If you haven’t clocked into Universal Basic Guys yet, consider this your official PTO notice.
The animated comedy from brother duo Adam and Craig Malamut has quickly carved out its own hilarious corner of television with a premise that feels both wildly absurd and surprisingly relatable: two South Jersey brothers suddenly lose their jobs to automation and are handed $3,000 a month through a universal basic income program — leaving them with far too much time, questionable ideas, and zero supervision.
And according to the creators themselves, the show thrives on exactly that kind of unpredictable chaos.
“Universal Basic Guys (or UBG if you’re short on time) is about two brothers — Mark and Hank Hoagies — from South Jersey who lose their jobs to automation and have to figure out what to do with their time,” the Malamut brothers tell Celeb Secrets in an exclusive interview. “They get into all sorts of half-baked plans and often wrap in their family and neighbors. Sometimes they solve mundane problems with insane solutions — like getting rabies to improve their basketball skills — and other times they stumble upon strange, fantastical secrets like the Jersey Devil living in the woods behind their house. You never know what you’re gonna get each episode.”
That unpredictability is exactly what keeps fans coming back to the animated world of Glantontown, where the Hoagies brothers’ post-work lifestyle spirals into everything from neighborhood antics to full-blown absurdity.
The series’ second season — which follows Mark, Hank and their equally chaotic South Jersey crew navigating life after work — builds toward an especially wild finale episode titled “Crowmaster,” which aired yesterday (April 12). And if the creators are any indication, viewers know things got very weird.
“Things get real weird for Mark and Hank in the final episode of season two: CROWMASTER,” the brothers said ahead of the premiere. “It’s one of our favorite episodes and we’re excited for fans to see it.”
But before you start worrying about saying goodbye to Glantontown, there’s good news: the story is far from over. With a third season already on the horizon, the Malamuts promise that the Hoagies household is about to get even more chaotic.
“We don’t want to reveal too much, but we’ll just say a new member of the Hoagies family joins the household and upends their lives…”
And if Season 2 proved anything, it’s that the show’s blend of real-world inspiration, outrageous comedy and animated absurdity is only getting stronger.
Below, Adam and Craig Malamut open up to Celeb Secrets about building the world of Universal Basic Guys, their journey from internet animation to broadcast television, the guest stars bringing Glantontown to life, and why the Hoagies brothers might just be the most lovable disasters on TV.
Celeb Secrets: For readers who are just discovering Universal Basic Guys, how would you describe the show, and what kind of chaos should they expect when they watch?
Adam & Craig Malamut: “Universal Basic Guys (or UBG if you’re short on time) is about two brothers–Mark and Hank Hoagies–from South Jersey who lose their jobs to automation and have to figure out what to do with their time. They get into all sorts of half-baked plans, and often wrap in their family and neighbors. Sometimes they solve mundane problems with insane solutions (like getting rabies to improve their basketball skills) and other times they stumble upon strange, fantastical secrets like the Jersey Devil living in the woods behind their house. You never know what you’re gonna get each episode.”
CS: You both started out creating content online before moving into television. Looking back, how did that early era of experimenting with web series help shape the way you approach storytelling today?
Adam & Craig: “Making animated series online was crucial to our development because it allowed us to experiment, it taught us every part of the process, and it gave us immediate feedback on our work. We made some weird stuff — some of it got no traction and other things like Game of Zones caught fire.
We were able to be inventive and take risks while developing our own process that broke free from traditional ways of making cartoons. It felt almost like being in an ‘animation startup.’
We also loved getting instant feedback from commenters. Most people say don’t read the comments because everyone on the internet is mean, but if you can see through the hyperbole and vitriol, there’s a lot of honest feedback to mine that really helps sharpen your instincts. (Also a lot of people are nice too.)”
CS: The premise of Universal Basic Guys — two brothers losing their jobs to automation and suddenly getting $3,000 a month — feels both wildly funny and weirdly timely. What sparked the idea?
Adam & Craig: “We came up with the idea for UBG when the pandemic was raging and we were working from home. Everyone was trying new things like baking bread or learning TikTok dances, and we were going down internet rabbit holes thinking about how to spend our time.
