After “Too Many Cooks” I had noticed Adult Swim would put weird stuff at 4 am on Tuesday mornings so I started to DVR it. Most show up as Infomercials" and are comedy bits. This week’s was called “Unedited footage of a Bear” and it starts out as a Commercial parody but turns…darker. It was freaking scary. The imagery, make up, everything. I had to turn it off because it freaked me out. It is on Youtube here. If you like horror, watch it. It is really well done.
In a way it is darkly humorous because the commercial parody continues through the horror which I admit made me laugh but man, this is disturbing.
I tried three times to watch this, but within the first minute the ads took over and “Skip This Ad” just opened a new tab with the advertisement while the original video went on permanent pause. So I gave up.
Can’t watch at work, but I’m intrigued. A lot of the Informercial slot stuff has been amazing. “Too Many Cooks” is uniquely a masterpiece, but I think the Broomshakalaka and Alpha Dog bits are amazing, too.
Aye, the juxtaposition of the funny ad copy and the tone of everything else onscreen was kinda amusing, but the lack of resolution at the end made this, ultimately, unsatisfying.
Is it meant to be self-contained or is a part of a longer story somehow?
I thought the production values were excellent, but without a resolution of some kind, this falls short of the mark, IMO.
Yeah I did laugh at how the fine-print for the drug kept showing up but there were just certain images that pushed my “Creep factor” buttons I guess. Certain close ups of her bloody face and the clip of her staring in the window at the kids especially
The bear in the beginning, however, was adorable. I want him for my very own.
I’m pretty sure it’s self-contained. I agree that the lack of a way to tie it up isn’t the best way to do it. Adult Swim’s programming does this a lot these days. Sometimes I like that the credits are my only sign that the gag is over (sometimes it’s because the feeling or concept of a gag was the only thing that was there), but it is sometimes jarring, even if the show is just 10 minutes long. I know I’m most comfy with it when there’s a theme behind it, such as their Off The Air series.
Monty Python did the same thing, but they were able to cut or nonsensically lead the skit which lacked an ending into another skit. At the end of the show they came up with a conclusion, but it didn’t usually resolve anything other than the running gag in the show. They were masters at jokes with no resolution.
I found that easier to sit through than “Too Many Cooks,” mostly because the never ending theme song made that one feel twice as long as it was. This one at least seemed to have a kind of story, until the end, when it just, well…ends.
I’m really glad you shared this. I thought it was brilliant. It does go a long way, for a long time, to make its point (or to play with its premise, rather), but I’ve gotten used to that being part of the gag for a lot of AS’s stuff, so it didn’t turn me off.
I felt it was simultaneously disturbing and humorous in a way that left me feeling like it had been orchestrated by a deft hand, despite the lack of resolution (actually, the lack of resolution was clearly a part of the effect they were going for, but very predictably so). Compared with many attempts I’ve seen of late to be funny and edgy, this one stands out as effective and memorable, IMO.
Really? With the police lights and such, I thought the resolution was that pretty much the same thing happened here as happened at the crime scene house in the beginning. Seems like none of you would be happy unless it ends with a shot of a cop saying “Damn it, Lou, it happened again.” I can’t think of specific examples, but the closing shot of the character standing at the scene as the police arrive, fade to black, seems like a highly recognizable common (or classic) trope to me.
The point of the bear is to set up the “ad” that is the basis of the whole rest of it.
Not “terrifying,” really, but yeah I also like the juxtaposition of weird/disturbing and funny (“call your doctor if symptoms worsen” THUMP THUMP), and it’s reasonably well-executed (didn’t like the way the blood was done). Well-directed for what they were going for, with the framing and that weird zoom/depth of field effect during the street fight amping up the anxiety. I liked it. But of course I watch a LOT of “bad” horror movies.
Just saw this. I liked it. It’s a story that’s been told many times, but this was a well-done telling.
I think it’s more about middle class family pressures than about drug abuse…
It definitely had a resolution. It’s ambiguous whether she actually killed her kids or not, but the point of the resolution is her devastated inner state, not a physical fact about what actually happened. (I tend to think it’s probably saying she actually did do the deed, though, hence her horrified pleading screaming at herself on the phone towards the very end.)
If anyone’s curious and couldn’t read it, the text at the bottom said: