Hewo Internet!
Welcome to Film Theory, da show dat tinks dat it would be soopah sweet if you wud subscwibe
for moe videos. Oh gosh. Sowy. I mean. *clears throat* sorry. It's just really infectious, all
right? The uwu has rubbed off on me again after watching too many YouTube shorts and seeing this
adorable yellow dog popping up all over my feed. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about,
today we're diving into the world of Chikn Nuggit. Spelled like…
that. Spellcheck hates me in this script. If you’ve ever somehow missed this incredibly
viral series across YouTube or TikTok or Instagram or literally any website,
Chikn Nuggit is an animated micro series created by Kyra Kupetsky of BuzzFeed Animation,
chronicling the wacky adventures of an adorable doggo named, fittingly enough, Chikn Nuggit, as
well as all his friends who are named after items that you might pick up at your local 7-Eleven.
There's Chikn’s bestest friend in the world Cheezborger the cat, Fwench Fwy the dragon;
a being of pure good, Iscream the bunny who may or may not actually be a demon, Slushi the
arctic fox who's really into cosplay conventions and fanfic, Cofi the sheep in wolf's clothing,
Sody Pop the rambunctious red panda who just wants to spread chaos as well as various other
side characters that get into hijinx with the Chikn Nuggit and the gang. To borrow a phrase,
this series is kind of like a box of chocolates. Once you scroll into one, you're never quite
sure what you're going to get. From the hashtag relatable.
To the “lol so random”.
To the “wow. That was actually horrific”.
And while these characters might seem innocent and cuddly on the outside...
If you keep watching these micro videos,
you'll soon discover something deeper going on just under the surface.
Let me tell you loyal theorists, you guys delivered with this
one. Taking to Twitter, GTLives’ comment sections, even the theories subreddit to
recommend that we look into Chikn Nuggit. And I gotta be honest. When I first saw
Chikn Nuggit recommendations popping up all across my feeds, I thought it had something
to do with Kindergarten, That Theorist clasic game with a different kind of Chicken Nugget.
Hello Internet, welcome to Nugget Theory where only
those most deserving of Nugget’s wisdom are permitted to watch.
But after taking a dive into this series, wow, I cannot believe that I let this one almost pass me
by. And with the news that BuzzFeed Animation has teamed up with Frederator to make a new animated
series adapted from the shorts, now seems like the perfect time to dig into this one.
And boy, let me tell you, there is a lot hidden beneath the cute and cuddly art of
this one. What on the surface seems like an innocent and wholesome series of fun,
jokey videos about furry friendos named after food is actually a series asking some pretty
heavy existential questions about what it means to be yourself, to believe in yourself. All packed
inside of a wholesome… Okay, mostly wholesome and digestible crust like a delicious chicken nugget.
So grab your ketchup and honey mustard loyal theorists, we’re digging in. Now,
when you decide to decode the lore of a series like Chikn Nuggit, sometimes it can be difficult
to figure out where to start. Unfortunately, most series like this don't really compile all their
most important lore bits into a compilation video called something like Chikn Nuggit Lore Part One…
Oh, that's ahh, that's exactly what they did with this one.
Nothing says, “Hey, go call MatPat to cover your series” like adding
the word ‘lore’ and making it a multi-part series.
So let's just explain what's going on here so we get a view of the big picture. All of this
lore content begins with the introduction of a new character into the lovable cast,
the personified clock and Tumblr sexyman known as…
Now, right off the bat, Bezel doesn't fit in for a lot of reasons. He's not an animal.
Nor is he Chibi.
Well, at least he's trying. Also worth noting that he's the only character not named after
an item that you'd find in a typical fast food drive-thru. A bezel is the ring that surrounds the
watch and holds the protective glass covering the face in place. So appropriate for the character,
but not exactly something you'd want to eat. Bezel is first introduced as a
thorn in everyone's side, reminding them of the fleeting nature of time itself.
He's also responsible for shipping the characters together. But I mean, like we've all done it.