Meanwhile Andrew Yang was campaigning on the idea of Universal Basic Income and we started thinking about a possible future where AI takes all the jobs and the people who defined themselves by their work were left with nothing to do.
We thought — what if you put one of these guys who thinks he knows everything into a situation where he has the time to put his money where his mouth is?”
CS: Mark and Hank Hoagies are such lovable disasters. When you were building these characters, what traits did you know they absolutely had to have?
Adam & Craig: “We knew Mark and Hank were the core engine of the show, so we designed them to be a perpetual comedy machine.
We based Mark and Hank off ourselves as kids: Adam was the bossy teenager with crazy ideas and Craig was the naive child who tagged along on his schemes and gullibly accepted everything he said.
The key to the show is that Mark is an endless well of self-confidence and optimism, who leaps into ideas headfirst without considering how things might go wrong and never learning his lesson. Hank is the only person in Mark’s life who sees him how he wants to be seen and goes along with his ideas.
They get themselves into trouble, but they also need each other.”
CS: The show takes place in South Jersey and has such a distinct personality. How much of that world is inspired by real life?
Adam & Craig: “From the beginning, we knew we wanted this show to have a specific flavor to it instead of taking place in a generic cartoon town.
We created Glantontown as a mash-up of all the towns in South Jersey we spent time in growing up, and we make sure to send our background artists tons of local photo references. Anyone from the area will quickly recognize locations our characters go to like the water ice shop, their diner Bonzios, or the boardwalk at Oceanwood (a combo of Ocean City and Wildwood).
As for the characters, we love to pull from real personalities we knew. Adam created the voice of Mark Hoagies and Artie by impersonating the callers on Philly sports radio and some of our relatives and friends.
Tammy is loosely inspired by the women our mom would play softball with. When casting for Tammy, we knew we needed someone from the area because the accent and personality is so specific.”
CS: This season features some incredible guest stars. What’s it like seeing actors jump into the chaotic world you’ve created?
Adam & Craig Malamut: “It’s always a thrill to work with comedians and actors you’ve been a fan of since childhood.
I (Craig) probably watched Wet Hot American Summer 15 times growing up, so getting to jump in the booth with Joe Lo Truglio and Christopher Meloni was completely surreal.
Seeing all of these immensely talented comedians and actors fill out the world of Glantontown is really a privilege that is not lost on us.”
CS: You’ve worn nearly every creative hat on this show. What does your day-to-day look like when you’re deep into production?
Adam & Craig: “Running an animated television show is a life of chaos: for most of the year, you are simultaneously working on every episode in the season (and usually a few from the next season or previous season).
So the creative process is fractured into a million tiny decisions every day as you hop from one episode to the next.
It’s a very different challenge than working on one simple animated short, and it gave us a whole new appreciation for television. Our job is to shepherd a creative spark from the early stages of the writers room through an 18-month conveyor belt of production.”
CS: With the Season 2 finale airing April 12 and Season 3 on the way, what can you tease about what’s next for Mark, Hank and the rest of the crew?
Adam & Craig: “Things get real weird for Mark and Hank in the final episode of season two: CROWMASTER. It’s one of our favorite episodes and we’re excited for fans to see it.
Chris Wilson does an incredible job as Dr. Michael Chalupa.
As for season three, we don’t want to reveal too much, but we’ll just say a new member of the Hoagies family joins the household and upends their lives…”
CS: Since the show revolves around universal basic income, we have to ask — if you suddenly had an extra $3,000 a month with no strings attached, what’s the first thing you’d spend it on?
Adam & Craig: “If we weren’t allowed to spend it on sensible things that most people spend their UBI on like food, shelter and transportation, and we HAD to use it for wacky shenanigans…
Craig would buy a massive telescope with automated tracking because he’s a big astronomy nerd, and Adam would probably buy more Philadelphia Eagles stuff that he can only wear when they win.”
CS: And because we’re Celeb Secrets — what’s a behind-the-scenes secret fans wouldn’t know just by watching the show?
Adam & Craig: “In our jetpack episode, there are two drunk women Mark flies home from a bar during his brief stint as a rideshare driver.
They end up throwing up as they dangle below him in an adult-sized baby bjorn.
We designed one of them to look like our sister who may or may not have done something similar in a cab at 3am in her early 20s.”
