A Robot Chicken special that aired on October 8th, 2017, Look Who's Walking is a loving tribute and satire of The Walking Dead's run up to the point of Season 8. The overarching storyline is that decades into the future, a cure for the walker plague has been found, and society is back to normal. A museum has collected relics from the days of the show and the adventures of Rick Grimes' group. However, a now-elderly Carl tells us how things really happened, since the museum is off by quite a few details.
Or, something somewhat close to how it all really happened.
Tropes:
- And Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Negan) and Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Gareth) get this treatment in the opening credits.
- As Himself: Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick, Walking Dead franchise creator Robert Kirkman, and Season 4-8 show runner Scott M. Gimple all voice Robot Chicken versions of themselves in The Stinger.
- The Bus Came Back: On a meta level, this is the first time we've seen many deceased characters for years.
- Came Back Wrong: In one segment, a reality TV show reunites Maggie with her deceased husband Glenn. While Maggie is happy to have her husband back, Glenn still unfortunately has the grisly wounds to his head inflicted by Negan meaning he's barely functional given such brain trauma.
- Continuity Porn: And loads of it! The special has references to every major era of the show, from the prison to the farm to Negan's arrival.
- Among the foodstuffs served in the museum's cafeteria is chocolate pudding. A memorable scene in Season 4's "After" featured Carl eating a huge can of chocolate pudding he found.
- Eugene is honored with a "make your own bullets" machine in the museum. In the late season 6 episode "Twice As Far", Eugene found a location that gave him the supplies needed to concoct homemade bullets.
- Creator Cameo: Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, and Scott M. Gimple, show-runner from Seasons 4-8, appear in the Talking Dead segment in the credits.
- Crosscast Role: Seth Green voices Olivia for her one line.
- Denser and Wackier: For starters, who expected to see the gang hanging around with Snoopy, Hershel battling a kangaroo, or Negan joining a musical number? note
- Dramatic Ammo Depletion: Daryl's ammunition woes are poked at, as he constantly needs another bolt to fire from his crossbow.
- Fat Comic Relief: Olivia's sole line in the special is to suggest that Rick find some Ding-Dongs for her to eat.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Terminus residents really do have excellent community theatre, the only thing is, they use it to distract victims so they can catch and eat them.
- It Can Think: The walkers are usually pretty sentient in many of the segments. In an early segment with Morgan and Rick, one walker who was a locksmith remembers enough of his past life and profession to open Morgan's door.
- Lampshade Hanging: Everywhere!
- Robert Kirkman calls the couch he sits on during Talking Dead the "dead cast member" couch. Talking Dead has gained some infamy for having actors on the talk-show who died the episode prior (though they've since taken some measures to prevent the show's line-up from spoiling character deaths).
- Among the many recurring jokes of the series poked fun at are Carl's ever-growing hair, Daryl's ammunition, and Negan's famous "dip".
- One sketch has Rick realize that his Atlanta group, the main cast of the show, does not have a dedicated name like say, Mystery Incorporated or the Avengers, and thus tries to come up with a catchy name. He's less than successful, let alone creative.
- The absurdity of Negan being able to block a bullet with Lucille is taken to its illogical extreme when it's revealed in one sketch that the bat is basically a Kryptonian superhero. note
- Laser-Guided Karma: Negan steals Snoopy's scarf for his own outfit. Later, it gets caught in a moving car's door and strangles him, much to Rick's group's and Snoopy's delight.Rick: Ha ha ha! (Flips two birds) Fuck you, Negan!
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: As this special was made to premiere ahead of the eighth season premiere, all bets are off when it comes to spoilers over the entirety of the show's run to this point.
- Mythology Gag:
- Dale and Andrea hook up and have sex, much like their comic counterparts did.
- An elderly Carl is the only member of the group still alive by the time the walker plague has been cured and forgotten about. Robert Kirkman has gone on record to say that Carl is the character in the least amount of danger of being killed off and is a strong contender for the only survivor of the series. Season 8 ended up revealing that this only applies to Carl's comic counterpart, as the TV incarnation of Carl dies in the mid-season premiere, while his comic counterpart ultimately survives the events of the series and gets a happy ending.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: When Sophia goes missing, Rick brings a log in a jacket to Carol and swears it's her daughter. Carol is unamused.
- Ruder and Cruder: The Walking Dead certainly has earned its TV-MA rating, but Robot Chicken generally has far more banal and lewd humor than it does, especially given it's a comedy show whereas The Walking Dead is mostly serious.
- Sole Survivor: Carl is the only member of the group seen in the present day storyline. He ends up killing the last remaining walker on Earth, though the walker infects the nerd before it's killed.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial:
- Shane uses this to start his affair with Lori, insisting that Rick told him to have sex with her and all. When Rick returns alive, he swears that Rick told him to tell Lori that she should never speak of their affair.
- The Terminus residents repeatedly promise to Rick, Carl, and Michonne that they won't eat them in their song. Rick catches onto it and invokes this trope, and Michonne initially thinks they're just joking around.
- Too Kinky to Torture: The sex-crazed unicorn that Rick rides into Atlanta is caught and eaten by the horde, but ends up enjoying being bitten and asks for them to bite specific places.
- Villain Song:
- Gareth and the Terminus residents get “Welcome to Terminus”, a jaunty number designed to distract visitors long enough for them to capture them to eat them.
- Negan has a fantasy about starring in a variety hour-type musical number dubbed “Hey Negan”, which is about his famous dip he does whenever he kills people with Lucille.
- A variation with Merle, who sings a heartfelt ballad longing for someone as racist and misogynistic as he is (and is joined by a walker). Chronologically, the song takes place offscreen during Season 1, when Merle was still firmly an antagonist, making it qualify for this trope despite his latter Heel–Face Turn.
- Your Head Asplode: We not only see Negan kill Abraham again this way, but he kills one of his back-up dancers for messing up his musical number.
