The Adult Animated Series Velma chronicles the origin story of the bespeckled brains of

the original Scooby-Gay.

We meet Velma, Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy in high school as Velma struggles with Mean Girls,

a neglectful father, a missing mother, patriarchal beauty standards, same sex attraction, and a serial

killer.

Velma is voiced by the show's executive producer Mindy Kaling, and the rest of the show's

voice cast features many of your favorite comedians.

I'm Glenn Weldon, and today we're talking about Velma on Popculture Happy Hour from NPR.

Joining me today is NPR contributor Serena Torres-Acerina.

Hey, Glenn.

Hey, so it turns out that long before they got a dog, an avan, and started solving mysteries

involving rubber masks and real estate fraud, Velma, Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy went to school

together at Crystal Cove High.

Velma, voiced by Mindy Kaling, is an angry, opinionated young woman who alienates pretty

much everyone around her, except for her old friend, the hot girl Daphne, voiced by Constance

Wu, and the nerdy Norville, who will become Shaggy, voiced by Sam Richardson.

Eventually, even the rich sexist, pig, Fred, voiced by Glenn Howerton, comes around to

Velma, even as she bulldozes her way through those friendships, and her desperate search

to find her missing mother.

That search is tricky for Velma, as she suffers from traumatic hallucinations whenever she

starts investigating a mystery, hallucinations that can only be dispelled by laughter.

Which the show works hard to supply, crammed as it is with jokes and meta commentary about

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