Robot Chicken - Dragon Ball Z

[BitchIlooklikeGoku]

https://youtu.be/Img93faHlKc

[VegettoEX]

Is this actually from Robot Chicken? Is it from the show but edited to include the original JP voices and music? When did it air? What do you think about it?

Going to need to include some more context for a discussion here - thanks.

[VejituhTheWarriorGuy]

This isn't Robot Chicken, this is just a really impressive piece of stop motion animation on YouTube.

[gogeta97]

Yeah OP's video was actually entertaining, so it clearly isn't Robot Chicken.


Robot Chicken did actually make a Dragon Ball parody though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9S7w7sq5d4

[Kanassa]

Yeah OP's video was actually entertaining, so it clearly isn't Robot Chicken.


Robot Chicken did actually make a Dragon Ball parody though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9S7w7sq5d4

That was... Horrible. Don't they at least try to make jokes that relate to the material they're parodying?

[Lord Beerus]

Yeah OP's video was actually entertaining, so it clearly isn't Robot Chicken.


Robot Chicken did actually make a Dragon Ball parody though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9S7w7sq5d4

That was... Horrible. Don't they at least try to make jokes that relate to the material they're parodying?

That was just a case of not bothering to do any kind of research on what they were parodying. Robot Chicken have been very guilty of that in past with other shows they have mocked. Robot Chicken is basically a poor man's version of South Park.

[gogeta97]

That was just a case of not bothering to do any kind of research on what they were parodying. Robot Chicken have been very guilty of that in past with other shows they have mocked. Robot Chicken is basically a poor man's version of South Park.

All Robot Chicken really does is take some nostalgic property and throw in a bunch of gratuitous violence, swearing and sex to make it "adult". I used to love it when I was like 12.

[NitroEX]

The Robot Chicken hate is a bit uncalled for...

Anyways, this is really impressive stop motion. I also noticed some cool 2D effects animation in there too such as the lightning and smoke. Great attention to detail.

[Pantalones]

I've seen several of these stop-motion action figure battles like this -- always involving either Cell or Broly from what I remember. They're pretty neat!

(...also made me realize there actually is one bit of Japanese Goku voice that I really like, despite not really caring for the squeaky voice generally -- that "whoo!' when he falls over backward worn out afterward definitely seems super Goku-ish to me.)

All Robot Chicken really does is take some nostalgic property and throw in a bunch of gratuitous violence, swearing and sex to make it "adult". I used to love it when I was like 12.

This is pretty much why I don't watch Robot Chicken, and always found it to be a mixture of funny, kinda-sorta-funny-I-guess, and "ugh, why am I watching this?" even when I did. When they manage to avoid the mindless 12-year-old-esque urge to throw random horrible gory shit in EVERYTHING for a full episode (I recall at least one of the Star Wars episodes staying pretty well within the lines of Star Wars' own violence level rather than going overboard?) it can be pretty funny... when they have a "DURR LET'S MAKE IT SUPER GORY" episode I flip to another channel right away and never come back. Heads flying off and clay-blood squishes from random pointless death are not funny, guys, sorry. I haven't watched it for several years for that reason.

(I don't particularly care about the language or sexual stuff, but yeah, knowing how they go about the gory stuff they probably go overboard with those sometimes too.)

[TheBalishChannel]

The actual Robot Chicken parody came out at a time when the folks at Turner Broadcasting and Viacom were pulling their hair out and stressing over the fact that an acquired program was resonating way more with viewers than any of their original animated programs, which is why you saw shows like The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Kids Next Door, and Fairly Odd Parents all taking shots at Dragon Ball Z with little to no understanding of what the content they were parodying actually was to begin with. Billy and Mandy's "Chicken Ball Z" is by far one of the most egregious "parodies" I've ever seen. Clearly the creative teams behind some of the shows at the time just didn't understand what made Dragon Ball Z a much more engaging cartoon. I for one don't find snot-balls, farts, or "screaming ninnies" so damn captivating, and I'm assuming most don't.

However, if I were to choose the one that I find to be the most frustrating, it would have to be the Robot Chicken skit (which can be viewed here.) The fact that they confused a smaller Goku figure for Gohan just takes you right out of the entire lampooning, especially if you're someone who's aware of the show and knows better. Of course, no Western-made parody of any anime is complete without the stereotypical "Speed Racer fast-talking" mockery, despite that in even the earlier version of FUNimation's English dub, none of the actors struggled to fit their lines in with the mouth-flaps. And it only strays further and further away from there, with Goku citing the three villains as "Kung Fu Legends" (a common generalization among outsiders with not even the most basic of knowledge) and Goku shouting "Spirit Bomb Ball" while conducting a Kamehameha Wave...


