The 21 best Adult Swim shows
We're celebrating the series that made Adult Swim the weirdest—and, occasionally, most wonderful—place on TV
TV Lists adult swim
In September 2001—that is, 23 years ago somehow—Cartoon Network launched Adult Swim, a late-night programming block for the kind of people who would check out a kid’s TV channel just to see what it was airing after the kids went to bed. It was, essentially, for folks who hoped things would get a little weird. And that’s exactly what happened.
While Adult Swim has aired many live-action series over the years, it started as a home for adult animation. The shows were kind of like what you’d get if you took Cartoon Network’s daytime programming and filtered it through a lens of blender infomercials and staticky messages left, regretfully, sometime between 2 and 5 a.m. on an ex’s answering machine. Take, for example, Home Movies, the first show to air on the network. In its earliest iteration, the animated series about an eight-year-old aspiring filmmaker was largely improvised. It was too weird for its original network, UPN, which canceled the show due to low ratings. But it thrived for three and a half more seasons after Adult Swim picked it up.
Home Movies, like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost Coast To Coast, and other Adult Swim classics, just made more sense after 10 p.m., when everything gets a little hazier, a little less linear, and a little more squiggly. It’s why so many Adult Swim shows are difficult to describe concisely. Sure, you can say that The Eric Andre Show and Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! are parodies of late-night talk shows and SNL-style sketch series, but does that really do them justice? They’re the sorts of shows that need to be seen to be understood, the sorts of shows that stand in direct opposition to…well, many things, but mostly common, commercial-minded TV sense. Adult Swim built its brand on niche appeal; it’s firmly comfortable knowing that many people just don’t get it. And that’s okay, because for those of us who do, it’s like finally finding a friend who just gets you on every level. Here are The A.V. Club’s 21 favorite shows to grace the network.
This article originally published in October 2023. It was updated in April 2024.
194 Comments
Where the fuck is Squidbillies?!?!
It’s out drinking with 12oz Mouse.
Loved so many of these shows. I still remember the funniest scene in home Movies where Coach McGuirk tried to teach himself to be a bartender by using the stuff he had lying around the kitchen to make popular cocktails and getting very sick/drunk in the process.
“DVD Player!”I only vaguely remember the context, but that single line of H. Jon Benjamin dialogue will be stuck in my head for the rest of my life.
I will occasionally shout “DVD player!” in moments of personal triumph. Such a GREAT reading.
Same, but for me, it’s “I have a cheese cow on my arm.”
I occasionally tell people that I would like to exchange these swords for food and no one has one responded with anything other than blank confusion.Slightly better odds with “It’s all about the points, Brendan”, because, actually, negotiations are always all about the points.
Best McGuirk moment was when he heard Brendon and his dad were going to get pizza, and he shows up at the restaurant, and feigns surprise to have finally discovered some fellow pizza lovers.
I don’t even know what I’d call the funniest scene in Home Movies, but I’d bet of my list, Coach McGuirk is responsible for roughly 100% of them.
Probably my favorite Coach McGuirk moment is when he goes off on Fenton at Fenton’s birthday party.
Walter and Perry getting the “blood lust” has always been up there for me.
Came to make sure The Venture Bros. was at the number one spot. It’s not. I’m leaving. Loved a lot of these shows though.
100% agree. Best on cartoon network and maybe my 3rd favorie Cartoon show ever.
It has more thought, care, and better animation than pretty much every other adult swim show.
Don’t forget the writing! There are callbacks to what could’ve been throwaway one liners they wrote like 5 seasons prior and they are so good.
God what a great show. I loved the movie but I am sad it’s probably over. The evolution of Dr Girlfriend and The Monarch/21 Relationship was outstanding
Wait the movie was released already and it wasn’t even mentioned on the AVClub?
