What do you get when you pair an addictive box of fries with an attractive milkshake?
Well, on paper, you get a classic combo. Fries and a shake. It’s the fucking American standard and has been since who knows when?
Onscreen, it’s actually way more delicious than that.
Carey Means who plays the very even-keeled, zen-like Frylock, and Dana Snyder who plays the very fly-off-the-handle like Buddy Rich Master Shake sit down with me and a few other writers to discuss what the characters mean to them, including their process of getting hired for these two dichotomous foodstuffs and how Aqua Teen will indeed never die.
On how they would recast Stan Lee in the MCU:
Dana: I would like that if they put his head on a fucking spider.
Carey: My favorite cameo of his is when he’s in the strip club, introducing the dancers. “Coming up next to the stage is…”
On how they survived for so long:
Dana: Adult Swim paid no attention to us, and we were the cheapest show they made.
Carey: Let’s be real, we had no idea that the show was going to have the legs it had to begin with.
Dana: We just made a second movie! How the hell did that happen?
On the budget for this new movie:
Dana: … It looks the same, but there are characters fully walking and stuff. You know, Carl was ever always sideways? Three quarters? Straight on. Now our shots are doing a full turn an-
Carey: CGI, baby.
Dana: When I heard they’re redoing it, I thought it would be weird, but… it looks better. If you haven’t watched it in seven years, you’ll be wondering what are those fucking… mandala effects. It looks good and it feels better. Like it feels a bit more polished. But maybe they spent twenty-four dollars instead of twelve. They’ll yell at us later about it.
On their favorite episodes:
Carey: I have one in particular. Super Birthday Snake. Trying to put a cigarette in your damn eye. I’m trying to edit myself. I got in trouble earlier for talking about boobs. I can’t talk about boobs anymore.
Dana: But you’re still talking about it!
Dana: I love the Foreigner Belt. I love the Hand Banana…
Dana: Whenever Shake and Meatwad and Carl, because he’s not always there, but when he is, they’re like double idiots, and that’s when I think it’s really good. Remember that one?
Carey: No.
Dana: Well, it’s been a great time…
On particular lines they remember:
Dana: I remember one because it made Dave laugh so hard. Improvised. He’s not stingy, he’s a generous laugher. It was talking about Meatwad, he had a pair of underwear, and Shake said to him “those are racing stripes if you consider diarrhea a sport” and Dave was like laying down for like ten minutes.
Carey: The funniest stuff is when you make Dave laugh. When you can make your bosses laugh, that’s a coup.
On auditioning for the part:
Carey: When I was auditioning for the part of Frylock, I’m reading the script. In the 90s, it was a conference call and they were all cracking up. My agent described it to me. His name was Frylock, Sherlock, get the correlation?
Dana: But also! He always has this little lightning bolt, because it’s a nod to Harry Potter because he’s a warlock. You’ll never see him without it. Sometimes it switches sides.
On Dana Auditioning Drunk:
Dana: Just because I spent four hours at Brews Pub on 34th Street doesn’t mean I was drunk. I’m professional. However, in the morning when Dave asked me to recite it again because he erased it on his phone (he was missing the magic).
Dana: Dave, would you mind if I do the same at 12:30 tonight? My buddy Dave came into town and we recreated the same night. (Dave Willis was on board with him.)
