TV show · 2020 · Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy · English
Curator score: 4.4/10 (31.4K ratings)
Overview
Smiling Friends Inc. is a small company whose main purpose is to bring happiness and make people smile. The series follows the day-to-day lives and misadventures of its representatives, the lazy, cynical Charlie, and the cheerful, optimistic Pim, as they try to cheer up and comfort the troubled people who call their company's hotline. They receive seemingly simple requests but the jobs turn out to be more complicated than they seem, making it difficult to bring happiness to the world.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.4/10
IMDb: 8.5/10
TMDB: 8.5/10
Production
Six Point Harness, Williams Street, Goblin Caught on Tape, Princess Bento Studio, Studio Yotta
Cast
Michael Cusack, Zach Hadel, Marc Moceri
Where to watch
Adult Swim, Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A fast, absurd, and surprisingly sharp Adult Swim comedy that mixes gross-out surrealism with genuine sweetness. Its short episodes, elastic animation, and constant tonal whiplash make it easy to binge, especially if you like offbeat sketch energy disguised as a workplace show.
Best for
Fans of surreal adult animation
Viewers who like short, joke-dense episodes
People who enjoy absurd comedy with occasional heart
Adult Swim comedy fans
Binge-watchers looking for something quick and weird
Skip if
You want grounded realism or traditional sitcom structure
You dislike crude humor, body horror, or chaotic tone shifts
You prefer long-form plotting over episodic escalation
You need every episode to feel emotionally consistent
Overview
Smiling Friends is one of the most distinctive adult animated comedies of the 2020s: a deceptively simple premise that becomes a delivery system for pure comic instability. Each episode starts with a customer-service mission and then careens into bizarre side characters, visual gags, and sudden detours that feel both improvised and tightly controlled. The show’s biggest strength is how quickly it can pivot from juvenile nonsense to something oddly sincere without losing momentum.
Worth noting
Charlie and Pim are an excellent comic duo, built on contrast rather than sentimentality. The writing leans into cringe, surrealism, and anti-comedy, but it also knows when to land a small emotional beat or a clean punchline. The animation style is intentionally rough-edged, but that works in its favor; the looseness gives the show a manic, anything-can-happen energy.
Bottom line
Season-by-season, it remains a short-form series that’s more about consistency of laughs than deep serialization. If you enjoy Adult Swim at its most unhinged but still accessible, this is an easy recommendation. It’s weird, fast, and very rewatchable, even when it’s being aggressively stupid on purpose.