If they’d named this list “Most ‘Adult-Swim’ Adult Swim shows”, the ones that best represented the lo-fi, “inmates running the asylum” vibe that people tend to associate with Adult Swim, in which case ATHF, T&E,AJ!, and SG:CTC easily top that list (Home Movies always felt like a Comedy Central offcut*). But the list is “The 21 best Adult Swim shows” and The Venture Bros. easily tops that list, as far as I’m concerned. It may have seemed like a slightly more ambitious in its first season—a similar “adult perspective on kids’ show characters” angle—but it has grown far past that.Also, where’s Perfect Hair Forever? You could easily slot that into the My Adventures with Superman slot. It’s not a bad show, by any means, but it feels like an extension of DC forcing itself into the Adult Swim lineup.*(I don’t mean that to be an insult—it’s a great show—but you could run it on CC and it would seem normal)
Totally agree on VB. One of the few shows I’ve ever watched that constantly challenged me to pay attention to every detail, and often look up things during/after watching to better appreciate the ridiculous number of levels the show worked on.Also, Perfect Hair Forever was too short-lived to be on the list, but that show was so weird and unique and awesome that it will forever hold a place in my heart.Also agree on the list being more “Most AS-type shows on AS” rather than a best-of list.
100%. One of the greatest TV shows of all time. Period.
Venture Bros #1 forever and ever. List is bunk
Amen. This is list bullshit. However, it’s kinda thematically appropriate for Doc that it’s not, I guess.
Even when he’s an only child, he’s still second-best.
You wouldn’t think Rick & Morty is one on Adult Swim’s best shows given the 7th season premiere last night—the Hugh Jackman ep. My god, that one truly sucked ass—a bottle ep that should’ve been wedged into a bottle and thrown out to sea.
OK, thank you! I’m glad I’m not alone on thinking the show was awful. I only wish there was a pop culture site that did reviews of TV shows and allowed people to make comments. Oh well, a boy can dream…
Someone has to have the balls to state the emperor ain’t sporting new clothes.
I didn’t think it was as bad as you did, although I certainly didn’t think it was good (an episode centered around Mr. Poopybutthole is going to be a hard sell for me, at best). While there were a few bits I enjoyed, I’ll just say it was a strange choice to leave Morty (and the rest of the Smith family) pretty much completely out of the premiere episode.
That bad? I thought it was fine. Nothing to write home about— and if we’re lucky the show approaches its peak levels maybe once a season— but I had a few good laughs and the story held some interest for me. Maybe I’ve just lowered my standards so that any episode that doesn’t involve a)incest or b)“Rick is secretly depressed” / “the family just yells at him for being an asshole but doesn’t do anything about it” / “these people are the most toxic toxic to ever toxic a toxic” stories gets a passing grade from me.
I thought season 2 and season 3 (in particular) were really good, but it has gone steadily downhill since then. I didn’t even bother watching the last season.
Adult Swim ruled my life for the better part of a decade. Even the shows that aired on AS that weren’t necessarily good were memorable for being just too damn weird. (IE: Assy McGee)
The Venture Bros. will always be #1 in my heart. Harvey Birdman, ATHF, SGC2C, and Robot Chicken round out my top 5.
Frisky Dingo is the greatest show ever and I will not be told otherwise.
Smells like . . . shattered dreams.
Chinatown’s got somethin’ for EEEEEVERYBODY!
Tell Old Spice thank you for the radish, see if you can make it sound slightly sarcastic.
This bag is just full of rocks?Yeah, Chick Parm does that to blind people, like, ALL the time.
I feel like this list should be titled, “Welcome To You’re Doom!”
Is this some sort of ironic doom? Is the wink implied???
Think ya could, think ya could, think ya could BENCH a Scion tC?
BOOSH!
And/or kakow.
I bet Whitey here likes to pray
Nothing hurts worse than a scrape.
No Xavier: Renegade Angel, no sale.
HUGE omission.
Only one way to settle this — a shakashuri blowdown.
You only got one peni? *dramatic close-up* Let me see it.
No Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil, The Brak Show, or Assy McGee, either. Each had short runs (Lucy had just one season), but each was way better than the anti-comedy bullshit that tops the list.
You just made me sit bolt upright when I realized Moral Orel is missing! I kind of forgot because I don’t see it as a comedy, but damn. Definitely one of the best shows on Adult Swim.
