# Smiling Friends (2020)

> Two employees at a small happiness company take on bizarre hotline requests that spiral into absurd trouble.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/104857

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 27
- Episode runtime: 12 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, comedy
- Created by: Michael Cusack, Zach Hadel
- Network: Adult Swim
- Cast: Michael Cusack, Zach Hadel, Marc Moceri, Gilbert Gottfried, James D. Rolfe, Jim Knobeloch, Jane Badler, Perry Caravello
- TMDB rating: 8.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12074628/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: mild
- Tone: absurdist, deadpan, cheerful, irreverent, bleak

## What critics say

Critics broadly acclaim Smiling Friends as one of the funniest and most original adult animated comedies on Adult Swim.

## Synopsis

Smiling Friends (2020-present) is an American adult animated sitcom created by Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel for Adult Swim. Set in an unnamed, oddly familiar modern world, it follows Pim Pimling (voiced by Michael Cusack), an eternally cheerful representative of a tiny company whose entire purpose is making people smile, and his lazy, cynical partner Charlie Dompler (voiced by Zach Hadel). Their boss, Mr. Boss (voiced by Marc Moceri), hands them hotline requests that seem simple but quickly unravel into strange, grisly, and absurd errands. Each roughly twelve-minute episode is a self-contained misadventure built from escalating surreal situations, deadpan dialogue, and the constant friction between Pim's sincerity and Charlie's bleak apathy. The show has aired across three seasons, with its tone sitting somewhere between sweet and nihilistic, and its humor landing in the same irreverent space as Rick and Morty and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Fans of surreal adult animation and offbeat workplace comedy will find this show a sharp, strange, and quick-hitting pleasure.

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