What started as a half-crazy show about a charity that helps make silly cartoon characters smile, has now become full-crazy. The third season of “Smiling Friends” has been rolling out new episodes weekly for the past few weeks on Adult Swim and HBO Max. Developed by co-creators Michael Cusack – known for Adult Swim series “YOLO” and various animated YouTube shorts – and Zach Hadel (better known as PyschicPebbles) – the YouTube animator behind “Hell Benders” – the show gives an outlet for these two wacky, chaotic creators to take the internet by storm.
Back in 2020, Adult Swim released the pilot of “Smiling Friends” as an April Fool’s joke to see how much attention the series would garner. The pilot, “Desmond’s Big Day Out,” featured Charlie, a nihilistic, chilled-out yellow guy voiced by Hadel, and Pim, a joyful, optimistic purple guy voiced by Cusack.
In the pilot, the two get called to help talk a depressed middle-aged man who lives with his mom out of suicide. They do so by helping him find his calling as a Bliblie exterminator. In this ridiculous world, Bliblies are tiny, annoying purple critters that try to murder anyone they see. As zany as this sounds, the show was a hit online and, as a result of the positive feedback, it was quickly greenlit for its first season.
Flash forward to today, “Smiling Friends” has become a multi-season staple of animated television that doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Apart from Pim and Charlie, the crew consists of Mr. Boss, an over-the-top psychotic boss that keeps the boys working, Alan, the hard-working, tall deadpan office manager and Glep, a little green critter. Every episode consists of the boys trying to make a different silly character smile, and most of the time everything goes to hell.
The show only stays grounded by having its ridiculously animated characters talk in a realistic tone. They argue, talk over each other and harp on the simpleness of everyday life. One minute you’ll have Charlie exploring the depths of hell, and the next, you’re watching the devil complain about how his Uber Eats order forgot his straw.
Episode five of Season 3, titled “Pim and Charlie Save Mother Nature,” exemplifies this over-the-top dynamic perfectly. The boys go on a work trip to a cabin in the woods, where Charlie desires to find a cryptid hidden among the forest. This simple premise sets the show into motion by having Charlie and Pim come across Mother Nature, who is animated through claymation and upset that hikers littered everywhere. Pim vows to help her, while Charlie laments that he has to pick up trash. After clearing up the mess, Mother Nature grows in power and vows to eat anyone who littered in the forest. Pim freaks out when Mother Nature finds out that Charlie littered earlier, and the two try to survive being eaten alive. Through Pim’s smart thinking, they are able to defeat Mother Nature by throwing an energy drink into her mouth that makes her dissolve, destroying the nature of the forest for good. And that’s not to mention the side plot where Mr. Boss tries to help Alan relax by doing the wackiest, most bizarre actions you can imagine.
If you have a knack for internet humor, like watching animated shows or the craziness of Adult Swim’s other shows, then you’ve probably already heard of “Smiling Friends.” But if you haven’t, and you have eleven minutes to spare, go ahead and watch an episode. You’ll come out confused, wowed and mesmerized by the craziness you just witnessed, and maybe you’ll pick up a reference or two that you can laugh about with your friends.
