This week on Adult Swim’s crazy parody non-animated show Eagleheart, the fourth wall is immediately broken as Chris Monanto (Chris Elliot) addresses the audience, but this time to showcase a recruitment video for marshals. It starts as an over the top ’70s style parody of colors and silly music, but then mutates into a commentary on the parody itself and then, finally, the show. It’s zany.
With several references to other videos, we get all sorts of circular silliness, including an amusing fake commercial inside the fake video inside the parody television show. Of course, the recruitment video then becomes a sort of documentary, with Chris (it’s not a coincidence, it’s the actor’s name too) describing how he starred in a TV show about a Texas Ranger (now explicitly referencing the show this show is ripping off — Walker Texas Ranger), a show-within-a-show-within-a show, parodying the problematic elements of the original show, such as religious overtones, intetionally bad acting, intentionally bad “computer” hacking, a silly impression of Chuck Norris, offensive stereotypes, and then …
A surprise cameo from actual producer Conan O’Brien! I don’t want to spoil the silly, yet funny jokes about the nonsense of the show, but this particular episode includes plenty of Eagleheart‘s typical non-sequitur jokes along with the rapid fire meta-commentary “about the show and the industry”. It’s only fifteen minutes, so there’s isn’t much that can really be said. But we get the over the top bloodiness, the physical humor of Brett Gelman‘s Brett, the sexist anti-feminist jokes with “Junior” Marshal Maria Thayer, etc. There are a lot of hidden little jokes throughout the program, with more meta-referencing than I’ve ever seen from this show. As usual, it doesn’t quite make any real points, just ends with more nonsense.
A few choice out of context quotes: