by HM Wilson

Created on: January 23, 2009

"Skewering celebrity for fun and profit." That could easily be the motto for "Robot Chicken," a delightfully pop culture-poking stop motion animated series produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.

The sketch comedy debuted on February 20, 2005 on the Cartoon Network with an episode titled "Junk in the Trunk." That episode covered George W. Bush (in a skit called "W. Loves Tacos"), Santa Claus, drugs, Teletubbies, the Transformers, "The World's Most One-Sided Fistfights," "Robot Chicken Oz," Torch from the Fantastic Four, C-Span and "Total Request Live" (in a skit titled "X-Span Request Live"), "I'm So Hungry" and the bloopers from various well-known shows.

From that debut on, the show has skewered some of the best and worst that pop culture has to offer. Few topics have been off limits for the 15-minute long show, which has rightfully earned its rating of TV-MA.

The show has even parodied "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer," which writer and executive producer Seth Green was part of for two seasons in the role of Oz, werewolf and Willow's (Alyson Hannigan) boyfriend.

The show has managed to get several well-known names to lend their voices to skits. That list includes "Buffy" alum Michelle Trachtenberg (who played Dawn Summers, Buffy's little sister) and Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar (who has actually lent her voice to five episodes of the show). Even Joss Whedon, executive producer and writer for "Buffy," has voiced a couple episodes of "Robot Chicken."

The show is something of a reflection of who Seth Green seems to be. Seth Green is sort of an anti-celebrity celebrity; while he is famous, he simply has never been the kind of famous that gets the attention of the paparazzi.

From parodying "Celebrity Smackdown" to revealing the "real killer" of O.J. Simpson's wife, "Robot Chicken" shows a wicked sense of humor. In fact, some have even used the word "demented" to describe the show's comedic sense.

The show is part of the Adult Swim lineup on Cartoon Network. It currently airs every night, with airtimes being midnight and 4 a.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11:30 and 11:45 p.m. on Saturday, 11:30 p.m. on Sunday and 3:30 a.m. on Mondays.

Sources:

Adult Swim (www.adultswim.com)- Cartoon Network maintains a separate site devoted exclusively to its Adult Swim lineup, which features shows for a more mature audience.

Cartoon Network (www.cartoonnetwork.com)- The network is the home of "Robot Chicken."

Epguides "Robot Chicken" page (www.epguides.com/RobotChicken)- This has a complete listing of all of the episodes of the series.

IMDB "Robot Chicken" page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437745/)- The show has received a 7.6/10 rating on Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

TV.com "Robot Chicken" (http://www.tv.com/robot-chicken/show/33630/summary .html?q=Robot%20Chicken&tag=search_results;title;1)- The TV.com page devoted to "Robot Chicken."

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