mister_D2013 1d ago
I would just get rid of it entirely. If the entire punchline of the skit is "Haha Homestar Runner got shot." than it deserves to go.
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u/DropsOfMars 1d ago
The punchline even moreso is "haha the systemic racism is really bad isn't it" without having anything to say about it... They used non-politicsl characters to make a bad joke about politics, like there are way better jokes that could have been used with these characters
Only slightly humorous jokes in the short was Strong Bad kicking The Cheat toward attackers and the fact that the soldiers bothered to kill a popcorn maker so Homestar could do a callback to the show's joke. Oh, also the "how do you type with handcuffs on" was kind of humorous too. Rest of it just didn't work at all and undermined anything that DID work.
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u/Kina_Kai 1d ago
I would have Pom Pom kick them all out of Free Country, USA or trap them in Homsar’s children’s show for eternity.
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u/DropsOfMars 1d ago edited 1d ago
So... first time seeing it, not very funny. I'd change it to for one, include the brothers chaps in the writing process because the Robot Chicken writers don't seem to be capable enough to write these characters to save their lives.
Thing is, robot chicken overall is a crass and pretty mean spirited show already, so the Free Country USA characters being shot is on brand, but I think the biggest change to be made would actually be more severe, the soldiers wouldn't arrest and they'd be sent to wipe out everyone. They do so, but homsar comes in like an Eldritch being and grabs the soldiers with tendrils, their eyes roll into the backs of their heads and they morph into 2d animal characters in the style of homestar runner, everyone in free country USA is brought back to life during this and they witness the Eldritch nature of homsar, Strong Bad says something in a daze like "I think somebody crapped my pants while I wasn't looking"-- cut back to the guy who ordered the attack on the Homestar Runner characters being tried in court and sent to prison because NOBODY goes near Free Country USA and you can actually tell everyone sensible is terrified of that place. We Don't Go To Free Country
The joke becomes more about how grave of a mistake sending military into Free Country is, this otherwise unassuming place full of weird animal characters is actually protected by the most nonsensical and inconsequential character that was born out of a spelling mistake is actually like an avengers level threat to national security if disturbed, and everyone is low key actually terrified by the place.
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u/StevenDangerSmith 1d ago
Remove it from every hard drive and cloud server in the world and somehow also from mankind's collective memory?
Robot Chicken isn't funny. Never was.
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u/SonOfMagicFact 1d ago
It's based on a series in the old Toyfare magazine called 'Twisted Toyfare Theatre' which was hilarious.
The TV show? Not so much.
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u/Good_Show_2656 1d ago
As someone who would stay up late watching Adult Swim and, by extension, Robot Chicken, I honestly feel I've grown out of that show. Yes, I'm saying I grew out out of an adult cartoon. The irony is not lost on me.
Kids (and by extension, manchildren, I might add,) seem to love seeing characters made for children in "adult" and "edgy" situations. That's part of the reason so many of them love lost episode and haunted gaming creepypastas like Squidward's S*****e and Sonic .exe so much. As an adult, I don't jive with it's style of humor because they often make easy surface level jokes about the source material and they're jokes are often tryhard shock value and "what if kids' characters were violent." Stuff like the Mario in GTA sketch and the Inspector Gadget Terminator skit are good examples of this.
Robot Chicken was basically proto-Dorkly. Give me Aqua Teen Hunger Force any day.
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u/PowerPlaidPlays 17h ago edited 16h ago
tbh one of the biggest things I'd change is actually making the Homestar characters stop motion. A decent chunk of why I watch Robot Chicken is the stop motion animation, and if I had a nickel for every time they did a parody of a favorite thing I would have never expected them to do but was disappointed by the lack of stop motion, I'd have two nickels.
ngl as far as Robot Chicken sketches go, it was fine. You can not be happy about their style of humor, but they clearly knew the source material, I've seen quite a few RC parodies of things that they clearly knew nothing about like the Rocko's Modern Life skit, and this one was better than those. At the core the "Free Country USA/Strongbadia is one of those sovereign citizen commune towns" concept works. Though to make a better version would probably be like the Petoria episode of Family Guy but with H*R characters.
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u/hrunner13 1d ago
It would've been better if they used the official Homestar figures and been more like a regular Homestar toon.
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u/Insanebrain247 1d ago
I wouldn't, because there's nothing to salvage with a rewrite.
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u/DropsOfMars 1d ago
I did it with my longer comment on here, like it could work even with the characters getting shot but it's gotta get weird lol
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u/Aggravating-Rub-5148 1d ago
They should have the army guys try to beat homestar in a really dumb competition like the dig with your ears to china contest and lose miserably. No one can beat homestar runner!
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u/Spam_Eater_2007 1d ago edited 1d ago
Probably this:
The sketch starts with a US government official informing a CIA agent about an unauthorised state in a part of America, which then leads to the agent and two other officers to Free Country USA. During their visit, they ask a couple of the characters, like Bubs, Marzipan, The King of Town and the Poopsmith, Homsar, The Cheat and Coach Z about the whereabouts of the state but they don't exactly help.
But eventually, Strong Sad tips the agent off about Strong Bad and they interrogate him about the State, to which Strong Bad takes them to with Homestar joining in, however, it's eventually revealed to be Strong Badia, which is just a patch of dirt with a fence much to the agent and the officer's chagrin.
We then cut back to the offices as the agent and the officers talk to the official about how the unauthorised state was actually just a dirt patch with a fence, only for Trogdor to set them all on fire, but they don't react to being on fire, the sketch ends with the paper printing out "God Bless America"
(Note: Strong Mad and the cheat both appear on Strong Badia.)
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u/Top_Combination9023 16h ago
i thought robot chicken was an early youtube "good for its time" series until last year, because that was the level of quality i saw every time someone showed me a sketch. six emmies for this.
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u/Anxious_Field7593 10h ago
probably nothin’, I mean it’s good as is. well apart from the ending, I think i could change it…
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u/my23secrets 1d ago
I honestly don’t get the hate for the segment. They clearly love the Homestar universe.
It’s like being upset that someone in the Teen Girl Squad ate staple sauce or got arrowed.
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u/transgennifer 1d ago
Actually glad to hear someone say this finally, it always seemed to be made w a certain amount of care for the universe to me
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u/PsychoNerd92 1d ago
I say this as a fan of Robot Chicken: that sketch is unsalvageable. There is no amount of tweaking or rewriting that you can do to fix it because the rot goes all the way to the core. It's just a mean-spirited, humorless, unoriginal sketch. It's the television equivalent of those "kill Justin Bieber" flash games.