Lucy Daughter of the Devil mention!(imagine that anime Brazil meme but with tiny horns)
Not saying the Venture Bros should be #1 necessarily, but it is my favorite of the ones listed.Metalocalypse is one that I have been meaning to watch for forever.Tim and Eric humor is just not for me. I have tried, but it is too chaotic and weird. Some of the bits are funny (that one where Will Ferrell sells clowns or whatever is good) but for the most part, that’s just not my cup of tea. Same thing with Eric Andre, who people I respect tell me is good (and I thought he did well in Man Seeking Woman and his small part in GdT’s Cabinet of Curiosities), but his show just comes off as chaotic and mean-spirited. That said, Hannibal Burress as the sidekick was a pretty solid move.
I’m not a metalhead or anything but Metalocalypse’s music, characters, and over-arcing plot are pretty great and it’s espisodically pretty fun. You should definitely check it out.
You don’t have to be a metalhead to love Metalocalypse, it’s an over-the-top parody of the genre made by an actual metalhead, so if you aren’t one you can still laugh at the silliness of it all. Fair warning though, there’s graphic gore in every episode, because you know, that’s metal.
I actually do love metal and the vibes I always got were that it was like Spinal Tap: both an homage to and parody of the genre.
Your vibes are correct.
but if you are, the music is actually amazingly good. for as silly as the lyrics often are, they fit pretty well in with standard power metal. the concept is a little high on the nihilism humor for me, even outside of the band being too dumb to understand the stuff going on around them, but the music never disappointment.
I don’t know if it’s a hot take or not, but I feel like a lot of the parody in Metalocalypse works because these criticisms of the music industry apply to bands of any musical genre. People who are so rich and so stupid and clueless about anything except music, dealing with writer’s block, performance anxiety, family drama, etc. I certainly didn’t know anything about metal before I watched it, and I still don’t know a ton aside from “Dethklok kicks ass”.
I also always thought of Venture Bros. as the most socially acceptable show to show someone who had low opinions of “adult cartoons”. It feels…classy in some way compared to some of the other shows on the network, has great animation, and isn’t done in that “ugly adult cartoon” style people hate.
Tim and Eric are a dividing line where a lot of OG Adult Swim fans (mostly Gen Xers in their 20s) got off the train and millennials took over. They remade Adult Swim in their image. I’m mostly in the same boat – Awesome Show was too much for me, though I loved Tom Goes To The Mayor.
Fair point and as someone near that Gen X/Millenial turnover mark myself, maybe this affected me as well.I realize I am getting old because the way I feel about Tim and Eric is probably exactly the way a lot of adults in the 70s felt about Monty Python. I don’t enjoy that feeling.
I’ve noticed this, too. It seemed like everyone who was in their mid to late 30’s when Awesome Show came out absolutely loathed it, while it remained popular with younger viewers. I’m a huge fan of theirs, FWIW, but I do think a lot of people unfairly wrote them off just because they didn’t like Awesome Show. Most of what made that show so off the wall was the editing, which was done by Doug Lussenhop. If you look at most of the things T&E have done after, especially Bedtime Stories and Check It Out, you can see that their comedy is actually much less surreal and more grounded in a sort of existential pseudo-horror kind of vibe.
I have a visceral dislike for nearly everything that Tim and Eric did, but like you, I surprisingly enjoyed Tom Goes To The Mayor. Something about the visual style really clicked with me.
Smiling Friends.This list was almost certainly done with ChatGPT. I run several queries and the lists I got were (at times very) similar to this one. Smiling Friends was always missing because ChatGPT only has data until September 2021. ‘My Adventures with Superman’, on the AV Club list, is from 2023, but this one they added because some authors of this piece were already familiar with it (and most likely didn’t want people to complain about them using AI).This is what is at stake: That people – you – do not get to know REALLY great TV shows, because those lists are automatically generated, omit information and are outdated. It’s a shame.Watch Smiling Friends.
Coincidentally I just did over the weekend!And sorry but no. I had a good time, especially the hell episode when he punches that guy, but it’s too random and uneven.
I did a media studies project in 2002 on ATHF and how parents would ban certain channels(z chip era) but leave Cartoon network unbanned as ‘why would you ban a children’s channel’. I then pointed out that after a certain time at night these types of shows come on. I played them the part of an episode where ‘Danzig’ buys Carls house and sprays blood everywhere.
