# Too Many Cooks (short)
**Too Many Cooks** is an eleven-minute comedy-horror short written and directed by Casper Kelly for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, first aired at 4 a.m. in late October 2014 in the slot the network fills with fake infomercials.[1](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-too-many-cooks-takes-social-media-by-storm-20141107-story.html) • [2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) It presents itself as the opening credits of a 1980s family sitcom, then stretches the format past its breaking point through repeated cast expansions, jarring genre shifts, and a machete-wielding serial killer, all over the same cheerful theme song.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/) Uploaded to YouTube in early November 2014, it became one of the year's defining viral videos, drawing tweets from filmmakers and coverage in major newspapers and magazines within days.[4](https://meme.com/memes/too-many-cooks)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Title / creator | *Too Many Cooks*, written and directed by Casper Kelly (Chris "Casper" Kelly), writer on *Squidbillies* and showrunner of *Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell*[1](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-too-many-cooks-takes-social-media-by-storm-20141107-story.html) |
| First broadcast | 4 a.m. slot on Adult Swim, late October 2014, aired nightly for a week under the schedule listing "Infomercials"; Vanity Fair dates the first airing to before dawn on October 27[1](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-too-many-cooks-takes-social-media-by-storm-20141107-story.html) • [2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) |
| Running time | Listed at 10'46" by Shortfilmwire; most press accounts round it to 11 minutes[5](https://shortfilmwire.com/en/embedded/film/200140617/Too-Many-Cooks) • [3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/) |
| Form | A parody of late-1970s to early-1990s sitcom opening credits, with freeze-framed cast members and yellow name cards, that mutates through cop shows, soap operas, slasher films, space sagas, and hospital dramas[6](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/11/15/getting-meta-with-too-many-cooks-and-others/YSrngTzjx8aQTSt3IW0lLO/story.html) • [2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) |
| Theme song | A bouncy earworm built on the proverb "too many cooks will spoil the broth," repeated throughout the entire short[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/) • [7](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237995/too-many-cooks-jumps-the-shark.html?edition=77789) |
| Recurring figures | A bearded killer (played by William Tokarsky) who begins murdering the cast around the three-and-a-half-minute mark, and Smarf, an organ-playing puppet cat[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/) • [8](https://www.toddalcott.com/too-many-cooks-an-analysis.html) • [2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) |
| Viral reach | Over 1.6 million YouTube views by the morning of November 11, 2014, and more than 2 million people reached within a week, with praise tweeted by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Rian Johnson, and Richard Kelly[7](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237995/too-many-cooks-jumps-the-shark.html?edition=77789) • [6](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/11/15/getting-meta-with-too-many-cooks-and-others/YSrngTzjx8aQTSt3IW0lLO/story.html) • [4](https://meme.com/memes/too-many-cooks) • [1](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-too-many-cooks-takes-social-media-by-storm-20141107-story.html) |
## Premise and structure
The short opens exactly as a family sitcom of the *Full House* and *Growing Pains* era would: a mother cooking dinner, a father returning from work, children playing, and each actor freezing for the camera as a bright name card flashes underneath.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/) The theme song, whose lyrics begin "It takes a lot to make a stew," plays on the proverb that too many cooks spoil the broth.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/) • [7](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237995/too-many-cooks-jumps-the-shark.html?edition=77789)
