Cartoon Network is still the household name in family-friendly animated programming during the day. Adult Swim comes on to play when this channel goes to sleep. This late-night programming block, which marks the latest stage in the odd growth of the channel, is geared toward those who grew up watching cartoons from the 1990s and 2000s. It has also contributed to the development of some of the best recent television innovations.
With a heavy emphasis on the unusual, the bizarre, the existential, and even the unsettling, their programmes offer a distinct style of dark humour. They have given us vibrant personalities, brilliant humour, and genuinely upsetting and realistically troubling material. As the channel has expanded, several of them have generated both intense criticism and a devoted cult fandom that still exists today.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
This started on Cartoon Network and rapidly transferred to Adult Swim to become the face of the network’s early years, much to Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. Meatwad, Master Shake, and Frylock are three sentient fast food items that live together in a New Jersey apartment as The Hunger Force (or Seattle). The trio frequently engages in shenanigans and misadventures while interacting with their opponents and allies, including Dr. Weird, the Mooninites, the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, and next-door neighbour Carl Brutananadilewski.
With Master Shake being an outright narcissist, Frylock being the frustrated “straight guy,” and Meatwad being childishly naive, the trio together make for a charmingly mismatched group. Nevertheless, these three have established themselves as one of the most recognisable teams in cartoon history and contributed to the success of this programme as a cult favourite.
Rick and Morty
It may very well be Adult Swim’s crowning achievement, receiving the most positive critical and viewer feedback from the mainstream in years. The central characters of Rick and Morty are Rick Sanchez, a drunken, irate, unhappy scientist, and Morty, his worried and morally superior grandson.
The programme focuses on the travels of Rick and Morty in other planets and universes as well as the complicated relationships in their family, particularly their disgruntled mother Beth, insecure father Jerry, and apathetic daughter Summer. This contemporary classic is a gloriously surprising blend of frantic, insane laughter and existential dread.
Robot Chicken
The creators of the most distinctive sketch programme in recent memory are Seth Green and Matthew Senrich. A stop-motion cartoon series called Robot Chicken features action figures and plush toys from well-known motion pictures, television programmes, and computer games. It appears to have set out on a mission to ruin every entertainment brand that is currently in use. Any intellectual property you can think of has probably been illustrated by Robot Chicken.
Every episode is introduced with a tale about a mad scientist who transforms a roadside chicken into a robot. The robot chicken is then made to watch dozens of sketches that range in length from 10 seconds to 9 minutes.
Smiling Friends
Even though this series is one of the newest in the lineup of the channel, it has already proven to be a huge success. Together, Charlie and Pim help people with their difficulties at the Smiling Friends charity, which is more said than done in a world full of ingrained, peculiar, and unsettling personalities, outward manifestations, or general problems.
The show consists mainly on 2-D animation, with some stop-motion, live-action, and other animation styles thrown in. Of course, the show also features some incredibly endearing characters who actually care about each other and try to make people happy, aside from its generally strange nature. That is the core of Smiling Friends, no matter how ludicrous it all becomes.
Space Ghost: Coast to Coast
With the aid of his erstwhile adversaries, house-band leader Zorak and director Moltar, Hanna-renowned Barbera’s superhero becomes the most popular Space Ghost host. Space Ghost converses with a variety of guests while combining live-action celebrity interviews with animation from the original series. He frequently addresses the disruptions caused by his team and his overall ignorance of his guests’ personalities and careers.
Even though this programme debuted on Cartoon Network, it paved the way for future developments in the industry. At some point, it switched to an unusual idea and bizarre, outrageous, but relatively restrained humour.
The Boondocks
The Boondocks, one of the most divisive animated programmes in history, centres on two Black children who live with their grandfather in Woodcrest, Illinois. It is largely focused on African-American life in the 2000s, each character’s relationship with their culture, and how they integrate into their surroundings. It is based on the comic strip of the same name.
In fact, the show is rife for discussion among critics and fans due to its social/political commentary and overall crass attitude. It consequently become one of the most enduring adult animation shows of the last 20 years.
The Eric Andre Show
Whether Space Ghost or Eric Andre has ever hosted a talk show has given rise to a rather heated controversy. In fact, the renowned comedian infuses his part conversation programme, half sketch show, and part surrealist art with a distinctive style of zaniness.
He interviews numerous celebrities with Hannibal Buress as his co-host, and they frequently play nasty, spooky, and just odd pranks on them. Andre frequently changes the overall situation almost as quickly as he changes the setting, making for a viewing experience in which you never quite know what to anticipate.
Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell
A demon, Gary is. He only wants to place a certain group of people on a route to eternal damnation in order to meet his quota. He’s neither the sharpest or meanest demon in the group, which causes problems and gets him in a lot of trouble.
The programme presents a humorous re-examination of hell as a typical workplace with demons trying to accomplish their responsibilities (mostly failing at them) and Satan as the principal manager who enjoys subjecting his staff to challenging circumstances. It functions in many ways like a regular office comedy, which makes the violent and horrible subject matter that undercuts it delightfully even funnier.
