‘Sharklumbo’ Brings Columbo To Shark Week
The folks over at Funny or Die are getting into the Shark Week festivities, and their contribution to the feeding frenzy, Sharklumbo, is introducing us to a shark who is also a detective, just looking for a pencil.
A mash-up of Shark Week and Peter Falk’s classic Columbo, Sharklumbo is touted as “the detective we didn’t know we needed,” as io9 relates. The Sharklumbo video works largely because of Kevin Pollack’s impression of Falk, and their take on his classic “one more thing” bit is hilarious, as Sharklumbo succumbs to his baser instincts.
SHARKLUMBO!!!! “It’s a shark and it’s also Peter Falk as Columbo.” http://t.co/sqHbHUflgz
— Carsten Fogh Nielsen (@Filoffen) August 14, 2014
Sharklumbo is also an intentional send up of “so-bad-it’s-good attitude that powers the Internet Shark Hype Machine,” according to AV Club. The intentionally poor CGI violence may be NSFW for some, but for others, it only serves to heighten the hilarity. Designed to also mock mash-up culture, Sharklumbo‘s strength is in the randomness of its premise, making it a sort of parody of the recent Sharknado sequel The Second One. As AV Club points out, Sharknado 2 was “already kind of a parody of Sharknado, which was an intentionally silly movie to begin with, sending us way down the parodic rabbit hole.”
As The Inquisitr has recently reported, Shark Week is in full swing, and the internet is flooded with media featuring the ocean’s fiercest predators. This year’s event, which is billed as the “King of Summer” by Discovery, has already been marred by controversy amid a fictionalized documentary, Shark of Darkness, which aggravated fans. In combination with another mockumentary, Megalodon: The New Evidence, the docudramas have some fans and scientists lamenting that Discovery seems to be moving Shark Week in an intentionally hyperbolic direction, spurred on by the success of films like Sharknado.
SHARKLUMBO wants to eat you, but… just one more thing. http://t.co/UZK8Gohdzq pic.twitter.com/RXnkDA2pEQ — HitFix (@HitFix) August 11, 2014
Sharklumbo is also a perfect vehicle for star Kevin Pollak’s impression of Columbo lead Peter Falk, which is impressively done. Falk, who starred as the iconic detective between 1971 and 1978, passed away in 2011 at the age of 83. Sharklumbo also features Gina Gershon as an unlucky woman who loses her hand to the trenchcoat wearing aquatic detective.
As always, 2000 AD got there first! RT @TheAVClub: Sharklumbo, the shark that’s also Columbo http://t.co/zpNvkaxu4s pic.twitter.com/FpwicEFH2W
— 2000 AD (@2000AD) August 13, 2014
While it isn’t set to go beyond Funny or Die anytime soon, Shark Week fans can only hope that more of Sharklumbo is in store.
[Image via Funny or Die]
