It’s no secret that adult animation has been in a huge slump in the past decade. With the exception of the outstanding BoJack Horseman, most adult-oriented animated shows have been plagued by terribly heavy-handed political commentary, awful character design and animation, and gross-out humor. So. Much. Gross-out humor. The type of disgusting low-brow comedy that was traditionally reserved for children’s shows has dominated the adult animation scene, ruining legacy TV shows like Family Guy and killing new ones like Paradise P.D. right out of the gate. However, one adult animated show has managed to cut through the gloom and become revered as one of the funniest, most creative, and most loved shows in recent history: Smiling Friends.
Created by animators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack and first aired on the cartoon channel Adult Swim, Smiling Friends premiered in April of 2020 as part of Adult Swim’s yearly April Fool’s Day programming. Though it was mostly to advertise Hadel and Cusack’s other program YOLO (which was also very successful), Smiling Friends quickly caught the eye of many viewers for its thrillingly expressive and colorful animation and its realistic dialogue and humor. The show follows the charity known as the Smiling Friends, who travel around their chaotic world to bring people together and make them smile. The main cast include the enthusiastic pink Pim, the cynical and lazy but good-natured yellow Charlie, the responsible and dry red Allan, and the completely-insane CEO Mr. Boss. Across the show, they help everyone from a cancelled celebrity frog, a town of Smurf-like characters named “Shmaloogles,” and even the president of the United States.
While the show sounds repetitive and corny, Smiling Friends was so entertaining because every episode was completely different. In one episode, Charlie is crushed by a Christmas tree and sent to the Christian hell to make Satan smile, and in the next, the Friends just…go to Brazil. That’s it. The incredible variety across the show made it so that viewers never knew what to expect, and every episode was met with exuberance by fans who were itching to know what insanity would happen next.
“[Smiling Friends] is quite fascinating to me. It can be very funny sometimes, but also quite serious,” said Ariane Maag, a high school student and longtime fan of the show. “I enjoy a lot of the characters, especially Allen. He’s the GOAT…and every single other character is pretty cool too. I think the creators put in a lot of effort and I appreciate that they listened to the community.”
Because of the year-plus long waits between each season and inconsistent release dates of each episode, fans were often caught off guard when they were released, even if they knew new episodes were coming. Because of this, there was a lot of excitement and anticipation after the third season, since the show had been greenlit for another two seasons without confirmed release dates. Understandably, enjoyers of the show were both surprised and heartbroken when, at the end of February, Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack announced in a Youtube video the show would be ending after its third season.
In the video, the creators stated that they weren’t going to be making new episodes of Smiling Friends anymore due to their personal burnout as well as fear that, if the show continued, it would eventually decline in quality and they wouldn’t be proud of it anymore. While fans sympathized with Hadel and Cusack and didn’t want to see the show die slowly either, many felt Smiling Friends still had plenty of time before that would happen. Due to the show’s naturally ridiculous and fantastical plotlines, it wasn’t like the show would suddenly become “too unrealistic.” And, because of its episodic nature, there wasn’t any chance of multi-episode storylines dragging on or becoming frustrating for watchers. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any chance of the show returning any time soon.
“I’m sad about [the show ending]. But obviously, if it’s because of the creators being tired…I totally understand their reasoning for it. But I am disappointed about the conclusion,” said Maag.
Although its reign was short, Smiling Friends closed as one of the most outlandish and loved shows of the 2020s. Its legacy is likely to live on in the adult animation world, as it restored viewers’ faith in the genre and showed people it didn’t have to all be gross, cynical, or annoying. And some years in the future, maybe if we’re lucky, the Friends will come back to make us all smile again like they’ve done for so many clients.
