‘Brickleberry’ cast opens up

He may not be a household name, but Tom Kenny was an important part of your childhood. He’s been the voice of “Spongebob Squarepants,” the Ice King in “Adventure Time,” Heffer in “Rocko’s Modern Life,” The Mayor in “Powerpuff Girls,” and many other voice roles you probably remember from your childhood.

Jerry Minor’s not a household name either, but the stand-up comedian has been a “Daily Show” correspondent, a “Saturday Night Live” cast member, and has had roles in tons of other programs like “Eastbound and Down” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Both star in Comedy Central’s new animated show “Brickleberry,” a raunchy, immature park-ranger comedy executive-produced by Daniel Tosh of “Tosh.o,” debuting September 25 at 10:30 p.m. (We’ll have a review of the pilot in Monday’s “Focus on TV.”) Kenny plays Woody, a well-meaning war-vet nut running the titular state park, while Minor is Denzel, the token black ranger at the park. Both sat down on September 17 for a college paper conference interview on “Brickleberry” that The Daily Campus had the privilege to join in on.

University of Missouri: Why did you guys decide to take on this project? The show is very different from the rest of your careers so far.

Jerry Minor: It’s a great thing to do. There’s some stuff in there I’ve dabbled with, not nearly as much as Tom, but I’ve done a lot of children’s stuff and a lot of comedies, but not necessarily a lot of animation. And I think the show is funny.

Tom Kenny: And as far as I go, there are a couple of different reasons. Two of them are my kids that have to go to college like you someday. [Laughter] There’s that motivator! But there’s also, I just love my work. The way my career path has been, I’m nearly 100 percent voiceover now, with a very occasional camera foray. I love it; it’s by far my favorite thing to do, even more fun than being on camera, more fun than writing. And I just like to work with voice-over; it’s better suited for my temperament. I’ve done other adult-skewing stuff, for Adult Swim and Fox, so it’s not my first trip into stuff that’s more risqué, you know, but it’s fun. It’s hard to do something intended for preschoolers and then a “Brickleberry” test on the same day, because you’re doing stuff for kids and then shocking material. [Laughs]

Texas Tech University: Did Daniel Tosh come to you for this project, or if not, how did you sign on?

JM: “Brickleberry” started on Fox. It was started by Waco [O’Guin] and Roger [Black] from “The Damn! Show,” and it was from before Daniel was involved. He came on when the project came to Comedy Central.

TK: From what I hear, and I may be wrong, but I think what happened was this was a show that was intended for Fox, and they decided they were gonna pass on it. It found new life at Comedy Central once Daniel Tosh got behind it, as he was looking for something to be a producer on. We had kinda already been cast by the time he came aboard, but when he came he definitely kicked it up a notch and helped out a bit.

University of Wisconsin Madison: What do you think makes this show different from anything out there?