The 25 Best Adult Swim Series Of All Time, Ranked

From veteran creators Jim Fortier and Dave Willis comes "Squidbillies," one of Adult Swim's most recognizable series. The show follows the numerous misadventures of the Cuylers, a working class family of talking squids who live in rural Georgia. The Cuylers are allowed to do pretty much whatever they like, thanks to their status as an endangered species. They generally run roughshod over their town's equally dysfunctional population.

Airing on Adult Swim from 2005 to 2021, "Squidbillies" is one of the network's longest-running series, demonstrating its unique popularity among several generations of viewers. Reviews varied over the years, but consistently celebrated its irreverent and transgressive humor. More than a decade after it debuted, The New York Times praised it as one of TV's most truly bizarre productions.

Interestingly, "Squidbillies" is one of the few shows to have its theme song performed by a variety of musicians, ranging from Jimmy Cliff to "Weird Al" Yankovic. If that's not reason enough to tune in, we don't know what is.

One of the more recent additions to the Adult Swim lineup, "Smiling Friends" uses its incredibly simple premise to explore a variety of off-kilter situations. Gloomy Charlie and chipper Pim work for a small charity whose main purpose is to make people smile. Sounds cute, right? The duo's simple, colorful character designs, which wouldn't look out of place on a preschool series, reinforce this friendly approach. Unfortunately, many who call the charity's hotline are plagued by deeply existential issues, leaving our hapless heroes struggling to provide meaningful help. 

"Smiling Friends" earned swift praise for its sharp writing, dark humor, and innovative blend of stop-motion animation, live-action footage, and 2D visuals. These potent strengths result in a surreal journey into life's murkiest, weirdest, and most hideously humorous corners. "'Smiling Friends' isn't going to be for absolutely everyone," CBR noted in their glowing review, "But what it represents is important and worth supporting."

"Superjail!" is set in an otherworldly maximum security prison for the universe's most dangerous criminals. The facility's incompetent staff members are the series' focus, with the Warden, a fun-loving and seemingly omnipotent being, at the heart of it all. The Warden is, at once, a shape-shifter, a tyrant, an excitable kid, a mischievous imp, and possibly some sort of god. He longs to incarcerate the entire world, and just might accomplish that terrifying, candy-colored dream. 

Known for its psychedelic art style, experimental storylines, and extreme violence, "Superjail!" isn't a show for every viewer. Even by Adult Swim standards, the series is extraordinarily violent: Many episodes end in gory climaxes that involve dozens of grisly deaths. The Warden isn't exactly filled with reverence for human life. However, the technical sophistication and ceaseless imagination of the series' hallucinatory visuals can't be denied, even if many viewers feel the need to watch them from between their fingers.

Three anthropomorphic fast food items live together in the New Jersey suburbs. This is the fever dream premise of "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," and it made the series into one of Adult Swim's earliest successes. A spin-off of "Space Ghost Coast to Coast," "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" hit the airwaves in 2000. Viewers loved Frylock, Master Shake, and Meatwad's antics so fervently, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" soon became the first Adult Swim show to receive a feature film continuation in 2007's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters."

Nowadays, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is seen as a classic of the form, whose caustic humor remains inimitable. As The AV Club put it, "There was an edge to the show, a self-critique baked (pardon the pun) into the premise that belied its cult status. The very act of watching the show was itself a kind of insult, almost as if [co-creators] Willis and Maiellaro were daring their audience to laugh at the stupidest thing imaginable." This made it into a trailblazer for adult animation, oddball comedy, and Adult Swim as a whole.

"Childrens Hospital" is set in Childrens Hospital, a children's hospital named after Dr. Arthur Childrens. It lampoons mainstream medical dramas like "Grey's Anatomy" through its odd cast of characters, who spend far more time engaging in office politics and work-related romances than they do tending to patients. Headlined by talents like Megan Mullally, Ken Marino, Rob Huebel, Henry Winkler, and Rob Corddry (who's done up in very creepy clown makeup), "Childrens Hospital" earned seven lengthy seasons through its memorable blend of uncomfortable comedy.

