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''Brickleberry'' is an American
adult An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social an ...
animated sitcom An animated sitcom is a subgenre of a television sitcom that is animation, animated instead of being filmed live-action, and is generally made or created for adult animation, adult audiences in most cases. ''The Simpsons'', ''SpongeBob SquarePan ...
created by Waco O'Guin and Roger Black for the basic cable network
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
, which aired from September 25, 2012 to April 14, 2015. Executive produced by O'Guin, Black, and comedian
Daniel Tosh Daniel Dwight Tosh (born May 29, 1975) is an American comedian, writer, and producer. After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in marketing, Tosh moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy. His career accelera ...
, the series follows a group of
park ranger A ranger, park ranger, park warden, field ranger, or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands and Protected area, protected areas – private, national, state, provincial, or local parks. Their duties include ( ...
s as they work through their daily lives in the fictional Brickleberry National Park.


Synopsis

The series follows a group of
park ranger A ranger, park ranger, park warden, field ranger, or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands and Protected area, protected areas – private, national, state, provincial, or local parks. Their duties include ( ...
s as they work through their daily lives in the fictional Brickleberry National Park.


Characters


Main characters

* Steve Williams (voiced by David Herman) – Steve is an overconfident, bumbling park ranger who takes himself and his job way too seriously. Even though he has been "Ranger of the Month" at Brickleberry for several years, he does not appear to display good skills or even common sense. Steve's "Ranger of the Month" title means everything to him and he will do anything to keep it. Despite his extreme lack of intelligence, he knows the Brickleberry park very well because his father was also a Brickleberry ranger, so Steve was raised in the park. He dreamed of working at Brickleberry since he was a child in order to follow in his father's footsteps. He is shown to have a man crush on
Viggo Mortensen Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. (; born October 20, 1958) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received nominations for three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. Mortensen made his film debut with a small role in ...
. * Woodrow "Woody" Wayland Johnson (voiced by
Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has been voicing SpongeBob SquarePants (character), the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media since its debut in 1999. Kenny has voice ...
) – Woody is a 55-year-old, abrasive ranger with a military background. In the "Crippleberry" episode, he mentions to Steve that he is technically a war criminal. He worked his way up to head ranger over his 30-year career at Brickleberry. He worked alongside Steve's father, but never searched for him when Jonah went missing. He rarely has the park's best interest in mind when struggling to boost the dwindling tourism numbers. In "2 Weeks Notice", he accidentally confesses to Malloy that when his mother died, his father forced him to dress up in her lingerie, implying that he may have been sexually abused by his father (However, in Season 3, Episode 4 "That Brother's my Father", it is revealed that Woody's mother, who also abused him physically, is very much alive, when she's kicked out of her nursing home and is forced to live with her son. She is briefly married to Denzel) It is also revealed in season 2 that Woody was a former porn star named Rex Erection. He makes a guest appearance along with the ''Brickleberry'' cast in '' Paradise PD'', revealed to be an estranged cousin of series regular Chief Randall Crawford and that his obsession with Malloy stemmed from a stuff toy he owned as a child. * Ethel Anderson (voiced by Kaitlin Olson in season 1,
Natasha Leggero Natasha Leggero () (born March 26, 1974) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She rose to fame after appearing as the host of the MTV reality television series '' The 70s House'' in 2005, and as a regular roundtable panelist on ...
in season 2 and 3) – Ethel was the top ranger at Yellowstone and was transferred to Brickleberry in an effort to get the park back on track (and because she was fired from Yellowstone for being drunk on the job). She is attractive and quite passionate for nature, though ironically not for animals themselves. She does her best to treat her co-workers kindly although often fails due to her selfishness and occasional sociopathic behavior. Steve sees Ethel as a threat to his Ranger of the Month title whilst having a crush on her, while Ethel sees Steve as a bumbling idiot. Ethel possesses extraordinary ranger skills but is much more humble than Steve. Ethel is also notorious for her promiscuity. * Denzel Jackson (voiced by
Jerry Minor Jerome Charles Minor Jr. is an American actor, comedian and writer known for his comedic roles in numerous television programs such as '' Mr. Show'', ''Saturday Night Live'', '' Trigger Happy TV'', '' Delocated'', ''Brickleberry'', '' Unbreakable ...
) – Denzel is a
black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
ranger who is horrible at his job, but can't be fired because he works for a government agency. Denzel is a gerontophile, which occasionally gets him into hot water. Denzel finds his job challenging because he's afraid of bugs, snakes, and pretty much anything else that inhabits the woods. It was revealed in the first season that his father and father's father and grandfather's father were police officers, but his great-grandfather's father was a slave, Denzel has no interest in following in their footsteps. * Connie Cunaman (voiced by Roger Black) – Connie is a
lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...
female ranger who has a large body, immense strength, and a deep voice that is often mistaken for a male. In "Gay Bomb", Connie admits she is a lesbian. She is obsessed with Ethel and was turned away by her Evangelical parents for being a homosexual. When Connie gets excited, her vagina makes growling noises similar to that of a stomach, requiring her to talk it down like a wild animal. * Malloy (voiced by
Daniel Tosh Daniel Dwight Tosh (born May 29, 1975) is an American comedian, writer, and producer. After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in marketing, Tosh moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy. His career accelera ...
) – Malloy is the last surviving member of his species '' Ursus loquacious'' that Woody has taken in and spoiled after Steve accidentally ran over and shot his parents, telling him a tourist did it. Woody lets him play video games all day and eat junk food. Malloy is very crude, tactless, racist, sexist, has a
superiority complex A superiority complex is a defense mechanism that develops over time to help a person cope with feelings of inferiority. The term was coined by Alfred Adler (1870–1937) in the early 1900s, as part of his school of individual psychology. Indivi ...
, and in some ways is a
narcissist Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive preoccupation with oneself and one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism, named after the Greek mythological figure ''Narcissus'', has evolv ...
. He openly hates the rangers and enjoys putting them down and messing with them on a daily basis, especially Steve. Despite his behavior ironically he is shown to get along with both Steve and Denzel, even going as far as to forgiving Steve for accidentally taking away his parents from him. According to Malloy, if Steve did not do what he did, he would have never been able to enjoy human things and thus, would have never been adopted by humans. He also gets along with Woody as they live together but can be aggressive towards Woody.