I CANNOT LIVE WITH THAT GUY. HE IS SO ANNOYING, HE IS SO SCARY, AND HE NEVER WEARS A SHIRT.
THOUSANDS of years ago before Sigourney Weaver survived the quickening of the dragonoids…
Venture not #1? No Xavier? Sealab outside the top 10? What’s wrong with y’all?
Sealab fell off hard after Harry Goz died and Murphy was replaced with Tornado Shanks. Not to say that one character’s absence made the show worse, it just turned out to be an unfortunate coincidence in timing – Murphy had to be written off right around the same time that Reed and Thompson were beginning to lose a handle on what made the show work to that point.
“Fundamentals win ballgames! BREAKDOWN!”
I get that. I want to judge these shows by their bests, and maybe not always by their entirety. I can’t recall laughing harder at anything in those early years like the best Sealabs.
I do think that’s kinda fair, honestly. It’s a lot harder to achieve A+-level comedy even if you stumble later than it is to make solid Bs. (Also why I have a hard time rating, say, 30 Rock or It’s Always Sunny vs. Arrested Development— those other two were great for so long and some of the funniest shows on air, but AD made maybe the two best seasons of comedy in the 21st century, and a third that wasn’t on that level but was still pretty good.)
My take is that Reed and Thompson are polymaths that are interested in and knowledgeable about so many things that they have a hard time focusing on a project for more than a couple seasons. A glib description would be to call it creative ADHD.So you can really see the quality start to dip after Sealab season 2, at the end of Frisky Dingo season 2 (everything up to the debate is excellent, though), and after Archer season 2.
As a kid I loved watching Space Ghost (the original), then it was surreal when they took serious characters and made it into a silly talk show. SGC2C was an awesome show.
What serious characters?
You know, Bjork, Hanson, Tansut.
The Venture Bros should be number 1.
Also no NTSF:SD:SUV?
Wow, totally forgot about NTSF:SD:SUV! I LOVED that show so much and was one of the few AS shows I made sure to watch each week. Dang, that’s a bad miss on this list.
How did they skip The Heart She Holler? Absolutely insane show. Also the best Eagleheart bit is where the villain continues being bad after they cut and all go back to get their trailers
So many Eagleheart bits that it’s pretty much impossible to choose a favorite – the Death Punch, the gang’s obsession with Jim Belushi-style Chicago Blues, Honor Thy Marshall/“Nice, Bro.”, “Get it? I’m Beezor.” – but every time I’m playing a board game with friends and the action stops dead so we can consult the rules, I just hear that voice in my head saying “Scribblers8 is NOT fun.”(Also: The bit where Susie’s creepy uncle hears that Scribbler8 has made it to America and promptly slits his own throat, so she pops in the convenient nearby “In the Event of My Death” VHS that opens with him saying “If you’re watching this video, it means I just slit my own throat.”…And then THAT video ends with him slitting his own throat on-camera, somehow.)
Maria Thayer should be in more stuff.
hot take: tim and eric shouldn’t even be on this list.
It’s one of the worst things to ever be on TV, period.
…and I’ve seen Street Hawk!
I don’t want to live in a world where Tim & Eric are number one and Metalocalypse gets written off as overly niche…and Venture Bros is number 5??
I know it is a matter of preference, but I agree.
Not a hot take. Closer to the best take. At the very least, most should agree it shouldn’t be #1. It’s way closer to 21 if it has to be on the list
I am super not into things where the joke is alienating you, the viewer.
They ushered in a whole wave of “the aesthetic is the joke” comedy that seeped its way into advertising for years. We are mostly out of the woods on that, but occasionally you’ll see someone trying it again.
Personally I’m not into their “parody” of reality and cable access TV. They do a fake version of a real thing that is more interesting and funny for being the genuine article.
Counter take – they deserve to be in single digits due to the enduring influence that show has had on mainstream stuff.
It’s for people who thought The State was laugh out loud funny.
Stuff like “The State” was stuff that made me aware I was watching something that was clearly hilarious to only the people making it.