**The accretion.** After the first minute, when a real credits sequence would end, the song starts again with more cast members: a jock daughter, a brainiac son, a bully, a second mother, a near-duplicate grandmother, and eventually an organ-playing puppet cat named Smarf, followed by four literal cooks preparing food in a different kitchen.[9](https://www.salon.com/2014/11/10/why_too_many_cooks_is_the_smartest_critique_of_the_changing_tv_landscape_weve_seen/) • [8](https://www.toddalcott.com/too-many-cooks-an-analysis.html) The writer Todd Alcott, a film and television analyst, reads this pile-up as the short's central pun: the show literally has too many cooks.[8](https://www.toddalcott.com/too-many-cooks-an-analysis.html) Salon's Erin Keane compared the second verse of new characters to the sitcom practice of stuffing fresh faces into a flagging property.[9](https://www.salon.com/2014/11/10/why_too_many_cooks_is_the_smartest_critique_of_the_changing_tv_landscape_weve_seen/)
**The turn.** Around three and a half minutes in, a stocky, bearded man who had been lurking in the background of a shot emerges as a serial killer and begins dispatching cast members with bloody special effects, including beheadings around the six-minute mark and, by about seven minutes, cooking and eating the victims, all while the cheerful theme continues.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/) • [8](https://www.toddalcott.com/too-many-cooks-an-analysis.html) The credits then lurch through genres: office comedies, cop procedurals, vintage late-night soaps in the *Dynasty* and *Falcon Crest* mold, slasher films, space sagas, and hospital dramas, with the killer taking on new roles in each.[6](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/11/15/getting-meta-with-too-many-cooks-and-others/YSrngTzjx8aQTSt3IW0lLO/story.html) • [8](https://www.toddalcott.com/too-many-cooks-an-analysis.html) In Alcott's reading, the killer, named Bill, becomes the short's hidden protagonist, infiltrating and eventually dominating the Cook family's world, which expands to encompass all of television.[8](https://www.toddalcott.com/too-many-cooks-an-analysis.html) Near the end, the relationship between people and credits inverts: the title cards become the people and the people become the title cards, a gag Kelly said required adding arms, legs, and head-turning animation before test audiences understood it.[2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) The scholar of the book *Television Scales* notes that at the bleak conclusion neither the murders, nor well-meaning scientists, nor Smarf's attempt to detonate a bomb can stop the arrival of ever more Cooks.[10](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/20/71/54/70/2020715470/2020715470.pdf)
## Production
Kelly described the idea as "just a shower idea I didn't know what to do with." Word of it reached Mike Lazzo, Adult Swim's overseer, at a work party, and Kelly got the go-ahead using the infomercial slot and its modest budget.[11](https://www.fastcompany.com/3038231/this-insane-11-minute-opening-credits-sequence-aired-at-4am-unexplained-like-a-miracle) • [2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) The shoot took two or three days, all around a warehouse in Georgia, with effects favors called in from the crew of *[Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell](https://www.edgepedia.org/your-pretty-face-is-going-to-hell)* and blood supplied by cheap corn syrup.[2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) The killer was played by William Tokarsky, a Georgia-based extra Kelly had first used as a demon in *Your Pretty Face*; most of the cast were extras, since there was no money for speaking parts.[2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) Kelly said the theme song was written and re-recorded after shooting, in constant back-and-forth editing to fit the picture, an effort he compared to making a feature film.[2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) He told Vulture the comedy of repetition drew on [David Letterman](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-letterman) and [Andy Kaufman](https://www.edgepedia.org/andy-kaufman), along with the *Small Wonder* title sequence, and joked that the piece was designed to disorient anyone watching under something with time dilation.[3](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/) Kelly has called the short an "80's Sitcom Fever Dream."[12](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/connect-many-cooks)
