Sergeant Mike Cosgrove

Sergeant Mike Cosgrove was voiced by the late Edward Asner. He is Freakazoid's best friend. His favorite meal is a can of hash and some coffee.

Biography[]

Cosgrove is a police sergeant in the Southwest Precinct of Washington, D.C. His patrol car designation is Mobile Unit 6.

Although his demeanor is gruff and low-key, he seems to share all of Freakazoid's tastes and passions, both the zany and the inane, making the two a perfect match.

In the first season, Cosgrove generally appears once an episode in order to ask Freakazoid if he wants to go do some activity, usually when Freakazoid is in the middle of solving an active crime and victims are in danger. Despite this, Freakazoid typically responds with an enthusiastic, "Do I?!" Then, while they are enjoying the activity, Cosgrove will casually give Freakazoid some advice or a tip that inspires Freakazoid to return to solving the crime. Aside from arresting villains after Freakazoid has captured them, Cosgrove is never seen doing any actual police work in the first season. In "Hot Rods from Heck!" he explains that he cannot help Freakazoid because the crime is out of his jurisdiction.

In the second season, he takes more of an active role and becomes a crime fighting partner to Freakazoid, even going on a rescue mission to the nation of Vukanova and helping Freakazoid to transport several villains via airplane to France. He is one of the few people Freakazoid trusts with his secret identity.

He falls in love with a cosmetics mogul named Mary Beth, and is hesitant to tell Freakazoid because he is afraid of being mocked. When Freakazoid accuses Mary Beth of being a monster, Cosgrove is prepared to end their friendship. However, when he learns that Mary Beth actually is a monster and wants to drink Freakazoid's juices to prolong her immortality, Cosgrove chooses Freakazoid and allows Mary Beth to perish.

Cosgrove never got married because he loves meat too much. He thinks Carrie Fisher is a real cutie. One of his favorite fast food restaurants is the Chubby Boy burger drive-through, where he orders a Double Chubby Boy and an Orange Bang (and sometimes fries, depending who is on the griller). He always has a few leeches on hand in his car, in case of emergencies, and carries a shaker full of bacon bits in his pocket in the event that he is served food without bacon in it. Cosgrove becomes a minor celebrity when he allows a camera crew to follow him during his police activities for the popular Channel 3 reality TV series Real Life Police.

As a child, Cosgrove regularly visited the now-closed amusement park Uncle Buzzy's Funland. He would eat a bunch of hot dogs, go on the rides, and then throw up. He always liked the little teacup ride.

The Teen Titans Go! crossover episode "Huggbees" reveals that Cosgrove learned everything he knows about donuts from an old woman with an eyepatch named Gladys.

Powers and Abilities.[]

Super authoritative voice: Cosgrove is capable of getting anyone to cease any activity by pointing at them and firmly saying, "cut it out." He has performed this ability effectively to stop even the Animaniacs (something many have tried previously without success).

Omnipresent: Cosgrove seems to be omnipresent to some degree, showing up in locations far from Washington, D.C. (like the desert and mountains of Europe), not to help, but to ask Freakazoid to do something.

4th Wall Awareness: much like Freakazoid, Cosgrove is aware that they are in a television show and sometimes even talk to the audience.

Freakazoid & Cosgrove Activities ("Hey Freakazoid. Ya Wanna...")[]

Go out for a mint (Make Mine Mint) (Dance of Doom)
Go to the Honey Harvest Festival in Acton (Candle Jack)
Go build a go-kart (The Cloud)
Go out for a snow cone (Sid's Snow Cone City) (The Chip, Part II)
Go see a bear riding a motorcycle (Hot Rods from Heck!)
Got a two-for-one coupon for the mud baths (Relax-O-Vision)
Go to the Great Hall of Spackle (Sewer or Later)
Medieval Nights (The Wrath of Guitierrez)
Go for a fat-free yogurt (Dexter's Date) (later, in "Virtual Freak," Cosgrove finally gets a yogurt and is displeased to learn that it does not have bacon in it)
Go to Spumoniland (Heroboy)
Go to the Yakov Smirnoff Film Festival (Heroboy)
Jelly Land (Statuesque)
Statue of Aldo Ray (Statuesque)
Webby's Vest World, for the nation's largest cowboy fringe vest (Two Against Freak)
Brisket o' Beef (Tomb of Invisibo)
Norm Abram signing at Lumber Land (Normadeus)