Who the hell is that supposed to be? Does anybody know? Please tell me if you know what they were going for here. I'm assuming it's Vegeta, but I never understood why they went and used official Dragon Ball Z figures for Goku and Kid Goku from GT Gohan and customized what appears to be a Troll for Vegeta. What on Earth did the animators look at beforehand to think that he wore a brown cape and white clothing? He's only in this shot, and the joke I guess is that he's in shock longer than Santa Claus? I don't really know what they were trying to make reference to, but that really goes for the entire spoof. Shortly after this scene Goku leaves it up to Santa's reindeer gang to save the day, and of course one of the reindeer has to blow snot as an attack (very typical humor, akin to Turner's own Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy as mentioned above). And it's all capped off with Goku stating that the "Tenkaichi Budokai is finally complete" as a ball of light descends from the sky and on to Gohan's hands, which obviously makes no sense what-so-ever and isn't even charming in an illogical sort of way; it's just ignorance that was written to poke fun at the fact that the show has foreign roots and uses (to the writers/animators) nonsensical words for powers and events.

It's garbage just like the entirety of Robot Chicken itself, along with whatever else Seth Green and his production companies Stoopid Monkey and Stoopid Buddy have shit out, such as the countless other episodes of Robot Chicken that aren't even funny in the slightest and appeal to the lowest common denominator, SuperMansion, and worst of all, Camp WWE (which, I'm not even a fan of wrestling and I still need to undergo chemotherapy after witnessing that cancerous train-wreck).

Still, I'm not sure which is worse: this, or THIS.

Trash.

[gogeta97]

The actual Robot Chicken parody came out at a time when the folks at Turner Broadcasting and Viacom were pulling their hair out and stressing over the fact that an acquired program was resonating way more with viewers than any of their original animated programs, which is why you saw shows like The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Kids Next Door, and Fairly Odd Parents all taking shots at Dragon Ball Z with little to no understanding of what the content they were parodying actually was to begin with. Billy and Mandy's "Chicken Ball Z" is by far one of the most egregious "parodies" I've ever seen. Clearly the creative teams behind some of the shows at the time just didn't understand what made Dragon Ball Z a much more engaging cartoon. I for one don't find snot-balls, farts, or "screaming ninnies" so damn captivating, and I'm assuming most don't.

However, if I were to choose the one that I find to be the most frustrating, it would have to be the Robot Chicken skit (which can be viewed here.) The fact that they confused a smaller Goku figure for Gohan just takes you right out of the entire lampooning, especially if you're someone who's aware of the show and knows better. Of course, no Western-made parody of any anime is complete without the stereotypical "Speed Racer fast-talking" mockery, despite that in even the earlier version of FUNimation's English dub, none of the actors struggled to fit their lines in with the mouth-flaps. And it only strays further and further away from there, with Goku citing the three villains as "Kung Fu Legends" (a common generalization among outsiders with not even the most basic of knowledge) and Goku shouting "Spirit Bomb Ball" while conducting a Kamehameha Wave...


Who the hell is that supposed to be? Does anybody know? Please tell me if you know what they were going for here. I'm assuming it's Vegeta, but I never understood why they went and used official Dragon Ball Z figures for Goku and Kid Goku from GT Gohan and customized what appears to be a Troll for Vegeta. What on Earth did the animators look at beforehand to think that he wore a brown cape and white clothing? He's only in this shot, and the joke I guess is that he's in shock longer than Santa Claus? I don't really know what they were trying to make reference to, but that really goes for the entire spoof. Shortly after this scene Goku leaves it up to Santa's reindeer gang to save the day, and of course one of the reindeer has to blow snot as an attack (very typical humor, akin to Turner's own Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy as mentioned above). And it's all capped off with Goku stating that the "Tenkaichi Budokai is finally complete" as a ball of light descends from the sky and on to Gohan's hands, which obviously makes no sense what-so-ever and isn't even charming in an illogical sort of way; it's just ignorance that was written to poke fun at the fact that the show has foreign roots and uses (to the writers/animators) nonsensical words for powers and events.