As The AV Club put it in a glowing review, "Everything about 'Childrens Hospital' is a labor of love." The world took notice: "Childrens Hospital" won several Primetime Emmy Awards, including outstanding short-format live-action entertainment program and outstanding short form comedy series. The world of medical dramas is ripe for skewering, and "Childrens Hospital" takes an impressively sharp scalpel to its most ridiculous and over-the-top excesses.

One of the first shows to grace Adult Swim's airwaves, "Home Movies" follows Brendon, a kid who dreams of making big-budget films someday. As he makes his titular home movies, he also navigates the murky waters of childhood, from his earliest romantic escapades to his complex relationship with his family. In many ways, "Home Movies" set the tone for Adult Swim with its sardonic humor, experimental narratives, and out-there visuals. It also took a uniquely off-the-cuff approach, which co-creator Loren Bouchard described to GQ as a blend of improv and cheap animation. We now see this echoed in productions like "Rick and Morty."

"Home Movies" propelled many of its cast and crew members to greater stardom — years later, Bouchard and actor H. Jon Benjamin would reunite on "Bob's Burgers," which the former created. Not bad for a doodle-heavy, ad-libbed, lo-fi series that debuted before anyone knew what to expect from an Adult Swim series.

"Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law" follows the courtroom antics of Harvey Birdman, former superhero star of '60s cartoon "Birdman and the Galaxy Trio." Having hung up his cape and turned his attention to law, Birdman represents his fellow cartoon characters, often taken from "Birdman and the Galaxy Trio" and other Hanna-Barbera productions, including "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!," "The Yogi Bear Show," and "The Flintstones."

This lovingly made series essentially takes the high concept approach of "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" — which it's spun off from — and pushes it even further. The result is a fresh and original blend of its parent series' offbeat humor and more pointed pop culture satire, a la "Robot Chicken." Running for four seasons with a special episode released in 2018, "Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law" continues to rank as one of the most deliciously weird animated Adult Swim series ever created. As IGN put it, "'Harvey Birdman' worked as both a parody and homage to these animated characters we know and love, with plenty of funny, surreal jokes along the way."

An animated spin-off of the 2009 action-comedy of the same name, "Black Dynamite" serves as both a celebration and a spoof of blaxploitation film. Former CIA agent Black Dynamite and his loyal crew battle ninjas, drug dealers, racist sharks, and sundry other forces of the establishment in this rollicking cartoon. It's packed with references to the pop culture of its historical setting, and has just as much fun with its retro tropes as its cinematic counterpart. As is to be expected from an Adult Swim show, it also contains an abundance of stylized cartoon violence, R-rated language, and many sexual references, not to mention a heavy depiction of '70s-era racism. But if you're okay with that — or, very possibly, an outright fan of it — "Black Dynamite" does not disappoint.

Running for two seasons from 2012 to 2015, "Black Dynamite" earned positive press for its subversive humor and superior production values. "'Black Dynamite: The Animated Series' is almost too good to be true," Collider enthused. "Stuff like this really shouldn't exist. With beautiful and detailed animation, stylish character design and a pair of slickly produced musical numbers, you would never guess that it was based upon a very niche film that never saw wide theatrical distribution." But indeed, "Black Dynamite" is based on a weird little indie film, and it really is that good.

Gary Goodspeed is an enthusiastic astronaut traveling the galaxy with his planet-destroying alien companion Mooncake. Pursued by a tyrannical warlord out to harness Mooncake's extraordinary abilities, Gary, Mooncake, and their crew must venture to the literal ends of the universe. "Final Space" is epic in scope and bold in vision, presenting a three-dimensional universe as fully realized as that of any space opera. But it's also a clever animated comedy full of quirky characters. Beyond this, "Final Space" boasts an impressive cast including David Tennant, Fred Armisen, Steven Yeun, Jane Lynch, Keith David, and Conan O'Brien. As the seasons march on, it becomes a genuinely high-stakes adventure that'll have you on the edge of your seat.

Sadly, "Final Space" was canceled after Season 3. However, the series' creator and star, Olan Rogers, launched a 2022 Kickstarter campaign for a short film entitled "Godspeed," which will bring unused "Final Space" ideas to life. The campaign earned $464,438 before it came to a close, giving "Final Space" fans all around the world new reason to hope.

