Joe Cappa Talks About Senior Swimming Program “Ha Ha, Clowns”

decade of “Great old sons” humor. He was building to Haha, clowns. The new Adult Swim series from animator Joe Cappa follows a close-knit family — three beautiful grown boys (Preston, Tristan, and Duncan) and their beloved father — as they try to get by after their mother passes away. The show is based on a series of surreal shorts that Cappa created for Adult Swim’s Smalls programming block in 2023, which he built into an entire world in this first season, giving Dad a job as a weatherman, casting June Squibb as Preston’s elderly co-worker, and adding professional pool player Janet Leigh to the voice cast as a version of herself who lives next door to the boys and offers them sage advice from over the fence.

Haha, clowns Take its animated comedy ambitions from The Simpsons and The story beats from Seventh heaven It wraps everything in an artistic, outdoorsy style reminiscent of an older, more experimental era of adult swimming. Her goofy sweetness sums her up best in the comments section of the first episode, Published on YouTube Ahead of the series’ TV premiere on October 19: “I love how big the boys are and how often everyone cries, it’s amazing.” The show’s proud father, Joe Cappa, spoke to Vulture ahead of the premiere.

Tell me about the process of getting this on the air.
They have something called Smalls, They allow up-and-coming artists to create shows. A year before my stay Smalls Shorts, I started making them Short animation On Instagram and Paper mache head videosand then one of these videos It went viral on TikTok. It happened Smalls Executive Producer Dave Hughes, who asked me if I could do a longer papier-mache video for Adult Swim and also told me about Smalls. All I had to do was pitch him an idea, and at the time, I was toying with the idea of ​​three boys who… truly They love their father and think their father is the coolest. I thought there was something funny there. I learned who these characters were while I was making the shorts.

What’s funny to you about three boys who love their father?
When I did short cartoons before Adult Swim, people used to say my work was too “wholesome.” I was never trying to be healthy; I was reacting to a lot of adult anime that seemed sarcastic and sarcastic – which is great, but I was getting bored by it. So I was just trying to do something different.

Are there any differences between the way the three boys sound? It’s hard to know.
in Smalls Shorts, they all look exactly the same. But in the show, I had to separate them a little bit. Duncan is a little louder and a little more innocent, Tristan is always a little silly, and then pretty much Preston [lowers voice] here. He is the leader. And the father is truly a little. When I’m in the studio recording them, I usually start with Duncan, Tristan, and Preston, then finish with Dad once my voice gets gravelly from singing all day.

When it came time to turn these short films into full, episode-length stories, how did you flesh out these characters? They all have the same construction. I don’t even know what their ages are.
We don’t know. After all the scripts were turned over to Adult Swim, Cam Tang, who runs development, said, “So, how old are they?” He was very late in the process. I was like, “I don’t know. They’re in high school.” I would say Preston can drive. Duncan doesn’t know how to drive yet. I don’t think we’ll ever see them in any high school experience or anything like that. They’re young and they love their father, and that’s what the show is about.

There’s nothing quite like this on TV. What are your sources of inspiration?
In terms of style, I’ve always thought that high school students’ drawings in celebrity art class are the funniest aesthetic – when it looks like a person is trying to do a good job, but they’re not really doing it well. There’s a certain kind of humor that translates when something feels really polished, and when it’s not so polished, there’s another layer of comedy going on there that I try to play with. Since we qualify the artists, just so they can understand the sensibilities of the show, we like to say that it’s like if a live-action director got an animated show, and they don’t know how to draw that well, they have to execute their idea in some way. He tries to be honest, but stumbles along the way and comes across as a bit rude.

In the shorts, the mother’s spirit is present. She’s referenced in the show, but there’s no sense of a ghost mother. Why change?
I like horror movies where they keep it subtle and don’t explain too much. For anything supernatural, I think you have to play the long game. To keep a show relevant and interesting over many seasons, you have to play it very slowly.

You share a writing credit with Dave Capa. Is this your brother?
Yes. When we got the green light, they were asking for a book, and all I could think of was my brother. I would say the show is loosely inspired by my father and my brotherly love with my brother. He lives in England, so it was great to have these opportunities to write scripts with him across the Atlantic.

June Squibb Present in the voice cast. How did you get involved in the show?
I’ve been a big fan of June Squibb ever since About Schmidt. then Thelma It came out, and I thought it was very good. I reached out to the director and said, “Man, I would love to have you and Squibb in this show.” Then the folks at Adult Swim reached out to June Squibb, and she said yes. I don’t know why she decided to do the show, but she would come into the studio and do it in one take. It’s really good. She was perfect for this role.

I want to go back to the people who describe your work as “useful.” I love this show’s portrayal of these big straight men who are kind and emotionally open.
I think they are very funny characters to write about. The way they see the world and how they interact with each other, I feel like a lot of people can relate to someone like that in their lives. They have no self-awareness, somehow, and don’t seem to care that they might become embarrassed. They really care about being nice people, and from that, you’ll have meaningful moments where they cry to each other.

I think the father cries in every episode.
Sure enough, his eyes turn red every episode.

Did your father see that?
I think he saw all the cartoons. He’s very excited to have his sons work on a show together and know he’s loosely based on him. He’s so tickled by everything.