For anyone to have a conversation with David Cross and H. Jon Benjamin and not wet their pants is nearly impossible. The creators of Comedy Central's "Freak Show" boast endless amounts of comic value that will leave most with sopping trousers.
The dynamic comic duo took a moment from writing, but not from the laughs, to give some insight on where they find inspiration and motivation.
David Cross, best known from the popular series "Mr. Show," didn't have his mind set on television comedy at first. Ironically enough, he had initially tossed around the idea of being an architectural designer.
"I was going to be a mildly amusing architect," Cross said. "Then I thought, 'f*ck it. I don't know anything about math or angles or geometry, and with a little work, I can be mildly amusing.'"
"Freak Show" is a cartoon series that follows the misadventures of a team of circus freaks who carry out less-than-glamorous missions for the Pentagon. The semi-heroes find themselves in bizarre and highly comical situations while a sly and sinister corporation attempts to swindle their independently owned exhibition.
"It's like a dumbed-down 'Mind of Mencia,' made easier to comprehend," Benjamin said. "It's not your mother's 'Mind of Mencia'."
Benjamin is best known for his work on similarly styled cartoons such as "Dr. Katz" and "Home Movies." He has also made audiences laugh with his performances on "Arrested Development" and the widely worshiped classic, "Mr. Show."
Cross may have found the inspiration for "Freak Show" in one of the least expected places.
"I had walked out of the movie 'Crash' and I got my money back about a half an hour into it. I thought, 'What's a dumber idea than 'Crash,' and more poorly executed?' and then I came up with this idea."
This sort of random and irrelevant humor is palpable in "Freak Show."
While much of the cartoon is scripted, Cross and Benjamin acknowledge that many of the scenes are purely improvisational.
"You have to get everything down as it's written just once, at least, correctly, and then we encourage everybody to just riff around," Cross said. "It'd be stupid not to take the extra few minutes and just rap."
Cross and Benjamin both have extensive r?(c)sum?(c)s with experience ranging from film and television to stand-up comedy. Cross enjoys having his hand in a little bit of everything. Benjamin, however, advocated a strong partiality towards cartoons.
"I exclusively want to do animation, and if anyone has the balls to come up to me and ask me to do film or television, I will personally punch them in the face," Benjamin said.
Cross follows comedic suit while taking advantage of any opportunities to catch Benjamin with a zinger.
"But with an animated fist, right?" Cross said.
"I will take my assistant's fist and punch them with it. Then I'll fire my assistant for punching someone," Benjamin said.
"Freak Show" marks Cross' first major attempt at transitioning into animation.
"It's been really difficult for David," said Benjamin. "It's been really grueling."
"I needed to take a month just to find myself, you know? It cost a lot of money, but we had to shut down production and watch all the episodes of 'Lost' back-to-back," Cross said.
"Freak Show" reflects Cross' and Benjamin's shared propensity for the absurd as well as the subtle. The characters are outlandish yet pathetic, and the plot rolls like a series of shocks, each progressively more disturbing than the last. However, a humanistic element remains, tugging for some semblance of pathos.
The show's creators hired Radical Axis to do the actual animating. RA's experience on other adult-oriented cartoons like "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" contributes greatly to the air of unsettlingly twisted humor.
"We knew we didn't want to make it overly stylized because we thought it would take away from the humor and the tone," Cross said. "Otherwise, (the characters') freakishness wouldn't stand out."
Often, the notorious Freak Squad's endeavors are too outrageous, even for Comedy Central. Benjamin pointed out that the two are constantly at odds with the network's censors.
"We have something like thirty pages of back and forth between us and Comedy Central Legal and Standards & Practice."
To find out what the censors leave in, or simply to bask in Adult Swim-style comic gratification, tune into the "Freak Show."
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
