Detroit: Become Human becomes 2½ times better when you edit in Leslie Nielsen
Detroit: Become Human (opens in new tab) is a heavy-handed metaphor for racism. Police Squad is a ridiculous TV series that bombed so badly it was cancelled after just six episodes, but then inspired a hit film trilogy. They could not be more different, in other words, and so naturally YouTuber eli_handle_b decided that the thing to do would be to mash them together in a bizarre two-minute video clip.
The results are definitely more Police Squad than David Cage: A dramatic hostage scene gets turned on its ear by Drebin’s turn as an umpire from Naked Gun, followed by an opening credits sequence inspired by the same film (opens in new tab) that can only be described as magically idiotic. (For the record, that applies to both the movie and the mashup.) The close-range shootout is a direct lift (opens in new tab) from the very first episode of Police Squad.
The mix is really well done, although the humour probably lands better for Police Squad fans—which I definitely am—than it does for people who think it’s all, well, stupid. But I’ll tell you this: I’ve never played Detroit: Become Human, nor have I felt any great urge to do so, but if this was an actual game and not just a two-minute spoof, I would be all over it. I’d be playing right now if I could.
This is eli_handle_b’s latest game-movie mashup, but far from his first—he did the “Austin Powers in Mass Effect (opens in new tab)” video that we enjoyed so much last year, among others. You can check out all his work on YouTube (opens in new tab)—and, because I can’t help myself, you can enjoy one of my very favorite Police Squad scenes below.