I think it’s one of the funniest shows of the last 20 years. I fucking love how it simply does not work for probably half the people who watch it. Like, it genuinely fascinates me when comedy that can make me laugh so hard it hurts can also be completely ineffective to other people.There is SO much successful comedy out there that leaves my mind absolutely fucking boggled trying to work out why people find it funny. I’ll never forget me and a friend sitting down to binge watch 30 Rock for the first time… and both of us not laughing once by the time the third episode ended, wondering what the fuck anyone could’ve liked about it. Same with the US version of The Office.Comedy is extremely divisive.
It’s no “The Brak Show”, that’s for sure
Amen. Can’t stand these shows. I know there are people that love them but I always give them the bombastic side-eye. You think earnest awkwardness is hilarious, even when there’s no actual wit involved? Just laughing at people stammering while trying to be genuine or nice? Hrmm.Not to mention it’s basically a continuation of the late 90’s SNL style of production. The comedy is 100% dependent on outlandish delivery of otherwise normal conversation that has no actual humor in its writing. It’s lazy and tends to come across as insulting to broad swaths of people.
Even though I like a lot of the other stuff they’ve done, I couldn’t really get into their adult swim stuff. Maybe I need to give it another shot, but it always left me with the impression of being weird and random for weirdness’ and randomness’ sake.
The only thing I love more than T&E is how fucking mad it makes people. Literally people start frothing at the mouth when you mention it. It’s hilarious.Also, just because I’m feeling frisky, I’ll also say that I hated Venture Bros and have no clue why anyone enjoys it. It’s like… anti-humor to me.
Amen! Moral Orel should be #1
Anything placed at #1 above Home Movies shouldn’t be on the list!
Or been on TV period, that show was awful
Your comment is old, but continues to be true.
Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! influenced comedy throughout the 2010s and the present. Fact.
Venture Bros is by far my favorite thing Adult Swim has done – just incredible quality all-around with great animation, stories, voice-acting, and humor. Glad it got a proper sendoff with the special that came out a few months back.
Childrens and Delocated are way underrated, and personally I wouldn’t put Tim & Eric at #1 but that’s a matter of taste.Adult Swim was the only value I’ve ever seen in watching TV as a channel. They made it cool to just watch whatever they were showing (it didn’t hurt that a lot of it was great). It was always crazy to me that no other TV station really did what they did, but then, it’s hard to capture cool.
Also, emphasis that it’s “Childrens,” not “Children’s” as this article cells it.
Of course! Derek Childrens didn’t die for this.
Neither did Derrick Childrens.
Keeping in mind that there’s a bunch of these I haven’t seen since I stopped watching AS, but in no particular order:Best:SealabHarvey BirdmanMetalocalypse (just saw Dethklok in concert…it was awesome)Robot ChickenVenture BrothersAqua Teen Hunger Force (mostly for the Dr. Weird openings)Space GhostMinoriteamWorst:Tim and Eric Home MoviesRick and MortyTom Goes to the MayorThe rest I am either indifferent on or have not seen more than one episode.
Wow, I had no idea anyone on earth liked Minoriteam. It’s still probably the worst show I’ve ever seen. Also, take R&M out of your worst list and you have my personal top 3 lol
Venture Bros maybe the 3rd best cartoon to me ever behind peak Simpsons and Batman the Animated series.Season 4 finale (Operation Prom) maybe the best episode of any show I’ve ever watched on TV. I can still remember how I felt when Brock was running to save his family at the end to Pulp “like a friend”.Boondocks was also great but season 4 was not. Space Ghost coast to coast was something fun to watch with my buddies before we left for the club or if we were just having at my place that night.
A lot of Adult Swim’s shows over the years just haven’t been my kind of humor, but I’m happy to see Joe Pera, Space Ghost, and the Eric Andre Show included here. One omission in this list that was one of my favorite Adult Swim shows is Xavier: Renegade Angel. Frittata!
Joe Pera Talks With You is just so weird and funny and heartfelt. I can understand if it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s probably the perfect AS show, in the sense that it’s so idiosyncratic that only 20% of viewers will like it, but that 20% will love it to death.
I discovered Joe Pera’s show during the Pandemic lockdown and found the Sunday night hug one of the best parts of my week. I thought it was the right show at the right time. Was very bummed that it didn’t get renewed. Sure, I get that the style was a bit too gentle for the some, but I would have been much happier with AS if they could have given him a season or special to wrap up the show in a good/better way. Still, glad with what we had and that they took a chance with it.