This eventually brings Bezel into conflict with both Fwench Fwy and Iscream, who are both unlike
the rest of the cast. You see, both Fwench Fwy and Iscream are interdimensional beings, Fwench Fwy
is actually a representative of pure good. An Iscream is the demonic personification
of pure evil. Both are trying to influence the world to their side. But this conflict
of good versus evil quickly takes a backseat for another type of trope.
Yeah, opposites certainly seem to be attracting in this case. Now that right there is an interesting
set up for a conflict with a ton of hidden lore right? A battle of good with Fwench Fwy
versus evil with Iscream versus chaos with Bezel over the fate of the world. All with these cute,
adorable talking animals trapped in the middle. But it's not the world that these
three are fighting over. It's just control over one of the characters: Chikn Nuggit.
Strange occurrences, you say? Like what? Well, aside from summoning
demons or dragons or whatever we see that Chikn Nuggit has some sort of
control over his body that the other normal animals don't, and they're all aware of it.
He can even change things about other people.
Now, all of this could just be funny jokes or an art style thing. In shows with similar art
direction like Adventure Time or Steven Universe, the characters often have exaggerated features.
They can stretch and bend their bodies and limbs in ways that feel inhuman. Their faces
can transform into something funny or scary at the drop of a hat. Most of the time this
is just meant to be a fun art decision. There's no deeper meaning other than it's just a cartoon,
bro. But I don't believe that to be the case with Chicken Nugget.
I think all of these things are literally happening in-universe and that they aren't
necessarily supposed to be happening. Why? Well it's simple. Chikn Nuggit,
this dumb little pupper with a permanent thousand yard stare, is actually literally a god.
Makes sense, right? I mean, dog is just God backwards. Anyway, that is why all these
strange things keep happening around him. Chikn Nuggit’s body moving in strange ways. The weird,
creepy gnomes everywhere. Why a dragon demon and the embodiment of time keep following him around,
trying to sway him to their side. And if he can't see the advantages to all this, Bezel straight up
spells it out for us with a VHS-styled explainer video. Classic theorist trope. Love to see it.
And just to dot our I's and cross our t's here, we definitely know that this demigod must be
referring to Chikn Nuggit. Why? Well when Bezel says that the demigods destiny is to warp reality
beyond recognition to his own selfish desire, we see the world transform into a land of frogs
and cheeseburgers, two of Chikn Nuggits favorite things. I mean, his best friend is literally a cat
named Cheezborger wearing a cheeseburger hat. As for frogs…
What’s more, Chikn’s power seems to be growing. He no longer seems to
be affected when the other powerful characters use their powers on him.
He can read people's thoughts.
He even seems to be starting to break the fourth wall.
If you pause at just the right moment of this short, you'll see a picture of the real life
animators working on the short in the real world as Chikn stares directly at the camera.
And that's not even mentioning the smaller, creepier stuff like this.
It's a surprisingly intense setup for a series about cuddly cartoon animals,
and it leaves us with a lot of interesting places where it could
lead. With a clear battle between three sides and a doggo goddo that may dictate
the entire fate of the universe. On one side, we have Bezel instigating chaos,
slowly trying to reveal Chikn Nuggits destiny to him by planting subtle ideas into his head.
He's also trying to reveal the nature of this reality to Chikn Nuggit,
helping him break through that fourth wall.
On the other side of the battle, we have Fwench Fwy and Iscream who would love to recruit Chikn
Nuggit but have accepted that they probably won't be able to. So instead, they're trying to shield
Chikn Nuggit from the truth, but they're kind of at a total loss for what to do.
That said, they do have themselves a nice little backup plan for when things go south.
And lastly, in the middle, we have Chikn Nuggit. Who doesn't seem to
be handling all this very well. It's affecting his waking hours.
And his sleeping ones.
And for now, that's where a lot of the lore of Chikn Nuggit stands. But I believe that
we can actually take it a step further. I think that we can make a pretty good
guess about where this story is going and the themes that it's going to unpack. First of all,
it seems pretty darn clear that Chikn Nuggit is going to learn the true nature of his powers
and soon, and that is going to cause a lot of chaos. In the last clip from the lore video,
we see the character Sody Pop drawing a happy picture of the whole cast having fun.
