Tyler, the Creator's universe continues to grow, and its latest incarnation, The Jellies!, is now crashing into your screen every Sunday night. Written by Tyler and his creative partner and longtime friend Lionel Boyce, the cartoon is a treasure trove of original music, oddly relatable characters, and of course, some absolutely insane situational humor (like the lead character getting a gender reassignment, courtesy of Xzibit, in order to make sure his best friend has a date to the school dance).
The Golf Le Fleur Converse sneakers drop on November 2.
Despite the insanity, Tyler and Lionel promise that there's more to The Jellies! than some of their previous projects like Loiter Squad. Rather than just making slapstick skits, "We're relying on the writing," Lionel tells us. The jokes come fast, the music is phenomenal and provides for some great comedic moments (Tyler is taking the lead on scoring the show, and told us that we will be getting a soundtrack), and the lead character, Cornell—a black teenager unknowingly adopted by a family of jellyfish—is endearing in his naiveté. Tyler and Lionel have made yet another haven for their die-hard fans to dive into, but with episodes running at 15 minutes apiece, the show is a worthwhile watch for even the unconverted.
We talked to Tyler (while he was on a hike) and Lionel (while he was walking around Atlanta working on a secret TV project) about learning on the job, putting black characters on TV, and their all-time favorite cartoons.
How does it feel to have your own cartoon on Adult Swim? That's major, especially for people our age who grew up on Adult Swim cartoons.
Tyler, the Creator: It's cool! People know us from Loiter Squad and our live-action things, but doing something where we're not fully present in a physical way, people get to see how our brains work. I think that's interesting in and of itself. We had a bunch of ideas for Loiter Squad that we couldn't do physically, you know because we can't blow buildings up and turn into a fucking axe if you want, but with a cartoon, our imagination gets to roam.
LB: On Loiter Squad it was just us being crazy, but with this, we're relying on the writing. It shows we can do more than just fuck around with a skit.
There's so much that goes into making a cartoon, from the story to the characters to the music. So many mediums being showcased.
T: Even that in itself is a challenge for my music side. It's like, 'Okay, I need to make a song that sounds like a mariachi band.' That forces me to learn new chords, new cadences, and new pockets, just so I can make the music that fits in a 10- or 15-second scene.
It's tight, 'cause we go in not knowing what the fuck we're doing. We've never had a cartoon, we're writing a real story arc over time. Worst comes to worst, it sucks, and we'll still give 100 percent [on the next one].
Were you guys big Adult Swim heads when you were younger?
LB: Yeah, I've been watching Adult Swim since Home Movies. I still watch every night before I go to sleep.
T: Growing up, I was really studying what the fuck was going on over there. Whether it was a Family Guy rerun to Home Movies to Robot Chicken, all of that shit really spoke to my 14-year-old brain. Also growing up on Dave Chappelle and Jackass and shit like that really shaped our humor. When we came together, it just turned into [The Jellies!], and Adult Swim was the perfect home for it. It sounds like we're sucking Adult Swim's dick right now! Fuck them. [laughs]
You're working with some great writers as well. Is it collaborative, or are you guys calling the shots?
LB: Adult Swim had us bring in a list of, like, 20 episode ideas that they could approve or not approve. They approved most of them, and from there we went into the writing room. We had Carl Jones, JD Samuels, our friend Brian who did some writing on Loiter Squad; we had Jasper, who just has great ideas and loves cartoons more than anyone. We had Dan Curry, who writes with Eric Andre on his show; Angela Nissel who is a really good writer as well. We just sat in the room every day for a couple of months and just banged it out. It was really cool, we learned a lot from them. They taught us a little bit more structure, how to make our ideas more accessible to everyone.
In the first two episodes, you guys have done some pretty wild stuff already. Are there any ideas that were too crazy that didn't make it into the show?
LB: For the most part Adult Swim was down!