Calling Joe Pera Talks With You a “Sunday night hug” is a perfect description. It somehow found the perfect mix between funny, absurd, honest, and genuinely heartwarming/heartbreaking. I kind of disagree with your second point – I thought the show had clearly run out of steam in the 3rd season (although there were a couple of good episodes). But it would be nice to see a one-off special to wrap things up.
2 Tim and Eric shows, one at #1, and no Infomercials? Throw this list in the dumpster where it belongs.
Rats of to ya in hell.
I wonder if there was a conscious decision not to include infomercials. I feel like Too Many Cooks, whether or not you like others more, blew up enough that it would’ve at least warranted mention.(Also, I hope this posts in the right place– the comments section was acting screwy for me.)
Seeing all of these together, it’s strange how hit and miss Adult Swim has been for me. I loved a lot of these, and others I bounced off of with the kind of revulsion usually reserved for finding a large slug on your toothbrush.
I graduated high school in ‘01 and college in ‘05, mention of those earlier Adult Swim shows such as Space Ghost and Sea Lab really hit at a special place in my memories. They were weird in a way that didn’t feel like they were trying too hard, and I spent a lot of late nights watching them at the time. I also recall a show called Mission Hill that I liked. I more or less stopped watching Adult Swim after college, and don’t think I could recapture the same feeling these days.
Mission Hill was originally on the WB, but like many other shows like Futurama or Family Guy, it got a new life in re-runs on the block.
I think that’s why I never liked Tim and Eric or any of the other live action Adult Swim shows. They were trying too hard to be weird.
Yeah, heh, if you were the right age to be a college stoner when adult swim premiered, you probably have a lot of fond memories of it. Sealab, Space Ghost, and Family Guy reruns for me mostly— I wasn’t into Aqua Teen at first but I eventually came around.
I’ve been meaning to see it, but I’m not sure where I can find it now. But mostly I wanted to add that Mission Hill was created by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who ran seasons 7 and 8 of The Simpsons.
At least some of Mission Hill is on YouTube. I recently rewatched a few episodes there. It’s a perfectly fine show, but if I didn’t know Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had been showrunners on Seasons 7 and 8 of The Simpsons, and you told me that they’d been in charge of two seasons of that show, I would have guessed it was somewhere around Season 20. I’ll never get tired of Gus going home with a knife in his head, or stop singing “Bling Blong, Bling Blong” when I’m folding clothes, but that show is a precipitous drop from perhaps the two finest seasons of the best sitcom of all time.
Complete series is in a single video on youtube
Same! Frisky Dingo, though. Man that show was a great follow-up to Sealab. I still show it to anyone who is like I’ve never seen it.
I’m just glad Frisky Dingo ranked as high as it did. I’ve rewatched that more than any other Adult Swim show. Adam Reed crushed the voice acting and would have made an excellent Archer had H. Jon Benjamin not been available.
Xander Crews was basically Sterling Archer V1, so the idea of Reed playing Archer is intriguing. But at the same time, it’s impossible to imagine anyone other than H. Jon Benjamin voicing Sterling Archer.
Venture Bros. should be #1, and it absolutely should not be behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force, if just for the fact that it’s a show that a lot of effort was put into and they were successful. Tim and Eric just seemed like they were trying as hard as possible to be off-putting, which I guess is some people’s cup of tea. Home Movies is great, I can see that being a close tie with Venture Bros., and Space Ghost is classic Adult Swim, but still low effort and not better.
No Brak Show, Squidbillies, or 12 oz Mouse? 12 oz Mouse should be on here for its theme song alone.
Frisky Dingo is forever my #1 but I understand the placement of the 6 ahead of it.
Ditto.
No Xavier? Get outta here.
If you want to see what Venture Bros. could have been if it never grew past its premise, look no further than Assy Mcgee – which somehow manage to get two seasons.
Glad to see Eagleheart and Frisky Dingo made the list. Both were fantastic, and both get overlooked constantly.
I saw a few episodes of Eagleheart back when, and I guess I need to finish it. I’ve been a Chris Elliott fan since the Get a Life days, and a Maria Thayer fan since the Strangers With Candy days.
