Many adult animated shows over the years didn't maintain enough momentum to run longer than a few seasons, but were good enough to gain cult fan bases. These shows may not be for everyone, but their wackiness and originality makes them deserve to be recognized.
Drawn Together
This bizarre and highly entertaining series began as a reality TV farce and slowly transformed into a sick satire of offensiveness during its three-season run. Drawn Together follows eight cartoon characters from different backgrounds picked to live in a house for a reality TV show in the vein of The Real World. The characters include Toot, a Betty Boop-type with anger problems, as well as Wooldoor Sockbat, a Spongebob rip-off who isn't always as innocent as he seems.
Drawn Together's humor may prove to be way too over-the-top or offensive for many, but the jokes are actually critiquing the kind of humor the show contains. The mid-to-late 2000s were a time where the idea of humor was to be as shocking as possible, and while Drawn Together does fall into that ideology, it's so self-aware that it manages to redeem itself. The show's level of self-parody sometimes presents signs of genius, including lots of breaking the fourth wall and an episode based around the gang's reaction to the fact that Drawn Together received an F grade from Entertainment Weekly.
Stone Quackers
Although Stone Quackers ran for only one season, its 12 episodes are so colorful and full of life that their obscurity should be considered a travesty. The first original show ever to air on FXX, Stone Quackers follows the exploits of a group of skateboarder duck friends who live in Cheeseburger Island, and encounter many difficult and sometimes surreal situations.
Stone Quackers succeeds mainly because its characters are so memorable and hilarious. There's Whit and Clay, two adorable and relatable best friends who suffer from poor judgment, as well as Dottie, a seemingly innocent hopeless romantic who has a hidden dark side. As it turns out, mixing black comedy with genuine heartfelt moments, as well as throwing in a neurotic cop voiced by John C. Reilly and a cameo by Miley Cyrus, creates one of the most fun and inventive adult cartoons of the past decade.
Good Vibes
Co-created by David Gordon Green, this irreverent surfer comedy takes place in sunny California and is criminally underappreciated. Good Vibes follows the adventures of Mondo, who just moved to the fictional town of Playa Del Toro, and his new best friend Woodie as they enjoy life and encounter the wacky inhabitants of their beautiful town.
Equipped with hilarious gags and engaging storylines, Good Vibes is able to tackle familiar territory and make it feel fresh. Josh Gad and Danny McBride lend their voices to some wacky characters that are impossible to forget. The animation is vibrant and well-drawn, further adding to the fun atmosphere. It's a shame that this show only lasted one season because the characters and plot had so much room for growth.
Unsupervised
Produced by some of the talent from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, this lesser-known FX comedy is about two misguided 15-year-old best friends, Gary and Joel, who attempt to get through life while receiving no parental supervision. This single-season show is unapologetic in the way that it depicts growing up, and isn't afraid to make the audience feel very awkward.
The two leads are ridiculous and clueless, but it's impossible not to root for them or worry when they are about to mess up. Another interesting aspect to this show is the animation. Designed by the same animators as Archer, Unsupervised features realistic looking backgrounds, creating a stark contrast to every other aspect of the show's look.
Tripping The Rift
Airing on Syfy channel in the U.S from 2004 to 2007, this strange riff on Star Trek tells the story of a futuristic world where two empires reign, both toxic and oppressive. In a borderland controlled by neither government called "the rift," all life is free from government control. The show follows a team of outlaws led by a purple alien named Chode who works odd jobs while "tripping the rift."
Despite some out-of-date CGI animation, this clever show perfectly mixes a sci-fi spoof with political satire, and is always able to provide thought-provoking social commentary. Jam-packed with homages to classic science fiction fare like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, as well as low-brow one-liners, Tripping The Rift is uniquely itself.
Bromwell High
A British-Canadian co-production, Bromwell High poked fun at life in a London suburb while delivering a surreal and outlandish viewing experience. This peculiar show follows three mischievous high school girls who cause a ruckus and stress out their strange teachers at their borderline destitute inner-city school.
The show parodies British culture, and all of the characters have a disjointed look. The show's humor is edgy yet simplistic, making it easily digestible while still being wholly original.
Jeff and Some Aliens
Based on a series of shorts featured in the Comedy Central animated sketch show TripTank, Jeff and Some Aliens is the story of three aliens who come to earth to study the most average man on earth and decide whether humans deserve to have their planet destroyed or not. The aliens end up acting as friends and roommates to the lonely Jeff, who always finds himself in some sort of hi-jinks that his alien pals help him through with a new strange invention.
This one-season series takes the demented spirit of the original sketches and creates a witty and fun stoner alien romp. The fact that the intelligent aliens are depicted as dudes that just wanna hang out is hilarious in itself, and the imaginative writing helps turn this Rick and Morty-esque comedy into a must-see.