Writing · November 1, 2026 · 4 min read
Monty Python in space: temple fetch quests and the Chicken Bocks
Some of our favourite comedy follows a simple pattern: completely ridiculous situations treated with total seriousness. That's the spirit behind the temple fetch quests in Super Space Buds, and behind the Chicken Bocks, the loudest creatures in the galaxy.
The ancient temple problem
Every so often, Zamfyr and Onobo need to get into an ancient temple. Maybe there's an artifact inside that could protect Earth. Maybe there's a clue to the Gygaplex. Maybe Zamfyr just wants to see what's behind the door.
The temples never simply open. Instead, an ancient guardian, carving or extremely bored voice demands offerings. And the offerings are never sensible. They might ask for a Chicken Bock, a bowl of flaming hot guacamole and a robot. In that order. Delivered at the same time.
What follows is a quest across several planets for three objects that make no sense together, with Zamfyr treating it like the most sacred mission of his life and Onobo quietly wondering whether the temple is joking.
Why the absurd works
The comedy comes from commitment. If the characters wink at the audience, the joke dies. If they play it completely straight, risking life and limb for guacamole, it soars. Zamfyr's sincere heroism is the perfect engine for this kind of humour.
It also helps that the stakes are real. The temple might really hold something that matters to Earth. That keeps the story moving and gives the silliness weight.
“A Chicken Bock, flaming hot guac and a robot. Delivered together. No substitutions.”
Meet the Chicken Bocks
Chicken Bocks are alien chickens. They are fast, bright, panicky and incredibly loud. Their cry, a piercing BAW!, can be heard across a valley. They panic at loud noises, quiet noises and the general idea of noise.
A flock of Bocks can strip a picnic, flatten a tent and vanish over the horizon in under a minute. Catching one is nearly impossible. Catching one and keeping it calm long enough to deliver it to an ancient temple is the kind of challenge Zamfyr was born for.
Standalone stories, growing threads
Each episode of the first season is designed to stand on its own. You can watch any one of them and get a complete adventure with a beginning, middle and end. But each one also adds a little to the bigger picture: a clue about Grimlash, a hint about the Qu'ah, a step in Zamfyr and Onobo's friendship.
The planned Season 1 finale, 'The Temple of Three Gifts', is a single episode, not a two-parter. It pulls those threads together in one big fetch quest, and it's built around exactly the kind of absurd offering list described above.
Other comic ingredients
Fetch quests and screaming chickens aren't the only tools. There's Super Flea, an invisible hero who defeats whole armies and disappears before anyone can say thanks. There are Meep Rocks, who communicate in a single word. There's the Googleplex, which knows the answer to everything but is very particular about how you ask.
Underneath it all is the same rule we use for every joke in the show: the situation can be absurd, but the characters have to mean it.
Writing with a light touch
We want Super Space Buds to be funny for kids and adults at the same time. That means jokes that work on more than one level: slapstick for the youngest viewers, wordplay and character comedy for everyone else, and moments of sincerity that land for all ages.
The temple quests and the Chicken Bocks are where that mix shines brightest. They're loud, silly and chaotic, and right in the middle of it are two friends trying very hard to do the right thing.
Building a fetch quest
Writing a good fetch quest is a puzzle. Each item on the list should send the crew somewhere visually different and create a new kind of problem. A Chicken Bock is a chase. Flaming hot guacamole is a cooking disaster on a planet where fire behaves strangely. A robot is a negotiation, because robots in this galaxy have opinions.
Then the items have to come back together. The funniest moments often come when the crew finally assemble everything and discover that the Bock has eaten the guacamole, or that the robot refuses to share a crate with a chicken. Every solution creates a new problem.
We also like it when the quest reveals something about the characters. Zamfyr might discover he's afraid of chickens. Onobo might reveal an unexpected talent for cooking. The temple gets its offerings, and the audience gets a little more of the friendship.
Inspirations
We grew up on comedy that took nonsense seriously: knights fighting over coconuts, grail quests derailed by rabbits, endless bureaucracy in the face of disaster. That spirit runs right through the temple quests, mixed with classic adventure serials and Saturday-morning space cartoons.
The goal isn't to copy anyone. It's to capture that feeling of a story that knows it's ridiculous and commits to it anyway, which is pretty much Zamfyr's whole personality.
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