AS THE KITCHEN SINKS

As the Kitchen Sinks is a fictional scifi show produced on Cybertron and aired across multiple colonies.

Content

It's an animated show, mostly for nymphs and younglings, following a broad, wacky cast of organics from a fictional species (that are uncannily similar to but are not actually humans) in a more episodic dilemma-of-the-day simplified soap opera plot structure rather than an overarching story with a specific climax to reach. Cybertron is either scarcely referenced or not mentioned at all in-fiction, focused entirely on the world of its organic characters. There's a few smaller spinoff cartoons, a good chunk of comics, a handful of novels, games, and direct-to-TV movie equivalents, as well as a broad selection of toys and merch. In comparison to other media empires, it's rather small due to its relative simplicity and focus on organics—considered a niche topic—but it's still an ongoing and respectable franchise with a decent sized fandom.

It's part of a general genre of specbio organic fiction, which is distinct from extant organic fiction (usually concerning actual organic aliens Cybertron once encountered, or their local organic lifeforms). A critical optic would note that this genre is usually infantilizing, demeaning, dismissive, or otherwise condescending about organic life, with an underlying attitude that they are simply inferior, stupider, incapable, etc. in comparison to mecha. It is subtle and often unintentional propaganda wound up in otherwise average entertainment, despite the current absence of any known organic contact with Cybertron. This is not unique to As the Kitchen Sinks, being the Cybertronian culture's default attitude towards organic life as a whole.

While As the Kitchen Sinks isn't necessarily a staple of Cybertronian pop culture, it certainly has its fans. Thundercracker is something of a weeb for the very concept of organics, largely due to this show. His siblings and Megatron are pretty tired of hearing about this show, but now he's got a bunch of new folks to infodump to at the JAAT. Peers like Powerglide simply cannot resist the allure! His favorite character would be his OC, Buster, who is a "dog", a species he very carefully designed to plausibly fit into the world of As the Kitchen Sinks, and who is absolutely the Mary Sue protagonist of his novel-length fanfiction. The Sweeps are modeled directly after Buster. It took some emphatic convincing from Galvatron for Scourge to decide against actually naming them after her too, as that information surely would have compromised his identity. If he had to pick a favorite ATKS character, it would be a close tie between a cute little genius who gets around on wheels (a stand-in for Chip Chase) and a determined spitfire warrior he's written as one of Buster's best friends (a stand-in for Marissa Faireborn).

Notes

• The general concept and title of the show is taken directly from a one-off joke in the G1 cartoon which was itself a reference to a real world show.
• In SNAP, As the Kitchen Sinks is kind of an in-universe species swapped equivalent to the role the actual Transformers franchise plays. It's comparatively a much smaller franchise with far fewer tie-ins, but it has the same feel as the 80's cartoon. It could also be compared to iCarly, Wander Over Yonder, Phineas & Ferb, or the animated Barbie movies/show.
• While it's similar in tone, it's not a one-to-one equivalent of Transformers, or any Earth media. Cybertron has a very different media/entertainment culture than humans do and their genres, production methods, and publishing forces don't act the same way.
• I'm never going to draw what ATKS looks like, or actually name the characters, etc. It's supposed to be a wink at the audience, a meta reference to canon Transformers humans without actually being them. Enough that someone can go "is TC talking about Agent Fowler???" but never confirming it.