I had a great time at NYCC this year. There was a bunch of stuff to see, some great cosplayers (which you can see in the IHOGeek Facebook galleries), and of course a good list of panels to check out. On the latter I had the side-splitting pleasure of experiencing the Adult Swim treatment on Friday night, catching back to back panels from the Venture Brothers and Robot Chicken. Two hours of Adult Swim personalities answering fan questions, cutting up and going nuts, and well, just hijinx in general.
… And you know how I feel about hijinx, kids. Love ’em.
Starting with Queen’s “Princes of the Universe” hitting the speaker system, The Venture Brothers‘ Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick came out to the stage rocking black jumpsuits to a wall of pure sound from the audience. After playing it up a little, they sat at the table and answered some fan questions. It was a strange panel in the sense that there was no footage from the show like some of the other panels I attended, but it really wasn’t all that surprising. Doc and Jackson let us know that they had just started working on the new season 6, and even though it was going to take a while that it is “going to be awesome” (don’t expect it until 2015). SO i guess without any content to give you, I can at least give you some of the Q&A schtick that they put on –
On underwear: Jackson’s underwear costs $60 a pair. Sixty. and Doc rocks boxer briefs. We’ll just have to take his word on that though – when chants to show the crowd came up he declared he couldn’t, because he has no ass.
On continuity: When asked whether continuity helps or hurts the show’s comedy. Big surprise, it hurts.
On music: Doc doesn’t care who your favorite guitarist is – your favorite guitarist is Johnny Marr.
On giant robot cosplay: If you ask a question dressed as a giant robot, Doc Hammer will go into strike mode (as he appeared to do) and state his desire to jump across the table and knock you out.
Throughout the answers was of course the nutty behavior we expect from these two fancy lads, but it was their last act that got the biggest round of applause from the audience, myself included. A young lady stepped up to the microphone and upon trying to speak, saw that she couldn’t find her words. “I’m too nervous to ask a question,” she said. Without missing a step Doc Hammer comes back with “are you too nervous to DANCE with me?” and proceeded to dance with the young lady while the DJ played “Greased Lightning.” And a grand time was had by all. Check it out from Adult Swim here.
Next up was Robot Chicken. The whole crew was out in force – Seth Green, Matthew Senreich, Clare Grant, Breckin Meyer all clad in cat ears, including an unannounced appearance by Macauly Culkin, who is indeed, as it appeared to me, alive and well. The crew made a couple of big announcements, the first being a sequel to the wildly popular DC Comics Special entitled DC Comics Special II: Villains in Paradise. They showed some footage from the special, focusing on Batman’s embarrassment about being dragged around in Green Lantern’s green bubble. A musical bromance ensues between the two, with Batman being floated along in a green sailboat construct.
Seth Green also talked about Übermansion – a joint project between the Robot Chicken crew and Bryan Cranston, who is fresh off the heels of the success of Breaking Bad. Cranston voices Titanium Rex, an elderly superhero who fights the day to day perils of, you know, being old sharing the mansion with this super-team. It’s stop motion like Robot Chicken, and from the trailer we were shown the humor is unrefined, juvenile, and let’s face it kids, right up your alley.
There wasn’t much commentary on future Robot Chicken seasons, but they did announce their Born Again Virgin Christmas Special, which will air this December.
… Oh right. Then there was Emmett.
Early in the panel a young lad by the name of Emmett got up to the microphone to ask a questions. The panel addressed him as “the young man in the brown hat.” After snarkily replying “first off, it’s a Borderlands hat, so…” he went on imply that by Seth Green taking on his series Dads that it could take away from the writing of Robot Chicken. After some more sass and Green’s “I’ma point at you and yell” antics Breckin Meyer jumped in to Green’s defense – “Hey Seth’s working REALLY HARD!” After that Emmett became a running gag for the entire panel, cracking me up more than any of the other antics the panelists had, aside from meth jokes at the expense of Macauly Culkin. Afterwards, in response to a simple “Hi how are you?” from a fan, Breckin’s answer was “Well I was having a great day until I met this douchebag named Emmett.” And this went on and on for the entire panel. Please, do yourself a favor and watch the panel here. Warning though – the panel features a moment between Seth Green and Doc Hammer’s nipple, who made an impromptu cameo.
Stay tuned for my next installment where I talk about that time i met Neil DeGrasse Tyson!
