Civilian UrbanMech Patrol and Protection Service
Sarna News
 | This article needs to be updated with additional information from the following sources: Shrapnel (magazine)/Issue 18 |
Civilian UrbanMech Patrol and Protection Service, more frequently known by its acronym C.U.P.P.S., was a thirty-first-century Federated Suns-produced Taurian police force mockumentary holovid series that was unexpectedly popular in the Taurian Concordat.[1][2]
Overview[edit]
Produced by the Federated Broadcasting Corporation, C.U.P.P.S. is one of a long line of Ministry of Information, Intelligence, and Operations-funded anti-Taurian propaganda works intended for Pleiades Cluster audiences to reinforce stereotypes that made the Taurians look like violent and stupid backwater bumpkins in comparison to the enlightened and cultured Federated Suns. While numerous Federated Suns entertainment companies produced these type of shows, in part because MIIO funding made them instantly profitable, the results were frequently poorly made and low quality cash-grabs that generally barely lasted a year.[1]
Its first episode broadcast in 3072, on the surface C.U.P.P.S. was little different and was only moderately successful when released on the Pleiades worlds of Maia, Merope and Electra. However when episodes were smuggled into the Concordat the show unexpectedly became a huge hit among the very people it was intended to lampoon, though questions remain if they are laughing at or with the show.[1]
A mockumentary of police procedurals, C.U.P.P.S. was supposedly based on a real UrbanMech using peacekeeper force on the Concordat capital of Samantha on Taurus that included the usual zany cast of police archetypes that helped reinforce the cliché primative wild west-style atmosphere that MIIO implied was the whole of the Concordat even on cosmopolitan Taurus. Episodes of C.U.P.P.S. often also included commercials for Crazy Eddie's Used UrbanMech Emporium which reportedly sold decidedly dodgy low quality UrbanMechs to everybody and anybody, further reinforcing the lawless and backwards Concordat stereotype.[1]
Cast[edit]
- Sergeant Jackson Kowalczyk - As a child Kowalczyk dreamt of becoming a MechWarrior but failed the entrance exam for the École Militaire, opting to serve out his mandatory service in the Taurian Defense Force by accepting a position in C.U.P.P.S. in the belief piloting even an UrbanMech will improve his chances "next time". Taking his job far too seriously, Kowalczyk is over eager and unskilled in equal measure, unwittingly causing excessive property damage while performing his duty.[1]
- Captain Edward Block - The cliché angry police commander, Block spends most of his time exasperatingly yelling "Kowalczyk!!" as his Sergeant uses his 'Mech in roles for which it is grossly ill-suited.[1]
- Subaltern Sam Butterfinger - Slovenly member of C.U.P.P.S.[1]
Episodes[edit]
- Season 1, Episode 1 "Kowalczyk" : The pilot of C.U.P.P.S. introduces the basic concept and characters, as Kowalczyk when being outrun by joyriding teenagers causes extensive property damage firing his Autocannon at their fleeing Cyclops Hurricane, before he deftly coaxes an elderly grandmother's kitten from a tree using his Small Laser as a laser pointer before crashing into a car when trying to race after the now frightened feline.[1]