Kind cool…

Googling for giggles – Entertainment News, Just For Laughs, Media – Variety

I’ve had a lot of friends make ends meet as a substitute teacher, so I thought this would be an obvious job to tackle. I’ve also heard that there are not a lot of requirements to become a sub. I like the idea of a character who barely understands human culture having to educate some humans. Honestly, I’ve had teachers who barely spoke English who were teaching me American History, so it didn’t seem like too far of a stretch. The major drawback for the classroom scene was that I could not cut to a room full of kids reacting and talking to Krog as I originally intended. This was budget-driven again, and so we only show a lot of “tops of heads” as we did with the birthday party episode. I have to admit, it took some of the fun out of the script — I envisioned a lot of funny reactions that I just couldn’t get. And without anyone else to cut to, it made the entire scene very challenging to direct and to keep interesting.

I had pressure from the guys at Smosh.com to make sure the show wasn’t getting “too talky,” and here I had my most “talky” scene ever! In the middle of production, I just asked my animators to look for ANY opportunity to lay in visual sight gags and activity in the classroom. The most economical additions seemed to be paper airplanes and spitwads (I thought the airplanes were a nice subtle nod to Krog’s past). And then the animators added one of the biggest laughs in the first scene by adding the, ahem, chart of the male reproductive system that Krog pulls down accidentally. That was all from the animators. And it laid in a good joke.

The rest of Krog’s speech (about what coasts he prefers to destroy) fell a bit flat, I have to admit. Not sure where the comedy got lost, but I have to cop to this — it doesn’t have the more lively jokes or banter of other episodes. Perhaps it’s because Krogzilla ended up having no one to really banter with. Which is why the next scene in the break room perks everyone up and plays so nicely by contrast.

In the break room, we meet Alan, an Asian American teacher played by Jason Gerali (who also bullied “Mucus Marcus” in episode 5). Alan triggers some of Krogzilla’s worst racially-awkward missteps — the kind of conversational trainwrecks I loved from Ricky Gervais in the original episodes of “The Office.” Krogzilla just digs himself deeper and deeper by acknowledging the painful connection between giant monsters and Japanese people. Then Jeff the Barnacle pops up to make things even worse! Shout out to MY old stomping grounds of TULSA here. The “Jeff Lance” joke at the end was pure ad-lib and I love it.

Vanessa Ragland plays another character for me here, the Vice Principal. She was supposed to be a new onscreen character, but fell victim to the continuing pressure to lower character count and save money. So Vanessa’s voice was reduced to an intercom box, which could conceivably happen in a school. And who knows, maybe her delightful voice as she fires Krogzilla is all the funnier as it comes from an impersonal box.

One more bit of trivia: Smosh had very few requirements for me regarding content. Some were obvious (no R-rated swears, no nudity, no drug use), but they also wanted no smoking or even any references to smoking. My little wink at this is Alan coming into the break room to tell Krog just that: “You can’t smoke in here.” Then we get one more sight gag from our main monster: smoke pours from his nostrils when he drinks too much coffee. Good to know.

We’re coming to the end of the series’ run, and I’m sad! But the next two episodes are some of my favorites. I’m happy to report that next week is chock FULL of new characters, and the return of an old nemesis (cough-cough-lava vomit!!-cough).

Ah, what could be more ironic than a huge beast trying to work in a pet store? In this show, Krogzilla is really pulled in a lot of directions. On one hand, he’s completely sympathetic to the caged reptiles, calling them “slaves” to the humans. On the other hand, he sees a lot of the animals as part of a big buffet line. I’ll be honest, Krogzilla’s appetite for cats is a bit of an homage to ALF. Y’know, “Alf?” The 80’s puppet sitcom? Alien living with a family? Okay, super old reference.

I enjoyed writing this episode which was a bit of a departure from the format. In this one, Krog and Marcus don’t even GET the job. They’re just trying to apply and they really blow it. I liked bringing Marcus back into the show here (and a lot of you seem to like him too — thanks). This creates some “buddy movie” banter between the two — Krog giving in to his inappropriate monster instincts, and Marcus trying to cover for him. And the pet store manager is completely humorless. She ain’t havin’ it!

