“I got pantsed as a child… a child named Jenny, I’ll just
say her first name… she pantsed me, and I was wearing silk boxer shorts and
those slid right down too, so I got pantsed in front of this girl Lizzie, who
was my childhood crush, and it was very traumatic and now I’m a comedian.”
The timeless, lovely anecdote above belongs to Nick Kroll,
co-creator, writer, and voice actor of Netflix's adult cartoon hit Big Mouth.
He and his co-creator, Andrew Goldberg, grew up together in an affluent New York
suburb and have been friends and collaborators ever since. The pair, drawing on
personal experiences from their own childhoods, set out to capture the essence of
the dreaded years of puberty.
Why revisit puberty, a universally embarrassing facet of the
human experience? Kroll offers that there’s a lot to be explored within the awkwardness:
“It’s incredibly awkward, but also the stakes are really high.” The fact that
the show is animated allowed the creators to personify and externalize the features
of puberty, something divergent in the field of hormone humor. The kids in the
show commit various irrational acts, egged on by their own personal Hormone
Monsters, followed by a swift comeuppance delivered by the Shame Wizard. This
is the unique perspective Big Mouth brings to the tween years. Rather
than leave it at bawdy humor, they boil puberty down to its essence. It’s
through this that they tap into the relevance of puberty across time.
Kroll and his team face a lot of criticism due to the explicit
nature (and downright disgustingness) of the show. In defense of his creative
product, Kroll says that he ignores claims that his show is too dumb or gross
to be of any real quality. “It’s a very dirty, it’s a very big hard joke show,
but right underneath that is a lot of heart and sweetness and emotional honesty.”
He credits this balance with the success of the show and does not seem willing to
slow down any time soon. Being sure of himself is a trait Kroll has apparently harbored
all of his life; when asked what young Andrew and Nick would have felt about
their life story becoming a hit TV show, Goldberg responded by saying, “I
would’ve been like, ‘Get the **** out of here,’ and Nick would’ve been like,
‘Of course.’”
Aside from working with Goldberg, Kroll’s cast of characters
include famous actors, comedians, and writers whom he has worked with
personally throughout his career. He reveals that recording sessions usually
occur with all of the actors in the scene present so chemistry can develop and
actors can improvise. Many of the actors and writers, like Maya Rudolph and
Fred Armisen, have worked together extensively in the past, but the
ever-evolving plotlines of the show usually mix and match characters with ease,
leading to a variety of actors working with one another. Kroll has assembled
what Uzzi and Spiro would describe as can an excellent collaborative team: one where
most of the players have good working relationships but is kept from being
stagnant by rotating the cast.
Kroll has a methodical creative process. When discussing how
to incorporate the Shame Wizard in season two, he describes incorporating the
plot development, assessing with the writer's room the implications of that
development, and rinse and repeat until a coherent story takes shape. Character
relationships are important to him as well. He describes a visual manifestation
of this by saying, “I have all of the characters on the wall behind me in the
writers room so that I am sort of looking around and seeing who would be fun to
play within this scene.”
The third of Csikszentmihalyi’s Ten Dimensions of Creativity
is the duality of playfulness and seriousness. Kroll’s personality embodies
this, cracking jokes during passionate discussions of his work. Describing his
personality through an anecdote about his niece, Kroll elaborates:
“She goes, ‘Well,
it’s because Uncle Nick lives a child’s life.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, fair
enough.’ I lead a very privileged life in a number of ways. I am old enough to
know how the world works and to make a living, but also young enough that I get
to be a little rascal and run around and do whatever. But it’s hard to explain
to your niece that it’s also hard work. Yes, Uncle Nick lives a child’s life,
and he works constantly and has constant rashes from stress.”
Perhaps this is why Kroll felt drawn to rehash his teenage years.
The complexity of puberty is eternal. He’s still going through changes.
Sources:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6524350/fullcredits
Its cool how the bounds of the show big mouth allow the creators personify the characters and their personalities through their strange depictions. In this way the field allows Nick Kroll to express and explore his creativity.
ReplyDeleteBig Mouth is one of my favorite adult cartoons, and I think the aspect of collaboration Kroll employs is very interesting. The show really does have an all-star cast of comedians — it's no wonder why the show is so amazing. It's interesting to think about what specific parts of the show are influenced by the process and personality of everyone in it.
ReplyDeleteI've never watched Big Mouth because I always thought it was going to be full of thoughtless crude humor, but I think I might check it out now! I wonder how Nick Kroll is perceived by other adult cartoon creators and which creators in that field he's inspired by.
ReplyDeleteI have watched Big Mouth and I throughly enjoyed it. I thought it was a very unique and real perspective of what it's like to be a tween going through puberty. I think the fact that the show is so explicit is what makes really representative of what the real experience of puberty is.
ReplyDeleteBig Mouth is a lot of my friends favorite shows, and for some of them the main reason why is because of how unique the creators of the show have been in the plot and character development. The voice actors are also super iconic, and knowing that they use such an interesting collaborative process is a great insight into the show, and explains how the characters really sound like they have so much fluid chemistry. I also think personality plays a huge role in the creation of the script and plot and whatnot. I loved learning more about this show!
ReplyDeleteTo me, Big Mouth is an animated version of Saturday Night Live with a loose narrative of puberty. The collection of comedians ooze talent and generate scenes that are just funny enough to not be considered reprehensible. Kroll has been able to take advantage of the connections he has made throughout his career and put together one of Netflix's most successful pieces.
ReplyDeleteI love Big Mouth, although I watched it because of all the comedians I knew on the show and not Nick Kroll! This was a great way to approach his creative process. I thought his niece's comments about living a child's life really reflected Einstein's creative process as well in that they approach their work through a child-like perspective. Unapologetically tapping into this pushes creative limits.
ReplyDeleteI have been watching Big Mouth since it first came out on Netflix, and I had no idea that Nick Kroll was playing his own character! I find it so interesting that he is acting out his own story (for the most part). I definitely agree that middle school is a horrible, awkward, and hormonal phase in life. I love how this show addresses the awkwardness of puberty because it is what other shows don't talk about! I find the show extremely funny and not (too) disgusting, so it is one of my personal favorites! I like how you touched on how the comedians collaborate with each other when voicing the scenes in order to make the scenes come alive. This allows more room for creativity and spontaneity. Awesome blog post!
ReplyDeleteI love this show!!! It is also important to note the dichotomy of mature and child behaviors. I believe this show is Krolls way of working through these two behaviors. Also, I never knew that they were so collaborative in their voice overs. It is truly amazing that they improvised some of the show then created it into a cartoon. Also, I agree that the puberty monsters are such a strange and new form to show hormones- and I LOVE IT!
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