## Viral spread
The short aired unannounced at 4 a.m. nightly for a week at the end of October 2014, tucked into the infomercial block; the [Adult Swim](https://www.edgepedia.org/adult-swim) wiki gives the first showing as October 28, while Vanity Fair places it before dawn on October 27.[1](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-too-many-cooks-takes-social-media-by-storm-20141107-story.html) • [13](https://adultswim.fandom.com/wiki/Too_Many_Cooks) • [2](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained) Once uploaded to YouTube, it was trending on Twitter, Google, Tumblr, and Facebook within hours, boosted by filmmakers and actors; [Edgar Wright](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgar-wright) recommended watching it "before bed," and [Simon Pegg](https://www.edgepedia.org/simon-pegg) joked that it was so engineered to unnerve stoned people in their mid-30s it might have been created by the US government.[4](https://meme.com/memes/too-many-cooks) Rian Johnson wrote that it should be in the Oscar running for best short, and *Donnie Darko* director Richard Kelly reported a panic attack two-thirds of the way through.[1](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-too-many-cooks-takes-social-media-by-storm-20141107-story.html) MediaPost counted over 1.6 million YouTube views by mid-morning on November 11, 2014, and the Boston Globe put the audience at over 2 million within a week of the clip's online takeoff.[7](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237995/too-many-cooks-jumps-the-shark.html?edition=77789) • [6](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/11/15/getting-meta-with-too-many-cooks-and-others/YSrngTzjx8aQTSt3IW0lLO/story.html)
**Mainstream coverage** followed within days: The Washington Post ran a "what you're in for" explainer, [The New Yorker](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-new-yorker) published Ian Crouch's "Looking for Meaning in 'Too Many Cooks'," The Guardian turned the short into a spot-the-sitcom-reference game, and Vanity Fair ran artist John Hogan's flow chart of his own viewing experience.[4](https://meme.com/memes/too-many-cooks) Rolling Stone interviewed Kelly the same week, in which he described himself as "shellshocked" by the attention.[4](https://meme.com/memes/too-many-cooks) Fan remixes appeared almost immediately: an 8-bit chiptune cover of the theme by YouTuber Rush Coil on November 11, a [Cookie Monster](https://www.edgepedia.org/cookie-monster) parody from the troupe Tough Pigs on November 12, and a kitten version from The Pet Collective the same day.[4](https://meme.com/memes/too-many-cooks) The New Yorker observed that a large share of the audience had sat through what it called the longest opening credits in the history of television, real or otherwise, and left humming the inane theme.[12](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/connect-many-cooks)
## Interpretation and reception
Critics read the short in several registers. Crouch offered possible readings of the piece: as postmodern satire aimed at TV and internet culture, as a reflection on nostalgia's power, as a look at the violence lurking within, or even as a dismantling of virality itself, with the internet being the realm that has too many cooks.[12](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/connect-many-cooks) Salon argued the short shows that the tropes of the morally complicated antihero drama can look as rote as old-school network television, noting that the serial killer's unrepentant stare evokes *Dexter* and *True Detective*.[9](https://www.salon.com/2014/11/10/why_too_many_cooks_is_the_smartest_critique_of_the_changing_tv_landscape_weve_seen/) The Boston Globe framed it as a work that restores the audience's upper hand by making TV's tropes visible, its infinite *Brady Bunch* grid standing in for the proverbial matrix.[6](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/11/15/getting-meta-with-too-many-cooks-and-others/YSrngTzjx8aQTSt3IW0lLO/story.html) An academic analysis in *Television Scales* contrasts the short with *American Horror Story*: where that series uses camp to cushion its horrors, *Too Many Cooks* slowly bleeds out its camp, purging the characters killed by its *Shining*-inspired madman for a more devastating impact.[10](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/20/71/54/70/2020715470/2020715470.pdf) A Kent Academic Repository thesis frames the video as a [shaggy dog story](https://www.edgepedia.org/shaggy-dog-story), using that structure to explain why many viewers found it enjoyable while some critics dismissed it as a passing fad.[14](https://core.ac.uk/download/228131505.pdf) [The A.V. Club](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-a-v-club) credited the short with giving nightmare television household familiarity, noting that it riffed on family sitcoms, a more accessible and comforting realm than the grainy commercial parodies Adult Swim was known for.[15](https://www.avclub.com/dr-steve-brule-fake-tim-heidecker-and-the-comedy-of-1798188148)