I wrote this part with my sister Katie Hooten in mind. Katie is the next Tina Fey. Her observations and deadpan delivery always strike me funny. I thought, “If anyone needs to shoot down these two guys, it’s Katie.” Katie has done a ton of work behind the camera as a producer, and is now making her way in the industry as a screenwriter. It was fun to put her behind the mic and get her to perform again. I’m still playing with a rule I’ve created for this show that no one is really amazed that Krog is a monster. They’re more irritated by it… as if monsters are a new kind of minority or social class that we are all getting used to.

This episode has two punchlines to it. One is the traditional “button,” where Krog’s appetite finally gets the best of him and he eats a whole cage of parakeets. Then I go into a bit of an epilogue outside the store. And this scene gets weirder and weirder. I really enjoy the loose and improvisational argument that Josh Greene and I have as we exit the store. Then the most awkward and creepy character in the series appears — a delivery guy played by Ken Marino. A lot of these lines were improvised, taken much farther than I wrote, and we found some pretty funny stuff. WHAT is this guy into? Why does he want Krog as his pet… or as his photography model? Why is he so into reptiles in an almost fetishistic way? I don’t want to know. But it made me laugh.

A little trivia: Ken’s character was originally written to be a skinny GOTH guy, with emo hair, eye makeup and studded collar. I think the voice was even recorded with that in mind. But the animators let me know early on that I had written way to many characters for the budget… like TWICE as many. It takes time to build each of these characters in Flash Animation and time equals money. The solution is something that many of you have picked up on. I created several “types” that would have interchangeable hair, mustaches, skin coloring and wardrobe accessories. Thus, the delivery guy bears a striking resemblance to Vince the Big Dogs manager… or the mall security guard. And you may notice that SHIRLEY the pet store manager is the exact same type as LOLA the pink-haired bully from Episode 5. I’m kind of proud of that design. With color changes alone, I took the exact same character design from punk rock hoodlum to conservative African American in a business skirt! Ta-da! It’s all in the color styling, folks.

You’ll see these character double-ups throughout the series. I was still able to choose my battles and create specific, unique stand-alone characters when I really felt I needed them. I hope the reused character designs don’t affect the feel of a city FULL of characters, which is what I wanted. Think of it like the Muppets… a lot of those guys were the same shape with different noses, right?

I keep waiting for animal lovers to speak out against this one, but I guess we ALL eat birds, don’t we? Next week, Krog not only tries to fit in with humans… he is given the job of educating them. Or… not educating them, as the case may be.

In this episode, Krogzilla has a demeaning job that I and many, many of my friends have had: the job of entertaining at children’s birthday parties. Now I’ve never personally had to put on the costume of a TV character, but I thought that situation had the most comedic “juice” to it. What’s weirder than a monster putting on another monster suit? It’s always fun for me to create the “world within the world,” and by that I mean creating fake products and shows within the world I’m already creating in. When a character in a TV show sits down to watch a TV show, what do they watch? For this birthday party character, I thought clowns and Barney were much too played out. Same with Dora or Sesame Street characters. My kids recently became hooked on “Yo Gabba Gabba” like it was crack cocaine, and I love the zany color schemes and designs of that show. So Party Marty comes from a similar type of program.

And I love the ring of that name: “Party Marty.” I can’t believe there isn’t a TV character with that name already. I wish I could print up T-Shirts.

Yes, the episode starts kind of dark with Marcus and Krogzilla talking about how “those animals in there” are going to watch Krogzilla “defiling himself.” But younger kids have no idea what that dialogue is about and it always provokes muffled, forbidden laughter from the adults. Honestly, if you’ve ever had to earn money by dancing around for a crowd of kids, you know it can be an endurance test.

The best part of this show was that I got my kids involved. Both of my boys are very young, but they love performing and learning how a project is put together. My five year-old Elliot has already shot and edited his own movie! Getting them both in the recording studio to say the right lines was a bigger problem. Nathaniel (two years old) was the real diva. He wouldn’t say a thing until I brought Josh Greene’s little dog into the booth. Oh sure, then Nathaniel would say the lines to HIM. Another kid performer was my niece Eva. She’s been performing and speaking publicly for much of her young life, so she not only played the sassy little girl in this show, but she also voiced the girl in the movie theater (episode 5). (Trivia fact for all you “Hoodwinked” buffs, the song “Eva Deanna” on the soundtrack is about HER!) I love real kids’ voices. There’s nothing like seeing a character that has been animated to an unpolished, real kid’s voice. It makes it funnier too (such as Nathaniel barking “Do da dance!”).

