Jon Hamm: ‘Grimsburg’ is a place to laugh during tough times

1 of 4 | Jon Hamm’s “Grimsburg” kicks off its second season Sunday. Image courtesy of FOX

NEW YORK, Feb. 16 (UPI) — Mad Men, Landman and Fargo actor Jon Hamm says he thinks one of the reasons viewers are tuning in to his adult animated comedy, Grimsburg, is because they enjoy the relationships of its outrageous characters.

Season 2 of the show, which was developed by Chadd Gindin, premieres Sunday on Hulu.

It stars Hamm as hard-boiled police detective Marvin Flute and Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch as his young son Stan.

The voice cast also includes Alan Tudyk, Erinn Hayes, Kevin Michael Richardson, Wendi McLendon-Covey and Rosie Perez.

“What Chad has done with the characters in the show — the relationship between Stan and my character, as well as the kind of workplace relationships — are just fun,” Hamm, 53, recently told UPI at New York Comic Con.

“Those are what we tune into when we watch The Office and we watch 30 Rock,” he added. “We want to see those relationships and we’ve been able to really lean into those, especially much more in the second season.”

Dratch, 58, credited the show’s popularity to its deft use of parody.

“It’s pretty subtle,” she said. “I didn’t really notice it [at first]. It’s like: ‘Wait! Now we’re doing Agatha Christie. Now we’re doing The Summer Camp Murders.’ So, it’s kind of fun if you’re a fan of this whole genre, just to be like, ‘Oh, look what they’re doing now.'”

Dratch and Hamm said they hope the show provides a little escapism to those troubled by difficult events in reality.

“You start out as the class clown and it’s a nice way to contribute,” Dratch said.

“Especially, when the world seems so serious and the stakes seem so high for so many things,” Hamm added.

“Let’s take a step back and remember that we are all human beings. We are all goofy and weird in our own special ways,” he said. “You can take life very seriously, as it should be taken for much of the time, but there’s also a place to laugh at it a little bit.”

Dratch tries to bring her natural hope and optimism to her portrayal of Stan.

“But he’s also kind of an outcast and, so, I try to bring both of those things,” she said.

Hamm said he gets a kick out of playing Marvin’s “confident incorrectness.”

“It’s very funny and ‘of the moment.’ He is never in doubt, but often wrong, and that’s funny,” he added.

“It’s funny watching guys make terrible decisions and bump into things. So, that’s great and, also, work a little bit to not be completely oblivious to the fact that their mistakes have consequences, so that’s the big part of it. If you’re just a bumbling fool that never learns, then you are Mr. Magoo, which is very funny, but there’s not a lot of road to explore.”

Perhaps surprisingly, it wasn’t that challenging to record his dialogue for this job in between all of his other recent gigs.

“That’s the fun of animation. You can do it from a booth in Europe or from vacation,” Hamm said.

“I actually recorded in a basement in Morocco once — not this — but some other stuff and we were like, ‘We need a place with a telephone line.’ And then they’re like, ‘Well, there’s these guys that are in a rock band in the outskirts of Tangiers.’ I said, ‘OK,'” he said. “You can do it anywhere.”

Bringing the second season of Grimsburg to Comic Con in October was a blast, he added, because the show has had time to build a fan-base since Season 1 debuted.

“It’s a tremendously receptive environment,” Hamm added. “You’re on the home team here, for sure.”