Where the Hell is Perfect Hair Forever.I guess My Adventures with Superman is technically an AS show but… why? Adult Swim is specifically stuff intended for mature audiences, the Superman show is wholesome as heck. Also while Robot Chicken had its moments, the writers started leaning into “violence as a punchline” way too often.
I think the Superman show was originally going to air on normal Cartoon Network as a part of their “whole-family-can-enjoy” thing called ACME Night. But, I don’t know how the decision was made to move it to adult swim.Agree on Robot Chicken to an extent. As they say in this list, it does feel like exactly what you would do when playing with toys, but the more it happens, the more boring it kind of gets. And gotta say, a lot of their recurring characters kinda stink (I loathe Bitch Pudding).
You’re a boy, who was a man, who is a tree…
You’d think one of the entries on this list would be a for Adult Swim’s interesting one-offs and pilots like Eltingville, Korgoth of Barbaria, and Too Many Cooks. Taken collectively they are right up there with the AS’s best.
At least an honorable mention for those, yeah.
I don’t think there’s a single person who didn’t immediately love Korgoth after watching it, and it blows my mind that it never went to series. I’d easily trade most of AS’s low-budget garbage for just one season of Korgoth.
I guess I understand why it’s not here, but I enjoyed Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell.
Justice for Assy McGee!Nah, but seriously, in no world should Tim & Eric ever be #1. I’m not sure they should even be on the list. It’s gotta be Venture Bros. You could maybe talk me into knocking them down to #2 because of the long delays, but its a minor thing. Even with the delays, its still the best show. Aqua Teen, Space Ghost, Sealab, Boondocks, Harvey Birdman should follow.
I don’t want to live in a world where I have to scroll this far down for Assy McGee.
Placing The Venture Bros. at five makes me wonder if any of you know how to do your jobs.
In my list, Aqua Teen is number one, Venture Bros is two, Metalocalypse is three, Home Movies is four, Sealab is five. Though I would certainly listen to the argument the Venture Bros is number one. But I like the sheer “not give a fuck” that Aqua Teen gives off. Richard Prior once said “whatever makes the people laugh, you say that shit” – which is what ATHF basically is.
Moral Orel is fucking terrific and a bad omission from this list. I would also put Mike Tyson Mysteries over more than a few of the entries on the list.
The absence of Infomercials on this list disgusts me.
This whole list is Brak erasure! I can just about accept that his show didn’t make the cut, and ‘Cartoon Planet’ could I GUESS dismissed as a re-conceptualized ‘Space Ghost’, but you’re not gonna even give him a shout out in the ‘Space Ghost’ section?
Hot chalupa, you’re right!
I think I may have enjoyed Cartoon Planet even more than Space Ghost Coast to Coast, mostly because of Brak.(It also looks like it never technically aired on adult swim, though, since it ended before adult swim was born.)
Three hams will kill him.
Three hams will kill him.I shouldn’t feed him, THREE HAAAAAAAAAAAMS!
Check it Out! With Dr. Steve Brule is not on this list.
Mobin couldn’t hack it
He put a baby in me, Steven.
I sucked a man’s dangus until the milk came out.
No Squidbillies, Moral Orel or Brak? For shame 🙁
The Brak Show, Mike Tyson Mysteries, and Samurai Jack definitely deserve to bump some of those lesser shows off the list.
And I guess if you want to be technical, Futurama, Space Dandy, and Cowboy Bebop were Adult Swim shows, as were imports like Darkplace, Look Around You, The Mighty Boosh, and (I think) Danger 5, though they weren’t specifically made for the channel.
Sea Lab 2021 for me.
and there go my nipples again!
No Saul of the Mole Men? No Xavier: Renegade Angel? Bah!
No. They’re not on the list.
Eagleheart was the long awaited bizarre sequel to Chris Elliott’s Get A Life that we all needed
Everyone is saying that Venture Brothers should be #1, but I’m actually going to argue that Home Movies should bump just one spot higher. It’s just so quintissentially Adult Swim in my head – a failed product from another network that they adopted and let flourish. It fundamentally altered my taste in humor from seeing it at the right age, and its ending is one of the most terribly bittersweet endings I can imagine giving a show that also has H. Jon Benjamin saying ‘spaghetti time’ while cutting open the doors to a boy scout meeting with swords he bought from an informercial then tried to trade for food at the grocery store when he sobered up.
