Neil Garguilo discusses Brainwashed by Toons plus what it’s like to win an Emmy with Jason Alexander

There couldn’t be a better time for a show that explores the deep-seated roots of racism, bigotry and female oppression like Funny or Die’s Brainwashed by Toons.

Creator Neil Garguilo (Bloodsucking Bastards, Awkward, Hell Den) took home a Daytime Emmy Award earlier this month for Outstanding Original Song for The Bad Guys?, a song dealing with how anti-Semitism is normalized in old cartoons, which he co-wrote with Seinfeld star Jason Alexander, Dwayne Colbert and Hughie Stone Fish.

He’s also up for another Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Special Class Series for all three episodes of Funny Or Die’s Brainwashed by Toons, which includes an episode on racism with Wayne Brady and another on female oppression with Lea Thompson (with the writing nomination marking the first Emmy nod for Thompson), and how these are all prevalent in older cartoons.

Before he finds out if he’s a two-time Emmy winner on July 26, when the last wave of the Daytime Emmy Awards are announced, Garguilo spoke to DailyMail.com exclusively about creating this unique series, his plans for a half-hour TV version of the show, plus Season 2 of his SyFy animated series Hell Den coming later this year, which was a ‘100% remote production.’

Garguilo is part of an improv comedy troupe known as Dr. God, who wrote and starred in the 2015 movie Bloodsucking Bastards (directed by Dr. God member Brian James O’Connell) and created the SyFy series Hell Den.

Hell Den follows a child named Andrew (voiced by Garguilo), the last human on Earth after a global apocalypse, who makes friends with several creatures (voiced by Dr. God members O’Connell, Sean Cowhig, Justin Ware and David Park) as they watch strange old cartoons together.

When asked if seeing some blatantly racist/bigoted cartoons while working on Hell Den lead to Brainwashed by Toons, Garguilo responded, ‘That’s exactly what happened.’

‘On Hell Den we don’t touch anything we see that has subtle bigotry attached,’ Garguilo added. ‘While watching all of this old footage I started noticing that a lot of the themes in clips we didn’t use are still very much alive today.’

Brainwashed by Toons is comprised of short episodes between three and five minutes long, with Garguilo voicing The Objective Owl, who introduces the theme of each episode.

Each episode is, in essence, a song, sung by a famous member of the oppressed community the episode is dealing with, set against a melange of footage of old cartoons that normalized this hateful behavior.

Garguilo added that it was, ‘a unique process to pitch this show because it relies so heavily on the music,’ which was composed by Gregory James Jenkins (Hell Den, The Final Girls)

‘The concept of Brainwashed By Toons was clear, but the execution took a leap of faith from our executive Chris Michael. I’m very lucky that the folks at Funny Or Die are artist friendly and willing to take chances on passion projects. They’re all really wonderful collaborators,’ he said.

As for his collaborators, Garguilo said Alexander, Brady and Thompson didn’t need much convincing to sign on.

‘They all completely understood what we were trying to accomplish with Brainwashed By Toons. It didn’t take an ounce of convincing. It really speaks to their character. They so selflessly use their talents to spread positive messages and do so without hesitation,’ Garguilo said.

The outdated and hateful cartoons seen in the episodes were actually donated to the show by several museums and publishers, with Garguilo adding, ‘I have been deeply moved by the selflessness of the publishers and museums we approached.’

‘The vast majority of our works for ‘The Bad Guys’ (about negative Jewish stereotypes and depictions) was donated based on cold calls. COLD CALLS! I looked up a few sources of images and footage and dialed a number. I explained my project and the next thing I know authors and archivists were sending me thousands of images free of charge. Just because they thought the show was a worthy cause. Unreal,’ Garguilo exclaimed.

The show has even had an impact on an academic level, with Garguilo revealing that the videos are being used in university level classrooms.

‘It wasn’t part of the initial plan, but about half way through the process we thought they might be good teaching tools to examine race and gender in media and film studies departments,’ Garguilo commented. ‘My alma mater Pace University is currently using them and a few other schools. It’s nice to see that this show is helping.’

The Outstanding Original Song award is not only the first Emmy for Garguilo, but, shockingly, also the first Emmy for Alexander.

