[SPOILERS for those not caught up on Robot Chicken]
The Robot Chicken parody of The Walking Dead pokes fun at Negan, and explores the secret origin of his bullet-stopping baseball bat, Lucille. This send-up of AMC’s zombie spectacular aired over the weekend, under the title, Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who’s Walking.
This episode of Robot Chicken featured voice performances from the actual cast of The Walking Dead, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. There was even a song and dance number, ridiculing the ‘dip’ movements that Morgan does between lines. Morgan has already commented on this, saying the Robot Chicken crew have “called this out in a beautiful way.” Michael Rooker also sang in the episode, reprising – in a way – his character Merle from The Walking Dead. Steven Yeun’s Glenn also made a post-death comeback.
The Robot Chicken take on Lucille’s origins was a particular highlight of the episode. Inspired by the dodgy science of The Walking Dead (could a wooden bat really stop a bullet?), the Robot Chicken team decided to reimagine Lucille as a sentient indestructible superhero of a bat. It turns out that Lucille traveled from an alien world to protect Negan – just as Superman came from Krypton to protect mankind. The bat even had a dark backstory involving the death of its parents, like all great comic book heroes.
Chatting to Cinema Blend about the special, Robot Chicken writers Matthew Senreci and Seth Green described the thinking behind this memorable moment:
Matthew Senreci: We had to figure out how that bat protected Negan from that bullet.
Seth Green: That bat clearly had a purpose, and its purpose was to save the day at that moment.
The Robot Chicken writers also revealed that they had some heated conversations with The Walking Dead showrunner Scott Gimple about the bat’s magical bullet-stopping powers:
Matthew Senreich: We poked fun at Scott Gimple the entire time about how I don't understand how a baseball bat can stop a bullet.
Seth Green: He argued the science with us, too.
Matthew Senreich: So we had to get its origin story. This bat is named. We have to know where it comes from.
The Robot Chicken team found a plot hole – or just a silly logic moment, if you prefer – and ripped it to shreds, as they are wont to do. There is plenty of humor in the idea of Lucille having a tragic backstory, a sense of heroism and an array of magical powers, and this parody handled those ideas well.
However, it’s worth remembering that this parody came from a place of love, and that everyone involved in making it was a fan of The Walking Dead. This is a nice reminder that you can love something and ridicule it. You don’t need to be a hater to have fun with humor.
MORE: Glenn Returns In Walking Dead Robot Chicken Special
Source: Cinema Blend