Exclusive Interview: Neil Garguilo Discusses “Hell Den” Season Two And His Recent Emmy Win For “Brainwashed By Toons”
Syfy’s Hell Den has an all-too-familiar premise: a group of people sit down on a couch to watch cartoons. Sure, said group of people might consist of an orphaned kid, a malfunctioning cyborg, a sadistic alien, and a vacationing demon, and the shows they watch are actually gross re-dubs of cute, cuddly, classic cartoons—but these extreme perversions somehow make the series even more relatable. In this exclusive interview, showrunner Neil Garguilo reflects on his recent Emmy win, discusses the most messed up cartoons he’s ever seen, and laments the outmoded norms and values of the past that have survived into present times thanks to animation.
Tim: Congratulations on your Emmy, I didn’t know about that. What was it for?
Neil: I did a series last year for Funny or Die, a digital series called Brainwashed by Toons, where we examined bigotry and sexism in old illustrations, cartoons as well as musicals, and how they normalized certain behavior over time. I made it with Jason Alexander. We won for Outstanding Original Song and were nominated for Outstanding Writing which was a big acknowledgement.
Tim: I’m impressed by the sheer breadth of footage that you guys were able to find, especially because it is – for lack of a better word – a lot of off-brand stuff. I’m not seeing any Mickey Mouse or Looney Tunes, for instance. How’d you find all this? Did you have one poor intern digging through the archives, or was the scouting a joint effort?
Neil: That’s the great benefit of working with a company like Shout Factory! They really are the gold standard when it comes to understanding what is out there in terms of licensing.
We have found unbelievable sources from a few different areas. And, you know, if the experience continues – knock on wood – there is so much more left in the reserve.
Tim: What’s the most messed up cartoon that you found researching for the show?
Neil: There’s one video in season two that’s live action, but also has animated elements to it. A man is driving down the road when a 20-stories-tall adult man in a diaper starts to guide the car down the road. It’s supposed to be an instructional video on how to drive and how to be prepared for conditions such as, you know, a giant adult man in a diaper trying to take you off the road.
Tim: This next question is kind of the leap in logic but please bear with me as I try to connect these two things. When Trump got elected, South Park did not portray the guy directly because he was so ridiculous on his own that satirizing him would be too difficult.
When you encounter some crazy bit of footage like the segment you just described, is that kind of footage like more difficult to dub in a funny way than something that’s maybe a little bit more unassuming?
Neil: What we try to do is find touch points, things that we are all familiar with today, in order to contextualize the videos as a lot of them, if done properly, can be metaphors for how we live our lives on a daily basis. We’re trying to make these insane visuals relatable.
Tim: I feel like that’s the route a lot of animated sitcoms are going. It plays a big role in Rick and Morty, for instance, as that series can show how the absurd and nonsensical as well as the intergalactic are similar to ordinary life.
Neil: Right.
Tim: A lot of shows which have a similarly simple premise end up spawning numerous theories about what dark, complex and nuanced commentaries might be hidden in between the lines. Is Hell Den a commentary on how and why we watch TV?
Neil: It exists in season two certainly. Because it’s a short term sketch comedy show, it can be directed in a lot of different ways depending on the episode. We also try to summarize larger concepts at the end of our episodes. So we’re certainly conscious of that and and I absolutely love the trend that you’re referring to in current adult animation.
Tim: Sticking with current adult animation. How influential were Rick and Morty’s Interdimensional Cable episodes for Hell Den?
Neil: It’s funny. You know, we pitched Hell Den for five and a half years. Interdimensional Cable came out while we were pitching. I hope that audiences who appreciate that will also be attracted to our show.
Tim: You said you were pitching this show for half a decade. Did you ever consider just uploading the show on an independent YouTube channel?
Neil: We had kicked the idea around. We were just getting such positive responses to the material that we stayed engaged, even though it took a while to find a home and we’re so excited to be on Syfy for the TZGZ block. Ultimately, this is exactly where we wanted to be. But we felt so encouraged along the way that we decided to just stick with it.
Tim: Did you bring any lipreading experts on board to help you with the dubbing?
Neil: No we didn’t consult an expert on.
Tim: One of the most entertaining aspects of the show for me is, you take these like very cute and cuddly Disney-esque cartoons, and then you dub them with the most obscene, gross shit you can think of.
Neil: That’s the fun balance of season two for me. Sometimes we are blowing something out because it’s innocent. And other times we’re taking something that is already insane and dragging it out even more. So it really evens out the comedy.
Tim: Do you have a favorite sketch?
Neil: Oh, there is something coming in season two that makes me laugh so hard every single time and I will tease the fact that it has to do with puppets of a children’s television show and how puppets can really teach kids the lessons of the streets, especially drug dealing.
Tim: What’s the biggest difference between old and new cartoons?
Neil: There are beautiful cartoons that exist today in terms of the aesthetic, but the hand-drawn nature of cartoons from the 1930s and 40s, it’s pretty remarkable. I’ve done some deep dives and there are pieces that we can’t touch because they are Warner Bros. owned. I am often moved emotionally by how beautiful some of them are.
Tim: Do you have a favorite classic studio?
Neil: I grew up heavily influenced by Looney Tunes, but I love all of them.
Tim: What is the most shocking discovery that you made about all this old footage while you were making the show?
Neil: I knew that there was bigotry that exists in a lot of old cartoons, but I was surprised at the volume of it, and how normalized some of those messages have become.
Tim: Can you expand on that?
Neil: Sure. So, my other production, Brainwashed by Toons, really explores this. There are just a lot of messages that you see in old cartoons, like stereotypes, that are still alive today. As far Hell Den goes, we try to stay away from any cartoons that include bigotry as we really just want to stomp that out of television.
Hell Den Season Two premieres on Syfy, November 7th @ Midnight ET/PT, check your local listings
Read more of our exclusive interview with Neil Garguilo in Bubbleblabber the Magazine Issue #1
I hope this turns out to be another Gravity Falls-type show with an overarching storyline.