Alexander was nominated seven times for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Geoge Costanza on Seinfeld, plus an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series nomination for Dream on in 1990, but he never won, with Garguilo revealing his interaction with Alexander after the Emmy win.

‘The night we won the Emmy for Outstanding Original Song, my fiancée and I laid down and tried to go to sleep when I saw an alert on my phone. Jason sent me a pretty remarkable message that made the artist in me melt and the teenager in me do backflips,’ Garguilo said.

He said he wouldn’t get into details of the text, but added, ‘he’s a giving person and a very funny man. After that, there was no going to sleep. I saw the sunrise.’

When it came to recording these episodes and writing the lyrics, Garguilo said that, ‘All three episodes were different, which was fun.’

For Brady’s episode, Garguilo said, ‘we worked with him in advance and then when he got in the booth, he freestyle.’

‘Dwayne and I are both big improv people so watching Wayne effortlessly spit meaningful brilliance was pretty magical,’ he added.

With Thompson’s episode they, ‘got an office in Burbank and spent an entire day building lyrics from scratch, which was really fun.’

‘We had never met prior to that moment, but it’s as if we were old friends who were immediately on the same page. She’s so down to Earth and inviting. She creates a wonderful atmosphere and is such a brilliant collaborator. And she has pipes!,’ Garguilo added.

When it came to Alexander’s episode, Garguilo added, ‘Jason came into the studio incredibly prepared and knocked it out of the park.’

‘We would stop down occasionally to talk through some ideas and Jason would handwrite lyrics in the booth. He found comedy in places that require the perfect performance to make it funny and he did it. That guy is unbelievable,’ Garguilo continued.

While there are currently only three episodes of Brainwashed by Toons that are viewable on the Funny or Die website and Funny or Die YouTube, Garguilo wants to expand this timely concept into a half-hour series.

‘I have a really solid take that can easily make this a long-form series. There are so many topics out there that come, in part, as a result of being brainwashed by old entertainment. Hopefully we find a network with the same vision and belief as the folks at Funny Or Die,’ he said.

His animated series Hell Den is also coming back for a second season as a Syfy series, after the first season, which debuted on DrinkTV, was nominated for a Webby Award.

It was picked up by Syfy’s late-night adult animation block TZGZ, with the second season branded as a TZGZ original, with Garguilo revealing production on the second season was entirely remote, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘There are several big differences from Season 1 to Season 2, but the biggest one is that it was a 100% remote production,’ he said.

‘The entire series was made from the couch. There was not a single in-person interaction the entire season,’ he said, adding the second season will still feature 15-minute episodes.

He added the Dr. God (Sean Cowhig, Garguilo, Brian James O’Connell, David Park & Justin Ware) comedy team, ‘is still in place’ while revealing a slew of guest stars.

‘In Season 2 we’ve added some great guest stars like Maria Bamford (BoJack Horseman, Arrested Development), Katie Leclerc (Switched at Birth), Matthew Lillard (Scooby Doo, Scream) Jillian Rose Reed (Awkward, Elena of Avalor) and Kevin Heffernan (Super Troopers),’ he said, adding, ‘we also have Zabeth Russell, Kristin Sanchez and Asheligh Hairston back doing sketches for Season 2 which is great.’

He also praised composer Gregory James Jenkins, who composed the theme for Hell Den and the music for Brainwashed By Toons.

‘His music is absolutely fantastic. He just brings a new level of quality to everything he touches,’ Garguilo said, while also praising the animation by Matt Kiel.

‘We’re incredibly excited with what Matt Kiel has done with the updated look of the show. It’s really a leap in all areas,’ he added.

Now that he’s an Emmy-award winning writer, I jokingly asked if he had any plans on publicly flaunting his statuette, like putting it on a gold chain and wearing it around his neck like Flava Flav.

‘I have a top hat design I’m working on, but it’s not ready for public consumption…yet,’ Garguilo joked… though I hope he wasn’t joking.

You can watch all three episodes of Brainwashed by Toons below, including the Emmy-winning episode with Jason Alexander, and stay tuned for Season 2 of Hell Den on Syfy’s late night animation block TZGZ later this year.