King Of The Hill Creators Team With Sacha Baron Cohen For New HBO Max Animated Comedy
Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, creators of the animated sitcom "King of the Hill," will be collaborating with Sacha Baron Cohen for an upcoming animated special. (via The Hollywood Reporter). Titled "Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth," the animated special will be catered to younger audiences and air on Cartoon Network while streaming on HBO Max.
Michael Koman, co-creator of "Nathan For You" and "Finding Frances," will be penning the special. In terms of the tone of the show, it has been described as humorous in an absurdist way, while the open-ended questioning within the narrative is said to be "a nod to Jewish intellectual traditions."
'A perfect pairing of comedy and satire'
Baron Cohen, Daniels, and Judge have contributed immensely to the realm of comedy in their own way, with the "King of the Hill" creators having worked on episodes of "The Office" and "Parks & Recreation." The story for "Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth" is being currently developed by the trio, while serving as executive producers for the special.
"Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth" revolves around the mythical "Town of Fools" from classic Yiddish folktales, in which the city of Chelm is populated with rather foolish folks. As per details of the folklore, the inhabitants of the town owe their foolishness to some sort of cosmic error, resulting in them not being able to follow common logic or understand physics. This is probably where the show's absurd strain will be introduced, making it a fun special suitable for younger audiences.
The animated special is being produced by Bandera Entertainment, created by Daniels and Judge, with Dustin Davis also set to executive produce. Amy Friedman, the Head of kids and family programming at Warner Bros., commented about the hilarious nature of the show:
"This pitch was so hilarious; we just knew the HBO Max audience needed to get a dose of this original brand of storytelling. Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth is a perfect pairing of comedy and satire, and no one does that combination better than Sacha, Greg, Mike, and Michael. This unique project will breathe new, hysterical life into the nonsensical Chelmic wisdom that originated from this imaginary city of folks who aren't quite the sharpest tools in the shed."
Baron Cohen will most likely act as narrator for the special, adding a fresh spin to the silly shenanigans (mostly exaggerated instances of comedic errors) that the classic folktales posit.
"Chelm: The Smartest Place on Earth" does not have a release date attached to it yet.