Really Lame Mythology
From The Rubber Chicken
The Rubber Chicken's Really Lame Mythology is a term describing the backstory, or mythology (often referred to as "canon") of the universe created by The Rubber Chicken throughout their various media productions, primarily The Rubber Chicken Podcast.
It has been described by most exposed to it as being profoundly lame, both in concept and execution. Its questionable existence is also the primary reason for the existence of this wiki, and, by extension, you.
Contents |
Inception
The Rubber Chicken's Really Lame Mythology (RLM) is perhaps unique in popular mythologies simply in the degree to which it is unplanned, poorly executed, utterly random and, as the formal title suggests, seriously lame.
The existence of an RLM was never at any point planned. The Rubber Chicken has been writing humourous pieces for several years now with no connection between them other than the overall shared brilliance of the talented writing team. While there were multipart pieces such as the Happybob/Evilbob saga, there was never any suggestion of an overall link between any of the works.
It wasn't until the inception of The Rubber Chicken Podcast that the seeds of the RLM were planted. The Podcast was conceived as very sketch comedy-based, and in keeping with the general Rubber Chicken style, running jokes were front and centre. One of these running jokes focused on the mysterious presence of The Mooon People, who have been mentioned in almost every single episode, often involved (in their own characteristically shadowy fashion) with key events in several sketches. This in and of itself means nothing, but unfortunately, several members of The Rubber Chicken's staff have overactive imaginations when it comes to pointless examinations of the internal logic and continuity of fictional universes, and these pocket protector-wearing shut-ins slyly took over the production, silently and patiently adding a vast web of inter-related sketches and characters, then proceeding to exhaustively write about them, as though possessed of the notion that people really cared, or that it was in any way necessary. One can only assume that their kind take perverse pleasure in the mere act of such time-wasting.
Current State
The RLM's current state is a complex one. Between developments in the second season of the podcast and recent additions to this wiki, The Omega Device and The Mooon People have been firmly established as the lynchpins around which this "universe" revolves. Outwards from there expands a web of interrelated characters, places and events.
If an anal-retentive person were to draw an unnecessary and needlessly complex diagram of this web, it would most likely look something like this:
<Diagram in production, coming soon!>
There are few constants in the RLM, other than the spectre of The Mooon People hovering over everything, but one thing that is very clear is that there is a strong bias towards the juxtaposition of the mundane and the fantastical. The connection can work either way. For example, a fantastical happening may have a very mundane execution, such as a deadly, brain-boiling alien signal (the subject of a lengthy and elaborate setup) taking the form of nothing more than a callback to a previous gag, in this case popular musical number "Rock Lobster," by the B-52's. Conversely, a highly mundane situation, such as the Secret Sound competition on a commercial radio station being a (really really) needlessly elaborate complication of a previous throwaway line about a banana milkshake and the presence or absence of sprinkles on top of it.
From this, we can presume several things about the RLM. Firstly, we can observe that all continuity in the RLM is emergent. No relationship between two given events, places or characters are pre-planned. The links we observe that define the RLM in its current state coalesce from nothing, fitting together in whichever humourous way strikes the mind of the writers.
Secondly, we note that banal mundaneness and silly levels of unnecessary complexity are naturally attracted to one another and form a coherent and functional state in perfect balance with each other. The probability of an event occurring within the TRC universe is directly proportional to the coexistant levels of these two elements. One can postulate that the stability of the quantum waveform of any discrete event incorporating these two yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams yams.
Lastly, it bears pointing out that these events, characters, places and most especially the causal linkages between them are, like, totally lame, man.
Spinoff Materials
As with all expansive fictional universes (eg. Star Wars, Star Trek, Saint Elsewhere), The Rubber Chicken's RLM has its fair share of spinoff materials. The most prominent of these is without a doubt A. R. Craig's upcoming septology of novels set in the TRC universe: A Chicken Darkly. Described by Craig as a "dark, gritty, adult take on the TRC mythos," the series follows a core cast of characters, including fan favourites such as Toni Jefferson, Paul, Sir Nigel Haversmith IV and Harold Holt (Deceased) as they journey into the dark darkness of their own souls, and learn that everything they thought they knew about the Street Sharks was a lie. Readers will join them as, narrated by The World-Weary Noir Detective, they discover a horrifying truth hidden from the world for a hundred years.
The RLM has also been a firtile ground for unlicensed fan productions. Amongst the most well-known of these have been:
- Cooking With Claude Cookbooks (in reality, a selection of Jamie Oliver books with all the C's whited-out and replaced with H's)
- "I visited The Land of Canoes and all I got was this lousy shirt," branded T-Shirts, sold in Chinese street markets
- Love advice books purporting to be written by Andrey
- Expansive volumes of Morty Bechbaum fan fiction