Outside the Main Series[]

Hissing cockroach petting zoo (Tour De Freak)
Warner Brothers Studio Lot tour (Tour De Freak)
Go get donuts (at Yum Yum Kitty Diner) (Huggbees)

"Cut it out"[]

To the hysterical Mr. Fizizi (The Freakazoid)
To the Vukanovan prison guards (Mission: Freakazoid)
To the pterodactyl in Virtual Tussle (Virtual Freak)
To Mary Beth, in an embarrassed tone when she is being lovey-dovey ("aw, cut it out") (A Matter of Love)
To the "What Will Cosgrove Do?" Singers (A Matter of Love)
While he doesn't say it, a similar effect happens to a house burglar after Cosgrove tells him to put back a TV he was trying to steal, hook it back up, and turn himself over. (Two Against Freak)
To Cobra Queen's snake (Two Against Freak)
To Freakazoid, when he is excitedly holding Norm Abram over his head (Normadeus)

Appearances[]

Season 1[]

Season 2[]

Animaniacs Comic[]

Tour De Freak

Teen Titans Go![]

Huggbees (Asner's final performance as Cosgrove)

Trivia[]

John P. McCann wrote Cosgrove into "Dance of Doom," intending for him to be a one-time character. Paul Rugg liked the character so much that he brought him back for "Candle Jack," and the writers continued the running joke in future episodes.^[1]
Ed Asner initially tried to emote too much in early recording sessions. The writers told him to do the lines without inflection, and Cosgrove's trademark voice was born.^[2]
Cosgrove looks almost exactly like his voice actor, Ed Asner. In fact, in "Candle Jack," Freakazoid breaks character and acknowledges several of the actors. Ed Asner is depicted as himself, in Cosgrove's costume, sitting in a make-up chair. In contrast to his in-character performance as Cosgrove, Asner seems somewhat aggravated by Freakazoid.
In "In Arms Way," Freakazoid plans to buy Cosgrove a three-foot-tall chocolate moose with fudge eyes for Christmas. Cosgrove suggests that Freakazoid get Steff something a girl would like, such as banjo lessons or a new turban. In "Virtual Freak," he recommends that Steff get her father cement or a new theater organ.
His first name is revealed in "Mission: Freakazoid."
Ed Asner also provided several recurring voices for Warner Bros. Animation's DC Comics-inspired series: Roland Daggett in Batman, Granny Goodness in Superman, and Hephaestus in Justice League Unlimited. He also voiced Vern the bear in the Animaniacs short "Garage Sale of the Century," and played the role of Hudson on Freakazoid!'s contemporary series (and favorite spoof target) Gargoyles. The Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain episode "Pinky's Dream House" has a running joke about the mice watching a toy TV with a photo of Ed Asner taped to it.

Quotes[]

"Ha. Funny." (various; first in "The Wrath of Guitierrez")
"I like jousting so much I wish I could marry it." (The Wrath of Guitierrez)
"You're saying strange things. Stop it." (Virtual Freak)
"Your tummy's gonna get all urpy." (Heroboy)
"Freakazoid, this woman makes me want to fly like an eagle, majestically soaring above the Pacific Northwest, riding aloft on air pockets of love, the wind flowing around my hat." (A Matter of Love)
"We've been through a lot together. Now go away." (Two Against Freak)

Gallery[]

International voices[]

Italian: Paolo Marchese

References[]

↑ Audio Commentary, Episode 2.
↑ Audio Commentary, Episode 1.

[1] Audio Commentary, Episode 2.

[2] Audio Commentary, Episode 1.

[1]

[2]