‘Universal Basic Guys’ Creators Adam & Craig Malamut Animate Their Vision of a Post-Work World

This article was written for the September/October '24 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 343).

Among the many questions posed by the advent of AI: How do people earn a living wage when robots have made the concept of “a day’s work for a day’s pay” obsolete? And how do people find fulfillment, spiritual or otherwise, in a fully automated world? In their Fox Animation Domination show, Universal Basic Guys, creators Adam and Craig Malamut (Game of Zones) endeavor to answer those questions through the lens of a classic buddy comedy. “This idea of universal basic income, I think it comes with all of these political strings, but we’re approaching it more philosophically,” says Adam Malamut. “Automation is coming. AI is coming, and I think we need to think of this new world, this post-work world.”

Universal Basic Guys follows the ongoing misadventures of Mark and Hank Hoagies (both voiced by Adam Malamut) as they navigate their new lives after automation forces them out of work. To compensate for their expulsion from the workforce, Hank and Mark receive Universal Basic Income, providing them a monthly stipend of $3,000. With their newfound freedom and financial security, the duo get to act out their most exciting and occasionally delusional daydreams one by one.

“Imagine early retirement, and you’re a person who defined yourself by your job, and you’re told, ‘You don’t need to work anymore,’” says Craig Malamut. “‘Here are the resources to take care of your basic needs. Go figure out what to do with your time on Earth.’”

Universal Law

It only takes a few seconds of Universal Basic Guys to see how Adam and Craig Malamut’s upbringing in the Northeast helped shape the series’ tone. As two South Jersey natives, the Malamut brothers steeped the region’s unique cultural flavor in almost every fiber of Universal Basic Guys’ brand of humor. In fact, the show’s protagonist, Mark Hoagies — specifically his voice — has been a running gag between the brothers for decades. “This guy is based on years and years of listening to Philly sports radio where everybody is a genius who calls up and thinks they know more than the coach or the quarterback,” says Adam Malamut. “I grew up listening to that to fall asleep and hearing those callers, those know-it-alls, and I started associating that voice with that character.”

Before the concept of Universal Basic Guys crystallized fully, the Malamut brothers struggled to develop a series around the character of Mark. “Originally, we just had this character with Mark Hoagies, this voice, and his brother, Hank,” says Adam Malamut. “We looked at different workplace ideas. ‘Is it a hoagie shop?’ I think, at one point, Mark did siding on houses or something like that.”

Rifling through different settings proved fruitless for the brothers until the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantine period granted the duo a new perspective on the potential future of workplace sitcoms. “It was 2020, and we were in the pandemic, kind of working from home, and it was like this new world we were entering,” says Craig Malamut. “And Andrew Yang was talking about UBI, and we were reading all about AI. The [television] development process takes years, so [we thought], ‘What’s something that’s going to be relevant and also fresh?’”

“And this is kind of a topic that hasn’t really been tackled in this medium,” says Craig Malamut. “So we felt like this might be the future of the workplace sitcom: the ‘no workplace sitcom.’”

Masters of the Universe

For as prescient as Universal Basic Guys aims to be, the series is also adept at skewering contemporary elements of the digital age. “We live in a world now where everybody is an expert, you know, an armchair expert in everything,” says Adam Malamut. “So taking this character who thinks they know everything more than everyone, and it’s like now he gets a chance to try all of these things. You know, different things in his life, and [he thinks], ‘Oh, I could fly a plane; I could become a Navy SEAL; I can do all of this stuff.’ And what happens when this guy tries to be an expert in all of these things, and he learns it’s a lot harder than he realizes.”

Like their protagonists in Universal Basic Guys, the Malamut brothers are familiar with approaching a new field without formal training, as it is vaguely reminiscent of their origins in animation. “I was writing for game shows and writing for reality shows that aren’t that real, and I was kind of like, ‘I always wanted to do animation,’” says Adam Malamut. “So I started teaching myself on the side. I started going on Lynda.com and doing Flash tutorials.”

‘Automation is coming. AI is coming, and I think we need to think of this new world, this post-work world.’

— Co-creator Adam Malamut

As he gained experience cartooning, Adam received an order for his series Sports Friends on Yahoo! Screen. “The order was for, like, six episodes to 12 episodes, and I was struggling to keep up a bit,” says Adam. “Craig, meanwhile, was getting his masters in astrophysics at the time, not in animation.”

“I was literally in the observatory — when I wasn’t working on my thesis, [I was] drawing background art for Adam’s Sports Friends series,” says Craig Malamut. “And when I graduated, I wanted to [do], like, Bill Nye kind of stuff, like science outreach, or like Neil deGrasse Tyson stuff, and Adam was like, ‘C’mon, Craig. Move out to L.A. and we’ll be cartoon brothers.’”

The success of Sports Friends led the Malamut brothers to create the viral basketball parody of HBO’s Game of Thrones in Game of Zones, which eventually found a home at Bleacher Report, further guiding them down the path of mastering animation. Contrary to the humorous flippancy Mark and Hank Hoagies exhibit for their pet interests, Craig and Adam approached their shared passion for cartoons with a sense of humility inspired by their grandfather’s brief foray into animation. “Our grandfather, like, won some contest, and he went off to be an animator on Snow White, but it didn’t seem fun to him, so he didn’t end up doing it,” says Adam Malamut. “But he always said, ‘If you want to conduct the orchestra, you should learn how to play all the instruments.’”

That invaluable advice helped the Malamut brothers navigate the transition from animation enthusiasts to professional animators for Fox. “It was helpful with animators, in speaking with them, that we had done every part of the process,” says Adam Malamut. “We were mindful of what’s challenging and what’s not, and I believe that helped us, coming from a place of not just being a writer, but that we’ve done this.”

Universal Basic Guys premieres on Fox on Sunday, Sept. 8, following the FOX NFL Doubleheader (8-8:30 p.m. ET, 5-5:30 p.m. PT); it will then make its time slot premiere on Sunday, Sept. 29 at 8:30 p.m. The show has already been renewed for a second season.