Starring Mike Tyson — yes, the Mike Tyson — "Mike Tyson Mysteries" follows the world-famous retired boxer and his crew of misfit investigators as they travel around the world, solving mysteries. Among Tyson's trusty band are his adopted Asian-American daughter, the Marquess of Queensberry's ghost, and a mean-spirited pigeon. "Mike Tyson Mysteries" is a complete inversion of the classic '70s cartoons it riffs off: Its characters are hopelessly in over their heads in every single episode. Tyson himself seems to live more in his wild imagination than the real world.

What results is a wonderful and surprisingly intelligent series fans of Mystery Inc. will love. "Mike Tyson Mysteries" ultimately ran for four seasons from 2014 to 2020, providing newbies with ample entertainment and old fans with many re-watch opportunities. It also earned positive reviews throughout its run, especially for its clever jokes. "The series' humor is both audacious and intelligent, and the combination of that familiar Warner Bros. animation style coupled with modern references ... leaves no mystery for Mike to solve. It's looking like a knockout," raved The Hollywood Reporter. 

A spin-off of "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!," "Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule" is presented as a cheap 1980s public access show centered around the bizarrely blithe Dr. Steve Brule. Brule explores a wide variety of topics in health, nutrition, travel, and other areas of life, but he never quite seems to be fully tethered to reality. This results in painfully awkward (and totally hilarious) exchanges with his guests. And did we mention he's played by Academy Award-nominated actor John C. Reilly?

While the series' humor is in line with other Tim and Eric productions, it's also somewhat more approachable for less Adult Swim-initiated viewers. Reilly captures Brule's complete cluelessness about social situations with particular aplomb, resulting in a variety of memorably embarrassing episodes. This is cringe comedy at its best, and many critics knew it. "'Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule' isn't just a public-access parody or a character study," The AV Club wrote. "It's an exciting, inventive experiment surfing highs and lows together, a thoroughly modern pastiche of analog nostalgia, train-wreck television, awkward comedy, surrealist flights, and unsettling tactics."

"The Eric Andre Show" is an off-the-wall sketch series, even compared to similar Adult Swim productions. The titular Eric Andre interviews guests like any talk show host would, but these interviews always become awkward and eventually outright nonsensical. Interspersed throughout are candid camera segments, bizarre sketches, and performances from various artists. Essentially, "The Eric Andre Show" revolves around Andre (and his early co-host, Hannibal Buress) eliciting unnerved reactions from everyone they can. This core mechanic is often applied to celebrities like Chance the Rapper, Seth Rogen, and Jimmy Kimmel.

"The Eric Andre Show" is, in short, ludicrous — and people can't get enough of it. Critics have acclaimed the series for its complete unpredictability: As IndieWire put it in their review of Season 5, "It's performance art that needs to be seen to be believed." Having debuted in 2012, "The Eric Andre Show" shows no signs of slowing down any time soon, much to fans' delight. This is Adult Swim at its most gloriously and uproariously outlandish.

For all its intergalactic exploration and meme-spawning success, "Rick and Morty" is a fairly simple series. It centers around Rick Sanchez, a ingenious, nihilistic, alcoholic scientist capable of traveling through alternate realities, and Morty, his innocent and endlessly anxious teen grandson. Together, they battle aliens, confront evil versions of themselves, and travel to the farthest reaches of the universe.

"Rick and Morty" isn't just a show — it's a cultural phenomenon. The series has earned a tsunami of praise from critics and fans alike for its withering humor and shockingly dark themes. Though the show contains Adult Swim's typically subversive traits — heavy violence, boundary-pushing language, and strange sexual content — it's also hailed for its thorough and unflinching look at depression, addiction, and trauma. This willingness to blend out-there sci-fi, shocking content, and genuinely emotive storytelling has won "Rick and Morty" numerous accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards for outstanding animated program. So yes, it's the show that made "Pickle Rick" into a thing. But it's also a show that offers a guttingly honest portrayal of family dysfunction — in the same episode, no less.