That SpongeBob is a devil.
Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, wanted to know the address here at the Sun.
"333," he was told.
"Ahh -- Satan Junior," blurted Kenny.
If only he knew.
The Syracuse, N.Y.-native was on the line to promote his new series, Camp Lazlo, an animated children's comedy about three goofy Bean Scouts -- Lazlo, Raj and Clam -- who enjoy the great outdoors when they're not dodging cranky Scoutmaster Lumpus (a rectangular moose voiced by Kenny). The series airs weekdays at 8:30 a.m. on Teletoon.
Kenny, best known for his cheery SpongeBob lilt, says it is fun playing the bad guy for a change. "If this was Hogan's Heroes I would be Col. Klink." He was originally asked to voice Lazlo, a spider monkey, but thought the "cockeyed upstart" was too much like SpongeBob. (In fact, as voiced by Carlos Alazraqui, he even sounds like SpongeBob.)
Kenny lobbied to read for the "jerk" instead and was glad he did. He says the uptight moose is a cross between Rain Man and Radar from M*A*S*H.
The series is created by Joe Murray, who gave stand up comedian Kenny and SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg their first break in animation 10 years ago on Rocko's Modern Life. "I love Murray's drawings. Graphically they're really amazing," says Kenny.
Besides working on an upcoming children's album (titled The Best Day Ever, with contributions from Beach Boy Brian Wilson and Tommy Ramone), Kenny is still recording SpongeBob voiceovers for games, movies and a sixth season of animated episodes. Told his voice repeats over and over again at the SpongeBob 3-D attraction at Paramount Canada's Wonderland ("Good times," SpongeBob keeps saying as parents stew in the sun), Kenny tries to be sympathetic. "I remember recording that and thinking people are going to hate me," he says. "But, you know, I've stood in a few lines in my day, too."
Kenny says he's always surprised at how popular SpongeBob remains. Last summer's SpongeBob movie was a big hit, reviving the career of David Hasselhoff, the former Baywatch and Knight Rider star who saves the day for SpongeBob, Patrick and friends in the movie.
Kenny says Hasselhoff has been smart enough to goof on his own lantern-jawed, leading man image. "He learned the Leslie Nielsen lesson well," he says.
On the mend from severing a tendon in his arm in a freak chandelier accident in London (I swear I'm not making this up), Hasselhoff was recently voted "the King Of Cyberspace" as one of the most downloaded stars in the world. He's also a judge on the summer's hottest reality show, America's Got Talent.
And he owes it all to SpongeBob. "We were ahead of the curve on that one, weren't we?" says Kenny. Did Hasselhoff send over a nice basket of fruit at least for re-starting his career? "No, but he let me drive the car," says Kenny.
