2014 short:
The killer(s) seen in the sitcom are operatives of B.R.O.T.H.
Smarf manages to destroy him, but it's for naught as it's revealed immediately after that the killer is only one member of an entire army.- This is how he's seemingly everywhere, because it's actually many guys killing off the characters. And how he peeps in on himself.
- Conversely, Smarf is an agent of C.O.O.K.S. assigned to Earth to track down the B.R.O.T.H. infiltrator(s). His grotesque appearance allowed him to do so without attracting the killers' attention, but he was only able to destroy one of them before he malfunctioned.
One of Smarf's robot powers is synthetic flesh regrowth.
That's how he got all his fur back. Rainbow hand beams is another one of his powers. Unfortunately, his processor was too damaged for him to heal himself as he crawled to the button, hence why he died in the process.Smarf and The Killer are rivals, but not in the good and evil way.
Smarf fights the killer to stop his murderous rampage, however the killer is releasing the actors from the intro credits purgatory they're trapped in. Smarf keeps them safe, BUT AT WHAT COST?Too Many Cooks is a memetic SCP.
And it's currently in a containment breach.- Alternatively, The Killer is the memetic SCP, infecting an otherwise normal collection of sitcoms. His presence causes the pseudo-Fourth Walls that separate fictional shows from each other to break down. I'm almost certain there's an existing SCP that causes fictional characters to die, or something along those lines, if someone can remember which one it is.
- SCP-583
may be the one you're referring to. Only with that particular SCP, the fictional characters usually only die of asphyxiation. Which brings up the question of whether anyone who watches "Too Many Cooks" is going to start seeing their favorite fictional characters being gruesomely slaughtered with machetes in the near future.
The Killer is a Well-Intentioned Extremist trying to contain the outbreak of Intronitis.
He was trying to develop a vaccine and in fact used an imperfect prototype on himself (hence why his symptoms are not as extreme as the others', i.e. not having a full caption). But the vaccine wasn't ready when the disease really got out of control, so he decided it was quicker to just murder the heck out of everyone who was infected. The Killer is a captured Beast Rebel sent to contain the outbreak of Intronitis.
Combining two of the above theories. His Hellscapian biology is not as affected as humans are, so Intronitis affects him differently (which explains the garbled captions). He always had the taste for human flesh, though. The Killer is Patient Zero for Intronitus.
- It explains at least two of the above (albeit in a different way from the previous WMG) and why the intro music follows him around, overriding whatever is playing before he gets to his victims. His case is so advanced that his credit doesn't appear properly, if he ever had one at all. It's not made clear whether Intronitus is itself fatal.
The slasher section is the origin of B.R.o.t.H.
- In the 1970s, the killer started replacing the people he killed with himself. Flash forward a few centuries, and there's an army of Bills, that C.O.O.K.S. is barely able to keep at bay.
Smarf's name is actually an acronym.
- Scientifically Modified Advanced Robotic Feline
- This is my new headcanon.
The Killer is really Jack Torrence, and he got there because that photo from The Overlook Hotel was bought to be used as a prop in a Parody Episode.
The other genre takeoffs shown were previous parody episodes. However, this time the Producers got more than they bargained for! The entire short is actually one large Kobayashi Maru test.
The Killer is actually a former servant of Ensign Sue or Goddess Sue.
The Killer progresses from subtly being everywhere to becoming a disruptive part of the show, assuming powers that are improbable for the other characters to possess before he attains impossible abilities over the reality The Cooks inhabit. Death does not stop the killer, it just dispossesses him of a normal body. Being alive just held it back, because now he endangers the worlds of the show themselves. The Killer proves victorious, and now, he IS the show. the Killer is everywhere, endangering not just the characters and he is devouring The characters and dispossessing them of their titles. It may be safe to question if the Killer is even a person/character, even if they named him. The Universe without the Cooks malfunctions. There is no saving it. In a final effort, it is reset.Whatever The Killer was, he was selfish enough to make the point of his existence to ruin everything. The Killer in too many Cooks, whoever or whatever it is, is forever part of television. He can't be escaped.
Some of the Cooks have weaker diagnosis' of Intronitis than others
Not all of the Cooks are smiling when their credits come up. Those who aren't smiling aren't infected by the disease as much as those who were smiling. The possible phases of Intronitis
- Phase 1: The very, very beginning of the short. People have their names appear in front of them and are forced to smile, but can still move.
- Phase 2: How it occurs for most of the short. The names appear, the smiles are forced, and they're stuck in a frozen motion.
- Phase 3: What happens near the end; people swap roles with their own names.
"Intronitis" is just the normal state of things in the original show.
Everyone in the first show seen—the one actually titled Too Many Cooks—knows that every half hour, they have to stop and smile while someone else's name appears in front of them, and none of them mind. Bill's running around from show to show and altering of their realities is breaking down the barriers between shows, and one effect of this is that non-sitcom shows are starting to feature sitcom-style intros. The inhabitants of the medical drama can only interpret this through the lens of a disease, and it's horrifying to them because it's so far outside of their normal genre.