**Legacy.** The short entered Adult Swim's regular catalog alongside similar standalone experiments such as *This House Has People in It*.[16](https://mediacommons.org/imr/2017/03/05/flash-pan-ingredients-too-many-cooks) Kelly returned to the creepy underside of classic children's television with *Buddy*, a horror-comedy starring [Keegan-Michael Key](https://www.edgepedia.org/keegan-michael-key) as a sinister unicorn in the Barney mold, which premiered at the [Sundance Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/sundance-film-festival); [The Daily Beast](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-daily-beast) introduced it as the work of the "Too Many Cooks mastermind."[17](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/buddy-sundance-review-what-if-barney-was-your-childs-worst-nightmare/) The short's influence also registered in parody: in 2015 CNN produced a politics-themed version casting figures from Barack Obama to Vladimir Putin as players in a bad 1980s sitcom.[18](https://time.com/3753058/too-many-cooks-cnn/) Time magazine has cited the short as an example of viral comedy in the Letterman lineage of experimental television humor.[19](https://time.com/3858346/david-letterman-infinite-jester/)
## References
1. [Patrick Kevin Day, "'Too Many Cooks' takes social media by storm," Los Angeles Times, November 7, 2014](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-too-many-cooks-takes-social-media-by-storm-20141107-story.html)
2. [Matt Patches, "Too Many Cooks: Anatomy of the Weirdest Viral Hit Ever," Vanity Fair, November 7, 2014](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/11/too-many-cooks-explained)
3. [Emily Yahr, "'Too Many Cooks': What you're in for with the viral video of the week," The Washington Post, November 10, 2014](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2014/11/10/too-many-cooks-what-youre-in-for-with-the-viral-video-of-the-week/)
4. ["Too Many Cooks: The Adult Swim Viral Video Explained," Meme](https://meme.com/memes/too-many-cooks)
5. ["Too Many Cooks," Shortfilmwire film entry](https://shortfilmwire.com/en/embedded/film/200140617/Too-Many-Cooks)
6. [Michael Andor Brodeur, "Getting meta- with 'Too Many Cooks' and others," The Boston Globe, November 15, 2014](https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2014/11/15/getting-meta-with-too-many-cooks-and-others/YSrngTzjx8aQTSt3IW0lLO/story.html)
7. [Adam Buckman, "'Too Many Cooks' Jumps The Shark," MediaPost, November 11, 2014](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237995/too-many-cooks-jumps-the-shark.html?edition=77789)
8. [Todd Alcott, "'Too Many Cooks:' an analysis," Todd Alcott's blog](https://www.toddalcott.com/too-many-cooks-an-analysis.html)
9. [Erin Keane, "Why 'Too Many Cooks' is the smartest critique of the changing TV landscape we've seen," Salon, November 10, 2014](https://www.salon.com/2014/11/10/why_too_many_cooks_is_the_smartest_critique_of_the_changing_tv_landscape_weve_seen/)
10. [*Television Scales*, Library of Congress e-book](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/20/71/54/70/2020715470/2020715470.pdf)
11. ["This Is How An Insane 11-Minute Sitcom Credits Sequence Came To Air At 4 a.m., Unexplained, Like a Miracle," Fast Company](https://www.fastcompany.com/3038231/this-insane-11-minute-opening-credits-sequence-aired-at-4am-unexplained-like-a-miracle)
12. [Ian Crouch, "Looking for Meaning in 'Too Many Cooks'," The New Yorker, November 10, 2014](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/connect-many-cooks)
13. ["Too Many Cooks," Adult Swim wiki, Fandom](https://adultswim.fandom.com/wiki/Too_Many_Cooks)
14. ["A Poetics of Time and Timing in the Moving Image," Kent Academic Repository / Core](https://core.ac.uk/download/228131505.pdf)
15. ["Dr. Steve Brule, fake Tim Heidecker, and the comedy of warped masculinity," The A.V. Club](https://www.avclub.com/dr-steve-brule-fake-tim-heidecker-and-the-comedy-of-1798188148)
16. ["Flash in the Pan: The Ingredients of 'Too Many Cooks'," In Media Res, MediaCommons, 2017](https://mediacommons.org/imr/2017/03/05/flash-pan-ingredients-too-many-cooks)
17. ["What if Barney Was Your Child's Worst Nightmare?," The Daily Beast, Sundance review of *Buddy*](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/buddy-sundance-review-what-if-barney-was-your-childs-worst-nightmare/)
18. ["Here's What Too Many Cooks Would Look Like If It Were About U.S. Politics," Time, March 20, 2015](https://time.com/3753058/too-many-cooks-cnn/)
19. ["David Letterman, Infinite Jester," Time, 2015](https://time.com/3858346/david-letterman-infinite-jester/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Sitcom and comedy series › Sketch comedy series*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license