ShareThisSelf-proclaimed "Dancing Outlaw" Jesco White is joining a family that is as outrageous as his own -- the hillbilly clan on Adult Swim's "Squidbillies."
Tennessee filmmaker Storm Taylor -- who has been chronicling the life of the West Virginia Whites for a documentary -- says White and his sister, Mamie, will provide voices for upcoming episodes of "Squidbillies." The episodes will air in the first quarter of 2010. Taylor was instrumental in getting the Whites to do the cartoon and recorded their voices for it.
"Squidbillies" is an animated comedy about red-neck squids who live in the hills outside of Atlanta. Like the Whites, they squabble, drink too much and cause a general ruckus around the community. Early, the patriarch of the Squidbillies clan, likes to drive a beat-up pickup truck and wear caps with inappropriate slogans.
"Cartoon Network contacted me to try and get Jesco to play the role of GaGa Pee Pop (Early's father)," Taylor says.
"I thought that it would be great to film, so I took the crew. It took two hours to get through about 15 lines. It was the funniest thing that I have seen in years. It turned out so well that they gave (Jesco's sister) Mamie a role in a later episode."
Jesco's episode airs in January; Mamie's is in March.
Taylor, along with high-school friend Johnny Knoxville, produced a documentary on the Whites for MTV. "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia" is now complete and is garnering critical acclaim at national independent film festivals.
Taylor says the Whites had never heard of "Squidbillies," but agreed to do the voices anyway. Jesco "kept calling it 'Squidbabies,' " Taylor recalls.
White is an acclaimed mountain dancer and entertainer. He is best known as the subject of two documentary films that detail his desire to follow in his famous father's footsteps while trying to overcome depression, drugs and poverty. His outrageous behavior earned him the name "The Dancing Outlaw" and made him an Internet sensation with a cult following.
Taylor's documentary is the first of many projects he is developing for the family.
"As you can imagine, when you do anything about (pop culture) then you're going to have people who will slam it, that we are exploiting the Whites," Taylor said in an earlier interview. "When you deal with hillbilly culture ... you get that. They're not being exploited anymore than anyone else with a camera in their face."
(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)
I saw a screening of this
I saw a screening of this episode at Dragoncon in Atlanta, GA. It was awesome! DO IT TO IT!