Voice actor Tom Kenny is no stranger to being a part of hit TV shows. Best known as the voice of SpongeBob Squarepants, Kenny also voiced The Ice King on Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time,” the Mayor on “The Powerpuff Girls” and Scoutmaster Lumpus on “Camp Lazlo." Now, he is the voice of Woody Johnson, head ranger on Comedy Central’s “Brickleberry."
“It’s going to be a crazy season,” Kenny said. “There’s a lot of really, really funny stuff in there.”
“Brickleberry” is produced by “Tosh.0” star Daniel Tosh and follows a group of park rangers in their day-to-day lives while working at the fictional Brickleberry State Park. Starring alongside Kenny, Tosh plays Malloy, a bear cub adopted by Kenny’s character. Other characters include Steve Williams (David Herman), an overly confident ranger who obviously takes his work too seriously, and Denzel (Jerry Minor), an African-American park ranger who is afraid of nearly anything that inhabits the woods.
“Denzel is a pretty fun character to play,” Minor said. “He’s quite literally afraid of anything and everything that lives in the woods, and did I mention that he’s your stereotypical black guy?”
Kenny’s character is what he described as a “truly despicable but lovable person.”
“He has a tendency to say some pretty horrible stuff,” Kenny said “But at the same time, he truly cares about the park he works at and will do almost anything to prevent the tourist numbers from dropping.”
The show is currently in its second season, and both Kenny and Minor feel like the show has grown funnier over time.
“I think (executive producers) Roger (Black) and Waco (O’Guin) know exactly what they're doing this time around,” Minor said. “They know what worked last season, what didn’t, and are prepared to do whatever they can to make this show as funny as they possibly can.”
Kenny agreed.
“They have tons of iterations of every line so if one doesn’t work quite the way they’d hoped, there’s another one ready to go," Kenny said. "It’s really great stuff.”
Both Minor and Kenny have opposing views on the difference between live and voice acting.
“I like both, but prefer live acting,” Minor said. “It’s just what I’ve been doing longer and where I’ve been fortunate to be for most of my career.”
Kenny, on the other hand, prefers voice acting.
“I prefer voice acting more, because I don’t have to worry about being too old for a certain part or not looking the role," Kenny said. "I can literally just go into the studio and become any character I want, and I can put my own spin on things. It gives me a higher batting average, per se.”
"Brickleberry" airs Tuesday nights at 9:30 p.m. CDT on Comedy Central.
Reach the reporter at seweinst@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @S_Weinstein95
