al: Because you could try to bait any group and probably get away, but the one group you don't want to ever offend is Southerners.
mm: We are southern though.

al: I know this from experience, from making fun of Dale Earnhardt when he died.
mm: Ohhh. Yeah, don't screw with our NASCAR, but other than that...
dw: You know, Futurama did an episode about Atlanta...and I didn't like it. I thought it was one note and didn't have any understanding of the South. But everybody working on this show, on Squidbillies, is Southern or has a Southern connection and understands the South a bit more. I don't think we'll offend Southerners.

al: [Aqua Teen] takes place in New Jersey. Have you received any negative feedback from angry Jerseyites?
dw: I don't think so...
mm: I haven't at all. I went to college with folks from Jersey, so I'm used to bustin' on them. We traded awkward insults that are based on complete stereotypical blanket statements... and that's basically what Carl is.

al: How much of YOU do you put into your characters?
dw: I think there's something from real life that finds its way to each of the episodes and characters. I mean, my wife's pregnant and we just wrote an episode where Meatwad gets pregnant...

al: What exactly is your writing process for Aqua Teen like? Do you just brew a pot of coffee and stare at the computer screen?
mm: Yeah, sometimes it starts out that way. We usually spend the first draft writing and Dave will come over to my house. I'll brew him some coffee. And make him some muffins. And we'll bullshit around for awhile and be like, "What if Shake does this?" and eventually something will stick, and it doesn't take much longer after that to write a whole script.

al: Do you guys put in a 9-5?
mm: More like a 10:30 to 3:30. (Laughs)
dw: Well, we do a bunch of other stuff, too. We're a small staff, so there's always stuff to do as far as producing, and other things.

al: Is there any rivalry between you and the other Adult Swim guys?
dw: Not at all, we get along really well. We need to support each other, because we're such a small staff trying to do so many shows here.
mm: It gets kind of incestuous here. We'll have them read our scripts, or we'll read their scripts. And, you know, we'll disregard their notes and move on. (Laughs).

al: Is it difficult working in a 15-minute structure?
mm: It would probably be more difficult working in a 30-minute structure at this point. We're pretty used to wrapping things up by page 11.

al: In a lot of episodes, suddenly the climax is the last ten seconds. Is it that the episode is running long and you suddenly have to cut it short as soon as possible?
dw: I don't think so. I think we do that on purpose, because we're enjoying what we're doing up until that time, and then we're like, "We gotta rap it up" and we finish it off in a goofy way.

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