It’s definitely the one that holds up best. The finale always makes me tear up.
It’s definitely my #1. Just a great show, funny and melancholy and brilliant, and one that doesn’t lose its glow with age.
Team Venture forever!
Commenting so this thread isn’t all shitting on T&E. I, for one, am a fan and agree with the selection. Their comedy has brought me so much joy over the years and they fill a niche that no one else can imho.
Check It Out!
Like I shouldn’t have with this list.
The fact that there are THREE Tim and/or Eric based shows on this list – but Squidbillies does not appear once – tells me that this was done by people watching later on YouTube. And My Adventures With Superman? Seriously?
No enough love for Children’s Hospital in list or comments.
You are all wrong. All of you. Just wrong. Your whole list is off.
Lucy the Daughter of the Devil didn’t even make the cut? Lame
Assy McGee or bust
Nobody’s talking about how the entire point of most of these shows was to watch them stoned?
12 Oz. Mouse or GTFO
Venture Brothers is #1, always and forever.
FACT!!!!!
I am the Lone Arachnid of The Apocalypse! Think of ME when you comment on the thread!!!
To this day, in my close friend group, when we’re trying to get moving, someone will say “ so we jigglin’ or…?”
This list is Assy McGee erasure and I WON’T STAND FOR IT
Eric Andre Show, and Timm and Eric are straight trash.
Tim and Eric is absolute garbage
1. The Venture Bros.
2. Harvey Birdman
3. Sealab 2021
Thats the correct order for me.
Far too much Tim and Eric here. Shoulda picked one and given the other two spots to all the missing stuff, like Xavier, Tigtone, Brak Show, and my personal favorite these days, YOLO Crystal Fantasy.
The lack of “Moral Orel” almost singlehandedly invalidates this list.
My personal favorite is Aqua Teen, but I can live with it at 4. But Metalocalypse only 17?Sealab was awesome, but never overcame the death of Harry Goz as Capt. Murphy.
We did this seven months ago, and Venture still isn’t #1? For shame.
Robot Chicken, Harvey Birdman, Boondocks, Venture Bros, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost Coast to Coast: top tierMetalocalypse, Home Movies: pretty goodRick & Morty: pretty good, but with a fanbase that makes me think it’s bad because of how obnoxious they are. You’re not funny when you just scream “I’M PICKLE RICK” everywhere. It’s only funny in context.Tom Goes to the Mayor is way better than Awesome Show Great Job. There, I said it.Eric Andre Show: The interview stunts just seem like a more extreme version of Jimmy Fallon’s “impromptu” interview stunts that the guests obviously know about in advance; Andre is just a better actor than Fallon is.Superjail: The best part is the first minute of each episode (Jailbot & Jackknife’s wacky hijinx, followed by the theme song); after that, it just gets annoying.Sealab: Good premise, but boring.I haven’t seen the others, but the “Infomercials” series should’ve been on the list.
“Rick & Morty: pretty good, but with a fanbase that makes me think it’s bad because of how obnoxious they are.”Not saying you’re wrong, but I think a lot of that is who you hang out with and/or where you spend your time online. As someone who is an on and off fan of the show who spends a fair amount of time on the interwebs, I’ve only rarely encountered the crazy/obnoxious R&M fans that I’ve heard so much about.Don’t misunderstand me, they are *absolutely* out there. I do not doubt that at all. But I’m able to choose to engage with or not engage with those people.
“Home Movies” was the first thing I laughed at after my dad died 20-odd years ago. I almost went blind playing the drinking game on the DVD bonus features when the DVDs were released and I still put it on as “comfort food”, even though I can recite almost every line by memory.
No Primal?!
1. Frisky Dingo2. Joe pera Talks With You3. Sealab4. Rick and Morty5. The Boondocks6. Home Movies…10001. Tim and Eric Awesome Show
Where is Learning with Pibby?
Finally, one of these lists that got #1 right. Great job!