This year, Adult Swim‘s tradition of April Fool’s Day pranks that are actually funny (what a concept!) was themed around Smiling Friends.
Created by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack, the weird and wonderful animated series follows the employees at Smiling Friends Inc., which aims to make people smile. The first episode of season two premiered, but the prank was Adult Swim airing three episodes from season one, all remade with puppets.
You can watch those below.
The season two premiere isn’t currently available online, so if you missed it, you’ll have to wait until May 12 at midnight on Adult Swim (or the next day on Max) to watch it. Here’s the trailer.
Don’t gulp – Season 2 premieres May 12th at Midnight – next day on Max #smilingfriends #adultswim pic.twitter.com/jrQPiI1NKS
— adult swim (@adultswim) April 1, 2024
The idea for Smiling Friends came from a shared love of shows like South Park. “Zach and I both grew up loving South Park and other similar cartoons,” Cusack told Animation Magazine. “I used to love drawing as a young kid, and I’ve dabbled in filmmaking, but I got into animation in my early 20s and I made some shorts for YouTube. Yes. Zach and I actually met online, and we both realized we had common interests in making silly little cartoons. And we both loved the idea of making a purely comedic show like Smiling Friends.”
Hadel added, “Our goal was to have a show featuring a group of loveable characters, with a simple kind of concept, which we could take anywhere we wanted to.”
You can watch season one on Adult Swim’s website.