T: Being honest I think we scaled back. Just to make sure people look at it in a different light than Loiter Squad. There were definitely a few times where we were like, "Nah, this is too crazy. Let's wait so we can set the tone that this is something different." I mean we couldn't smoke crack. That's some FCC TV shit. But everything is good.
I love seeing Cornell, a black lead character, just living his life and not being typecast. While you guys were writing for him, were you actively thinking about filling the void, so to speak, as there aren't many black leads in the cartoon world?
T: Just the way we grew up, they do expect people of our skin tone to be a certain type of way. There's a certain type that people see. Neither me nor Lionel were like that, so when we made the character, we were like, "Oh yeah, let's make him black." Then we started to notice that he wasn't going to be like any other black cartoon character, where every five seconds you have to point out the fact that they're black.
Tyler, you're packing so much music into these short episodes. Are you making everything fresh for The Jellies!?
T: Yeah, I'd say 85 percent [of the music] is mine, everything made specifically for the show. It's rare that I use anything old.
LB: The tightest thing about that is we never have to worry about clearing songs or anything like that. He can literally make anything we want to put it the show.
Will we get a Jellies soundtrack soon?
T: Oh, of course! It's so much music. It's real scores too, like the intro is a real two-minute song, "Pop Yo Coochie" is like a real song. A lot of these things are real songs that do exist. One hundred percent you're going to hear some more.
Tyler, you have The Jellies!, Nuts + Bolts, Camp Flog Gnaw, the clothing line, music. How do you balance it all?
T: I don't see any of it as work. I'm just doing what I'd be doing for free. With deadlines [laughs]. I get to work with my friends, they get paid, I get paid. Also I don't come from money, I come from a single-parent home. So trust me 100 percent, I'll always be working like I could lose everything tomorrow, and that's always in the back of my head.
So what are your favorite cartoons? Stuff you guys always go back to.
T: I love Family Guy, South Park is super cool. Clarence is my favorite cartoon right now. I always thought The Weekenders and Recess were super cool. Gumball is amazing. Adventure Time was cool.
LB: Xavier: Renegade Angel was one of the craziest shows I have ever seen. I've been watching Bob's Burgers, they have really good music in that show too.
T: I fucking love Big Mouth, dude. Watch it. I think the storylines are really good and I like how it's drawn. It's not too detailed where it takes you out of it, cause I didn't like anime growing up and I think that's why. There's something about Big Mouth though. They figured it out.
LB: Speaking of anime, I've been watching Dragonball Super, which is the greatest show of all time.
T: Trash! Only fucking goobers who didn't have any friends like that shit.
LB: Sounds like you didn't have any friends. You're a dirty yellow dingy white tee.
T: [mimicking Dragonball Super] 'I throw spitballs and have stupid hair!'
LB: You do have stupid hair and everyone knows it! [both laugh]
Are there any moments in the season you're really looking forward to in particular?
T: Someone is in a gay relationship, and I don't think people are going to take it lightly. I hope people have a sense of humor about it.
LB: The last episode is the greatest thing ever.
T: The wackest episode of the season… I'll spill the beans. We got this episode, the game show episode, and it's not that good. That's the only episode that we dropped the ball on, but it was too late. I asked Adult Swim if we could not have it air, and they said it wasn't that bad but I think them niggas was lying. When you see that episode, I know you'll think it's trash. We're better than that.
L: People might slap us just walking down the street like, 'What the fuck was that!'
If you were sea animals, what would you be?
T: An octopus is kinda cool. They can probably play instruments like crazy. But I'd probably be a whale. They're so big and peaceful, and who doesn't like whales? They have cool voices.
LB: Damn, I never thought about being a sea animal! I don't know. Fuck. Damn.
T: You were too busy watching dumbass Dragonball Z, you uncultured fuck.
LB: Oh wait, what's the shark that LL Cool J turns into in that one video? I'd be that.
T: You are so fucking stupid, Lionel. Oh wait, can I be the Little Mermaid? Oh my god, I'm a mermaid.