But as it's hung up on the fridge, the music gets ominous as the picture starts to fall. Clearly
foreshadowing that the fun, carefree shorts from early on in the series are going to be evolving
into something more sinister. In the description of the lore video, it even says, quote, "Here's
the start of a chaotic arc in Chikn Nuggit." Chaos. Just like what Bezel’s trying to sow into
this world to awaken Chikn Nuggit’s full power. But then what's going to happen as a part of that
story? Well, honestly, it's a bit difficult to predict. This is the sort of series where
Bezel could reveal Chikn Nuggit’s destiny only for the doggo to say ‘cool' and then move on,
never mentioning it all again. But that honestly wouldn't be very fun. Nor do I think it's the big
plan that they have built for this thing. Instead, I think Chikn Nuggit is going to
have to grapple with the truth about himself and really struggle with it as a part of his
identity. That right there has been one of the biggest themes of Chikn Nuggit so far,
the theme of acceptance of reality, of accepting who you truly are. And it manifests
itself in multiple ways across the series. For example, one way is accepting the idea
of mortality, that no matter what you want or what you do, time is always going to continue
to march forward. As I showed earlier, Bezel is quick to remind everyone of that fact.
And it's something that these characters have already started tackling. For example,
in one short Cheezborger asks Fwench Fwy and Iscream if they plan on getting married.
But Fwench Fwy says that they'll need at least another
10,000 years before they're ready for it. And as Iscream points out.
In another, after Sody Pop asks Slushi what kind of stuff she
wore when she was younger. Slushi is driven into a quarter life crisis,
and in an attempt to recapture that lost time, she re enters her goth phase.
Acceptance of aging, though, is only one facet of this. Another one is accepting your own identity.
And that right there is a huge part of the series. This is perfectly embodied by the character Cofi:
she is literally a sheep in wolf's clothing. She feels more at home in a different body,
and is doing her best to make that her reality. More explicitly, she has several moments where
she learns to accept herself and that she doesn't need to conform to others expectations.
Characters like Slushi encourage others to embrace their interests,
no matter how cringe they might be.
Even Chikn Nuggit gives Cheezborger some body positive affirmation.
And this theme right here, acceptance of who you are no matter who you are, is going to be playing
a huge role in this lore as the series goes on. I don't know about you, but if I were in Chikn
Nuggit paws and was on the cusp of discovering that I was a demigod with the potential to alter
the world to my own will and destroy the universe, It would kinda freak me out a little bit. Just...
Just a smidge. And any potential feelings of shame or low self-worth coming from that?
Well, it's going to outwardly affect everyone around him. We already
see in the series how Chikn Nuggit holds himself back despite having immense power.
If Chikn Nuggit wanted an adult sounding voice, he could have onw. But his internalized feelings
are the things holding him back. And that's just the tip of the iceberg for the things
that Chikn's going to have to deal with. Thankfully, though, he's surrounded by the
best people to help in this sort of situation. A supportive, best friendly Cheezborger,
a motherly figure encouraging him to embrace himself like Slushi, someone actively on the same
journey of self-acceptance like Cofi, a literal angel and devil on his shoulder to keep him
balanced in Fwench Fwy and Iscream and a little chaos gremlin and Sody Pop just for the fun of it.
They're the ones that are ultimately going to help keep Chikn Nuggit grounded, helping them through
whatever god-like self-realization he's going to be forced through. And they're not going to do it
through some epic quest or adventure, but they're going to do it through the mundane, the everyday
things that they're already doing, drawing, going to lunch, relaxing in a field, whatever.
Sometimes life isn't about the amazing and exciting future,
but the here and now and the friends that you choose to keep. Maybe the world that
Chikn Nuggit occupies is just a figment of his imagination or the whims of an animator. But
the important thing is that he spends his time with the friends that he's made along the way.
But hey, that's just a theory! A FILM THEORY aaaaaaand cut.