Episode 6 also marks the first performance on the show from my wife Vicki. She does a great sing-songy mom in this one. I also made her scream a lot, which she was not crazy about.

I had so many ideas for this show, but budget kept me hemmed in a bit. I wanted Krogzilla to leap into a bounce house, then hear it POP and deflate. Too much for our animation schedule. I also wanted some crazier destruction with a pinata and a table of presents. But you have to choose your battles. There’s another sight gag in this one that I credit the animators with — during Krogzilla’s rapid-fire balloon animal session. A certain phallic balloon sculpture appears that COULD be a sword or… a horrible mistake at a kids’ party. Wow, did the YouTube commenters pick up on THAT one. Hmmm, maybe 100 comments on that moment alone? I GET it that you get it, guys. Glad you saw it. Glad it made you LOL and OMG so much, for Pete’s sake.

Krogzilla’s next horrible job adventure is right around the corner, and it has plenty of creepy, uncomfortable moments. And kitties.

Episode 5 finds both Marcus and Krogzilla as movie theater ushers. This show takes a bit of a serious turn as Krog is allowed to spout off for a while. It’s frankly the one big speech I wrote for myself and all along I’ve wondered if it was worth the screen time. I’m not exactly an Academy Award winning actor, but I can get a good rant going if I want to.

This theater setting allowed me to get on a soapbox a bit about a couple of things that irk me. One topic is the monstrous multiplexes that we all go to see movies in — giant buildings filled with at least 20 screens run mainly by people under 25 years old. They always feel a bit too large and impersonal, and more like places to sell snacks in bulk than provide showmanship for the movies they play. There’s also my distaste for bullies, which come in all eras of life. I encountered a lot of these types of bullies in high school — guys who just zero in on the weak member of the pack and hassle them for four years. But my biggest rant is on the state of big budget movies. I know we are all tired of the rebooting, rebranding and yes, regurgitating of the same entertainment over and over. Let me be clear, I LOVE big popcorn movies, but the pursuit of a pre-existing brand for marketing purposes has gotten a bit out of hand (“SLINKY: THE MOVIE!”).

For every “Avengers” that delights, there is yet another “Transformers” sequel that feels way past its prime (“Prime”… see what I did there?). As Krogzilla tells us, we have no right to complain about these regurgitations if we keep paying money to see them. Everyone I talk to groans about Michael Bay’s latest “event” movie, but somehow these are still the movies that end up as the biggest money-makers of the year. If we all keep going, they’ll just keep making them, people!!! But I digress. The bullies in episode 5 are not just typical tormentors… they are also what I imagine typical mega-sequel ticket buyers look like.

I’ve already gotten a lot of great feedback on the new bully characters. Randy (they guy with the “Grinch” smile) is voiced by Jason Gerali… this guy’s natural voice has this weird “slide” to it that I thought would be fun for the character. I love how Jason absolutely CHEWS on his words when he says “Oh my GYOSH! It’s MYOOOCUS Marcus!” The pink-haired she-bully known as Lola is voiced by super funny lady Vanessa Ragland. It’s beyond me why Vanessa is not a major comedy star on your TV right now. She is a great improv comedian, screenwriter and host of the Pop My Culture Podcast. Her star is rising — look out for her! In the booth, Vanessa’s voice was equal parts velvety and snarky — ideal.

By the way, did you catch Shayla and the Exec from Episode 4 on a date in the first shot? We needed extras to walk by, and the choice to use those two characters created a fun extra joke for viewers who are paying attention. That was all from the animators. Nice job, guys!

I always have a wish list when I finish these episodes. For this one, I so wanted to create a ton of fake movie posters to line the hallways — lots of jokes and parodies to be had there. Oh well — not to be in the “low budget land” we are living in here. At least our favorite jerk Regurgitor makes an appearance (sort of) as the overblown movie display that raised Krogzilla’s hackles. Rest assured, this is not the last time you’ll see “Regurg.”

Once again, don’t stop going to megaplexes and don’t stop seeing big summer movies — just get wise to the ones that are all marketing and no substance. And if you see a bad movie, please don’t burn down the display in the lobby. Sorry, this show isn’t big on hints for proper social behavior.

Next week: Kids, cake and PARTY MARTY!!!