Smiling Friends

Hopefully the episode listing gets fixed, I'm gonna be going through this season.

This is how you create a great adult animated series

lowkey one of the best shows out rn

just a silly hilarious little series, the dynamic between the main characters will never not work

Hilarious deadpan deliveries. Season 1 is great, season 2 I feel like lost some of its original spirit.

Mike Stoklasa, Zach Hadel, Marc M. and Michael Cusack all in an animated show together? I need more of this.

Unironically the best show to watch while hanging out and smoking weed and filling your belly with diet soda in between your sessions of playing Burnout Revenge for the PS2

I think I've watched every episode, no bullshit, 50 times each and they still make me laugh my ass off

Madcap, satisfying, and ugly (mostly in good ways).

Smiling Friends is one of those shows where you finish an episode, stare at the screen for a second, and just mutter, “What did I just watch?”—and yet, you can’t help but love every second of it. It’s a surreal, bizarre, and often hilariously disturbing blend of animation styles, strange characters, and non-sequiturs that shouldn’t work but somehow comes together as one of Adult Swim’s most addictive offerings in years.

Created by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, Smiling Friends is centered around a barely functional company that aims to spread happiness—usually by sending its misfit employees, Pim and Charlie, on completely deranged assignments. Whether it’s helping a depressed man stuck in his room for 30 years, navigating a demon's family drama, or getting caught in a gunfight over an animated meme, every episode feels like a controlled descent into madness. And the best part? It somehow always makes you laugh.

What makes the show work is how it contrasts its bright, chipper title and premise with deeply dark, awkward, or grotesque situations—often undercut by the characters’ completely deadpan reactions. It’s a world where nightmare fuel and slapstick comedy exist in perfect harmony, and where each episode barely scratches 12 minutes but manages to cram in more creativity and humor than many full-length shows.

The animation is another highlight. It constantly shifts between traditional 2D, pixel art, live-action, and crude MS Paint-style visuals—sometimes within the same scene. Rather than feel jarring, these choices add to the show’s offbeat energy and meme-adjacent charm. It feels like something born directly from the internet, but crafted with genuine talent and vision.

I still have no idea what’s going on half the time—but Smiling Friends makes me laugh harder and more consistently than almost anything else on TV right now. 8/10.