Recurring characters

* Bobby Possumcods (voiced by Waco O'Guin) – Bobby is a
redneck ''Redneck'' is a derogatory term mainly applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, ''Dictionary of American ...
who lives in the park. He "loves" animals a bit too much and Malloy got a taste of this first hand in the season one premiere. O'Guin has been portraying the live action version of Possumcods for years in O'Guin and Black's underground comedy called "The DAMN! Show". He reappears briefly in Paradise PD where it's revealed he died after getting high off of leaded gasoline and jumping through a plate glass window. * BoDean Lynn (voiced by Roger Black) – Bodean is Bobby's sidekick and best friend. He is known to speak very fast and sometimes for a long time. * Firecracker Jim (voiced by Roger Black) – A local redneck who sells illegal fireworks. He has stumps since he blew off his arms and legs a while ago, and rolls around everywhere as a result. * Dr. Kuzniak (voiced by
Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has been voicing SpongeBob SquarePants (character), the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media since its debut in 1999. Kenny has voice ...
) – Brickleberry's personal
doctor Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...
. He has a strange fetish of medical malpractice. He also has some shady criminal intents such as
medical waste Biomedical waste or hospital waste is any kind of waste containing infectious (or potentially infectious) materials generated during the treatment of humans or animals as well as during research involving biologics. It may also include waste ass ...
dumping and dealings with the "Chinese
Black Market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...
". * Jorge (voiced by David Herman) – A foreign man who owns the local
strip club A strip club (also known as a strip joint, striptease bar, peeler bar, gentlemen's club, among others) is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease and other erotic dances including lap dances. St ...
. He seems to be very clueless and gullible. His origin can be
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
.


Production


Conception

The series' creators, Waco O'Guin and Roger Black, met at the
University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...
in 1999. The series' origin came from O'Guin's father-in-law, a retired park ranger who took his job very seriously. He and Black found his seriousness hilarious, and began first envisioning the show in 2003. The two began pitching ''Brickleberry'' as a live-action program after the cancellation of their sketch comedy show '' Stankervision'' on
MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, through PMN’s MTV Entertainment Group Subdivision. The channel launched initially as an all-music ...
. It was adapted for animation because of budget concerns.
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ordered a pilot episode in 2007, but passed on the series, finding it too offensive. The duo's agent at
William Morris Agency The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best-known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent ...
connected them with comedian
Daniel Tosh Daniel Dwight Tosh (born May 29, 1975) is an American comedian, writer, and producer. After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in marketing, Tosh moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy. His career accelera ...
, then growing in popularity due to his
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
series '' Tosh.0''. Tosh had been looking for other projects outside his program and put his support behind the show, which they pitched to Comedy Central. The network wanted them to develop another pilot pitch, which they refused, taking it to
Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as dult swimand s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...
, who were prepared to order 10 episodes of the comedy. Comedy Central then relented and purchased the show, ordering a 10-episode first season in 2011.


