In the opening scene of the new Netflix animated series Hoops, Jake Johnson drops enough expletives to rival a movie directed by Josh and Benny Safdie. “Oh, fuck my fucking life,” Johnson’s Coach Ben snaps at a pair of high-school basketball referees at one point, just before receiving a well-earned ejection. As he’s being escorted out of the gym, he throws a chair and complains about the circus no longer having elephants.
This monologue of filth, barked by Johnson in a voice that sounds like a cross between Joe Pesci and sports radio legend Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, is indicative of the episodes that follow. Hoops focuses on Coach Ben, his rag-tag team of high-school losers (including characters voiced by A.D. Miles, Sam Richardson, and Nick Swardson), and the residents of the Kentucky town they call home. The show is perhaps best described as a kind of throwback to Beavis and Butt-Head and other adult animated series of the ’90s, except with graphic jokes about oral sex baked into the premise.
Johnson is well aware that this kind of humor might not be for everyone.
“If it’s not for you, you don’t have to watch it,” a diplomatic Johnson told Vanity Fair in a recent interview. “If you watch this show and a minute in, you go, ‘Oh, my God, he’s just yelling fuck over and over again, this is hack,’ then turn it off. Because your taste is telling you you don’t like it.”
Created by Ben Hoffman—a longtime friend of Johnson’s who appeared as a guest star on New Girl and previously wrote for The Late Late Show with James Corden—and executive produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Hoops has been in development since 2014. As Hoffman said during this year’s virtual Comic Con, “Phil Lord and Chris Miller were interested in my pilot and wanted to work on it, and they said, ‘We have a new movie coming out called The LEGO Movie.’ And I said, ‘Sounds good, but I don’t know that a movie about LEGOs is really going to hit. But you guys sound interesting. I’ll check out the movie and maybe we can work together.’”
In fact, the original pitch for the show went to MTV, the home of ’90s classic Beavis and Butt-Head. But despite a pilot presentation that included Johnson as the voice of Coach Ben, the network passed on the project. Hoops remained in storage until Netflix showed interest in 2018. “From that moment, it became, what is this as a series and how can we do it?” Johnson said. “Part of it was, let’s cast it with as many funny people as we can, and let’s see if the tone can sustain for 10 episodes.”
That tone is what sets Hoops apart, beyond its shocking vulgarity. For Johnson, the jokes—many of which revolve around Coach Ben being out of step with time and culture (a running gag involves a VHS copy of Little Man Tate)—serve as a counter to a recent influx of more thoughtful comedies.
“When we came up at that time, we were all part of the same kind of comedy scene,” Johnson said of his relationship to Hoffman. “In that era of comedy, you were just making things to be funny. It wasn’t supposed to be anything else. Along the way, comedy got a lot smarter for a while, which was great. I think every once in a while, a smart comedy is awesome. Comedy with a message is awesome. But there was no alternative of just, a thing is just exactly what it is.”
Hoops, he added, is their attempt at creating a show that gives viewers what’s on the label. “It’s really meant for people to be watching late at night. If this tickles you and you go, ‘It’s funny,’ it’s not going to disappoint you,” Johnson, who’s also an executive producer, said. “It doesn’t try to grow up. It doesn’t try to teach you. It’s not trying to show you anything. It’s just telling a lot of stupid jokes.”
But the show’s stupidity and low-brow antics didn’t give Johnson and Hoffman a free pass to be offensive. “If somebody watches this and says, ‘This show seems to have hatred for who I am,’ then we did something wrong,” Johnson said. He’s cognizant of the fact that a show about a grown man shouting abusive language at high-school students—even those voiced by his peers—could be triggering to those who have experienced bullying.
“I don’t mind if people don’t like the show, but I’m not looking to alienate or hurt someone for what makes them who they are,” he said. “But if you don’t like this tone, I’m okay with that.”
Perhaps the most unexpected thing about Hoops is that it serves as an unofficial reunion of Johnson and some key collaborators from his New Girl family. Other alum of the Fox series to lend their voices to the show include Max Greenfield, Hannah Simone, Damon Wayans Jr., and Cleo King, who so impressed Johnson during a one-episode guest appearance on New Girl that he pushed to have her play a major role on Hoops.
“I wish these people found it while we were doing it,” Johnson said when asked if he noticed how New Girl continues to win over viewers as it streams on Netflix, at least if the online buzz is any indication. “After season six of that show, Zooey [Deschanel] and I had to ask Fox for that final season, and Fox was nice enough to give us a final eight episodes—which is a really weird number. The reason they did eight was to be respectful to the fans we had, which, at that point, were not a lot.”
“It is slightly bittersweet because it’s over now,” he added of the show’s resurgence. “So it’s nice that people are revisiting it or finding it now, but it does feel like three years too late. It’s not like they’re finding Taxi. We were just on. If any of this generation that was liking it just tuned in on Tuesday nights, we would still be on.”
All products featured on Vanity Fair are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
— Exposing the Fall of CBS Showrunner Peter Lenkov
— How Sarah Cooper Trumped Donald Trump—Without Saying a Word
— An Exclusive First Look at the TV Drama That Will Enrage Trump
— Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking Only Scratches the Surface of a Big Problem
— How Olivia de Havilland Learned Hattie McDaniel Defeated Her at the 1940 Oscars
— See Ryan Murphy and Sarah Paulson’s Ode to an Iconic Villain: Nurse Ratched
— From the Archive: Inside Olivia de Havilland’s Notorious Lifelong Feud With Sister Joan Fontaine
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story.