It's garbage just like the entirety of Robot Chicken itself, along with whatever else Seth Green and his production companies Stoopid Monkey and Stoopid Buddy have shit out, such as the countless other episodes of Robot Chicken that aren't even funny in the slightest and appeal to the lowest common denominator, SuperMansion, and worst of all, Camp WWE (which, I'm not even a fan of wrestling and I still need to undergo chemotherapy after witnessing that cancerous train-wreck).

Still, I'm not sure which is worse: this, or THIS.

Trash.

No offense but I think you're taking this a little too seriously. Yes Robot Chicken sucks and so does their parody(so does that Collegehumor video holy shit)but it's nothing worth getting too upset about.


While we're taking about Dragon Ball parodies, these videos are still the best ones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYa5aQb3YGE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pSmhZFbCy0

[TheatreStyleKai]

Who the hell is that supposed to be? Does anybody know? Please tell me if you know what they were going for here. I'm assuming it's Vegeta, but I never understood why they went and used official Dragon Ball Z figures for Goku and Kid Goku from GT Gohan and customized what appears to be a Troll for Vegeta. What on Earth did the animators look at beforehand to think that he wore a brown cape and white clothing? He's only in this shot, and the joke I guess is that he's in shock longer than Santa Claus? I don't really know what they were trying to make reference to, but that really goes for the entire spoof. Shortly after this scene Goku leaves it up to Santa's reindeer gang to save the day, and of course one of the reindeer has to blow snot as an attack (very typical humor, akin to Turner's own Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy as mentioned above). And it's all capped off with Goku stating that the "Tenkaichi Budokai is finally complete" as a ball of light descends from the sky and on to Gohan's hands, which obviously makes no sense what-so-ever and isn't even charming in an illogical sort of way; it's just ignorance that was written to poke fun at the fact that the show has foreign roots and uses (to the writers/animators) nonsensical words for powers and events.

That character is actually Tetsuo from the 1988 film Akira, the scene you referenced with the ball of light descending into Gohan's hands is from the climax of that film. It's still not a very funny parody, but as you said they were throwing in a lot of non-Dragon Ball specific anime gags for that one skit.

[Kanassa]

Still, I'm not sure which is worse: this, or THIS.

Trash.

WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK!?

"I'm sorry, I really thought she was Majin Buu..." Was the only line I found chuckle worthy.

[NitroEX]

This seems relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAhbsBFjxs

[TheBalishChannel]

This seems relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAhbsBFjxs

Oh, I get it, lol. That bit when he "re-dubbed" the scene must've been relevant to you and munsonx4's work on YouTube.

[NitroEX]

This seems relevant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAhbsBFjxs

Oh, I get it, lol. That bit when he "re-dubbed" the scene must've been relevant to you and munsonx4's work on YouTube.

Yeah I suppose so. I'm not overly picky about pronunciations or remaining faithful to the original Japanese version though, I just find it fun to imitate certain actors and replicate a specific style of dubbing.

[Polyphase Avatron]

This is pretty much why I don't watch Robot Chicken, and always found it to be a mixture of funny, kinda-sorta-funny-I-guess, and "ugh, why am I watching this?" even when I did. When they manage to avoid the mindless 12-year-old-esque urge to throw random horrible gory shit in EVERYTHING for a full episode (I recall at least one of the Star Wars episodes staying pretty well within the lines of Star Wars' own violence level rather than going overboard?) it can be pretty funny... when they have a "DURR LET'S MAKE IT SUPER GORY" episode I flip to another channel right away and never come back. Heads flying off and clay-blood squishes from random pointless death are not funny, guys, sorry. I haven't watched it for several years for that reason.

I did like the music video they did for Weird Al's "Weasel Stomping Day" though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k76IGLi6jWI

[TekTheNinja]

This skit does suck, but as a whole I like Robot Chicken. Their Star Wars stuff is fantastic in particular.

[MaxZ]

When I want some Dragon Ball laughs I just watch the Big Green Dub best of compilations

My favourite parts are "LET THAT CHILD ALONE" and "I'm back BACKBACKBACKBACKBACK!"

[Kanassa]

When I want some Dragon Ball laughs I just watch the Big Green Dub best of compilations

My favourite parts are "LET THAT CHILD ALONE" and "I'm back BACKBACKBACKBACKBACK!"

I just get my daily fix of TFS for the funny/badass factor.
"You're no Android, you're no Namekian and you are certainly no Super Saiyan"
''You know what? Fuck power levels, fuck Super Saiyan AND FUCK YOU! KIKOHO!"