Writing

In commenting on the series' humor, O'Guin felt that all targets are "fair game": "If you're clever and don't just try to shock for shock sake, you can make most anything funny." Anticipating concerns that the show would be too similar to ''Family Guy'', the show's writing imposed a rule of fewer pop culture references, in order to differentiate the two.


Episodes


Comic

In 2016, a 4-issue comic miniseries, published by ''
Dynamite Entertainment Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book publisher founded in 2004 by Nick Barrucci in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, known for publishing comic book adaptations of licensed feature film properties, such as ''Army of Darkness'', '' Terminator ...
'', was released, written by co-creators, Waco O'Guin and Roger Black and illustrated by Timothy Hopkins. The comic featured the storyline, "ArMOOgeddon", which takes place in the future, with Steve as the last remaining park ranger after an Alien Cow invasion, but, with the help of Dr. Kuzniak, he travels back in time to 2015 to kill Woody, whose actions led to the invasion and the destruction of all humanity. The Bovine Overlord though sends Bobby back in time to thwart Future Steve's plans, but Malloy teams up with Future Steve to help him kill Woody. When his plan fails, Future Steve returns to the future to rally the remaining park rangers to overthrow the Bovine Overlord.


Cancellation and crossover

On January 7, 2015, Comedy Central cancelled ''Brickleberry'' after three seasons. '' Paradise PD'', also created by O'Guin and Black, premiered in 2018 and has been seen as the spiritual successor to ''Brickleberry'' due to the similar premise, characters and voice cast. The park rangers of Brickleberry National Park are referenced during the second season, with the second season of ''Paradise PD'' featuring "the most unnecessary crossover" between both series, where it is revealed Chief Randall Crawford and Woody are cousins.


Reception


Ratings

The series followed the ''Tosh.0'' fall seasons on Tuesday nights. In its first season, the series averaged 1.9 total million viewers each week, doing particularly well with male demographics, ages 18–24. In its second season, the show averaged 1.6 million viewers, and was number one in all of television in its time slot with men, ages 18–24. The series' third season saw ratings fall to 1.2 million viewers per episode, while remaining strong with younger demographics.


Critical reviews

The show garnered mixed reviews from critics. Ray Rahman of ''Entertainment Weekly'' said the show "tends to rise above your average adult-animation fare." Dennis Perkins of ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
'' commented that "''Brickleberry'' hails from the 'deliberately provocative' school of comedy, where obviously offensive things are tossed out for shock value and if you don't laugh, you're a tight-ass who doesn't get the other levels to the jokes." Ross Bonaime of '' Paste'' gave the show a 0.5 out 10, writing that "''Brickleberry'' is poorly constructed, horribly executed and groan-worthy rather than funny in any way. It's a show that's actually painful to watch, because it keeps finding new depths of tasteless jokes without any punchline that are worse than the ones that preceded them." Many reviewers compared the show unfavorably to ''
Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 31, 1999, following Super Bowl XXXIII, with the rest of the first season airing from April 11, 1999. Th ...
'' and ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
''. Brian Lowry of '' Variety'' lamented the show's eagerness to offend:
Yes, ''South Park'' has long since established animation is a fine place to skewer sacred cows, but ''Brickleberry'' has nothing more on its mind than seeing how far it can push the boundaries of dick and handicapped jokes. As a consequence, the premise (a second-rate national park) is purely incidental.Lowry, Brian
Tosh's Tedious 'Brickleberry' Too Eager to Offend
''Variety''
''
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''s Jesse Schedeen felt the show did not live up to Comedy Central's past animated efforts, deeming it "a slap to the face of that legacy .. In ''South Park'' there's always an underlying sense of humanity to offset the humor. ''Brickleberry'' lacks that." The series creators acknowledged the influence, saying: "''Family Guy'' and ''South Park'' paved the way for us."


Notes


References


External links

* * {{Comedy Central animation 2010s American adult animated television series 2010s American animated comedy television series 2010s American black comedy television series 2010s American LGBTQ-related animated television series 2010s American LGBTQ-related sitcoms 2010s American satirical television series 2010s American workplace comedy television series 2012 American animated television series debuts 2015 American television series endings American adult animated comedy television series American animated sitcoms Animated television series about bears Comedy Central animated television series Comedy Central sitcoms American English-language television shows Fictional park rangers Television series about talking animals Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television series created by Waco O'Guin and Roger Black Television shows set in parks Internet memes