Between the release of their new film Miss March, the premiere of the third season of their television show, and a national tour of their live sketch show, Whitest Kids U’ Know stars Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger have hit 2009 with a running start. The New York comedians performed live sketch shows in city clubs for several years before televising their routines on Fuse TV (and later, IFC TV). Before releasing a third season of their program, Moore and Cregger took some time to write, direct and star in the movie (without any other Whitest Kids). While the group was in town touring their live show, Moore and Cregger stopped to take interviews on the movie. Joining them was co-star Craig Robinson, who you may know as Darryl from NBC’s The Office, or for his work in Pineapple Express, Knocked Up and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Robinson provided some extra laughs, compliments, and certain “inspiration” to his new colleagues.
Max Brawer: So for starters, congratulations on the movie. How did the film project get started?
Trevor Moore: Fox gave us the script, actually. The premise was that the guy goes in a coma, and he and his friend go try to meet up with his girlfriend who is now a Playboy playmate. But we didn’t really like the script that much, it sounded kinda like a cliché road trip movie, so we wanted to make a road trip movie that we would like. So we kinda added some elements, and we pushed it into a little more of a sketch world where you’ve got like, evil firemen, and like…
Zach Cregger: Rappers…
TM: …And we added the Candace plot line and made Eugene afraid of sex. Originally it was like both characters were obsessed with sex and wanted to get laid. We tried to push the humor further out there, and it was basically just a page one rewrite on the script. Fox green-lit it and we met Craig and um…
Craig Robinson: Yeah! And I did an audition, and I came here, and I auditioned for Horsedick.MPEG [a gangster rapper he portrays in the film].
MB: Where did that name come from? Who came up with Horsedick.MPEG??
TM: I just uh… thought it would be funny.
MB: You thought correctly.
CR: It’s a file on Trev’s computer.
TM: Yeah, it was a movie I had on a computer and I was like this could be a funny rap name.
ZC: Yeah, I remember being with my mom at Trevor’s computer and I saw this thing and I was like ‘Trevor what is this Horsedick.MPEG file?” and he was like “Oh, that’s just the name of a character for the movie … don’t open it!”
MB: Haha, yes, been there.
TM: Really?
MB: Well, you know, LimeWire… Anyway, was there involvement from the rest of the troupe or was it just you two guys?
TM: Naw, just us.
MB: Any reason?
TM: We thought about them doing like cameos in it but then we decided it was best not to because we didn’t want it to really be seen as a Whitest Kids movie because we do want to make a Whitest Kids movie.
ZC: We don’t want to confuse the brand, you know.
MB: So do you guys have any other screenplays hiding around in your minds? Any college fantasies? Drunken ideas?
ZC: Well we have a Whitest Kids script that we are working on now and that’s what we wanna do there.
CR: I have an idea to have these guys do Archie and Jughead! [Laughs]
MB: I’d green-light that one. So where does all this inspiration come from?
ZC: Craig, you wanna handle that one?
CR: No. [Laughs]
ZC: I mean for the show we just sit in a room and kinda throw ideas around and find stuff we all laugh at.
TM: A lot of times we just hang around in bars and talking and being like “Oh we gotta remember to do that for a sketch.” For the movie, the movie just wrote itself, you know? It’s like we gotta get from here to here, some funny shit needs to happen, okay, good. Really as soon as we figured out what the characters were gonna be like, it was just about dropping them into situations.
MB: Do you guys have a favorite moment in the movie?
ZC: I like when Craig says [in gangster voice] “If I ever see your pretty little face again I’m a rip-it-off-and-fuck-it.”
CR: [Laughs] “I don’t lie to my friends.”
TM: I think the girl going out the window. It was the most fun to shoot. We had a room built with hydraulics and put the girl on ropes and… it was pretty elaborate. And I like everything Craig does.
CR: My favorite part is when Craig … I like the video, man! We had a blast shooting that.
TM: And, like, honest-to-god porn stars!
ZC: I don’t know if it made it into the movie but Craig actually fucked one.
MB: So since you guys met in college, and this is a college publication, I thought I’d ask if you had any advice for how college students can put together a troupe, get a movie deal, etc.
ZC: It’s really great to do it with friends because it makes getting together and working your ass off more bearable. You gotta write, write, write, write constantly.
TM: After we got outta college we were trying to write an hour and 45 minutes of new material every week. We had a weekly show, and people needed to come back every week, but this wasn’t improv, it was scripted. When we got a TV show, the whole season basically came from the live shows.
MB: A question for Craig: I’ve seen you in about five movies in the past year, and of course there’s The Office (in all of which you portray similar characters), and I was curious to know if you were out to break the Darryl perception and move on into film.
CR: I mean this particular movie certainly breaks the wall of that. I mean this guy is still tough and all, but he’s so big and ridiculous that it really is a big departure from something I’d do in The Office or Knocked Up or something like that. You always want to stretch and challenge yourself.
MB: If I may switch gears and ask some questions about the TV show, what’s the outlook for season three? Do you have any outrageous premises to share?
ZC: Well there’s a lot of people fucking animals.
TM: There’s uh, a self-fellating alien. Oh and we do a Little Rascals routine!
MB: Way to go back to the classics. You know, after seeing the movie, I was showing my friends the deer sketch, and I think bestiality is definitely one of your strong points.
ZC: Bestiality is a strong point. Bestiality is always funny.
TM: Also, somewhere in one of our episodes the Jonas Brothers make a cameo. Very special episode.
MB: So the thing about the Whitest Kids I notice is that a lot of kids know the show, but a lot of people don’t know the name and yet have seen your clips on YouTube. So they won’t know WK but then you bring up the slow jerk and they will say, “Oh Slow Jerk, of course!” Do you ever feel like any of your skits are over or under-appreciated? Do you ever experience the “I’m Rick James, Bitch” syndrome?
TM: I’d say the show gets probably just the right amount of appreciation. But I remember the first person to come up to me on the street after the show was on, it was in a bar, and someone just started the slow jerk from across the bar and pointed at me, and it just looked like a dude masturbating from across the bar. And I was like what’s this dude’s problem? But then I was like oh, oh right. And when we did the show a couple months ago, there was like a 14-year-old kid after the show who was like “Can I take a picture of you and me doing the slow jerk?” And I was like naw, I don’t think so. I don’t know if I want that on a picture.