An appreciation of Big Mouth's Lola Ugfuglio-Skumpy

Vogue

In watching Season 5, Emma Specter says she found herself "inexplicably falling in love with the always-angry, sublimely gross middle-school bully Lola Ugfuglio-Skumpy," voiced by Nick Kroll. "In general, I’m of the opinion that male actors shouldn’t voice female animated characters; not because it’s as problematic as a white actor voicing a Black character (a mistake that Big Mouth corrected in Season 4, replacing Jenny Slate, the voice behind adorkable biracial teen Missy, with Ayo Edebiri), but because there are so many, many talented female voice actors that using a guy seems, well, lazy," says Specter. "(In Bossypants, Tina Fey recalls being chagrined when SNL writers put Chris Kattan in a dress instead of giving his character to a female cast member.) There are unquestionably a lot of female actors who could have voiced Lola, and done it beautifully, but once you hear Kroll spitting out such lines as 'I want to be the first chick to sh*t on the moon!' and speculate about placing eggs into unmentionable body parts, it’s impossible to imagine anyone else brining her to life. (Kroll is no stranger to actually funny parodic representations of women, as he proved with his 'amee-zing' portrayal of Liz G., one of the co-founders of the PR firm Publizity on Kroll Show.) Casting aside, Big Mouth’s portrayal of Lola wowed me precisely because of how unbelievably disgusting the show has always allowed her to be." ALSO: Big Mouth's Season 5 finale sets up the perfect Season 6 cameo.