By day, Cartoon Network is still the kid-friendly animated powerhouse it's always been. When this channel goes to sleep, Adult Swim comes out to play. This late-night programming block is for those who grew up with the cartoons of the 90s and 2000s, bringing out the next step in the channel's bizarre evolution. It also has helped bring some of the best new forms of television of the last 20 years.

Their shows provide a unique brand of dark humor, relying heavily on the strange, the surreal, the existential, and even the disturbing. They've brought us colorful characters, hilarious comedy, and genuinely distressing and reality-questioning content. Many of them brought both heavy controversy and a loyal cult fanbase that thrives to this day as the channel has grown.

Space Ghost: Coast to Coast

Space Ghost

Hanna-Barbera's legendary superhero becomes the Space Ghost host with the most, with the help of former enemies – house-band leader Zorak and director Moltar. Using a combination of both the original series' animation and live-action footage of actual celebrities, Space Ghost talks with various guests, often dealing with his crew's disruptions and his general misunderstanding of his guests' nature and career.

While this show originally began on Cartoon Network, it set the stage for things to come on the block. It eventually moved into an offbeat premise and surreal, outlandish, yet somewhat subdued humor.

Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell

Hell Gary

Gary is a demon. All he wants to do is fulfill his quota: set certain humans on a path to eternal damnation. The problem is that he's not the smartest or meanest demon in the bunch, leading to questionable results and in literal hot water.

The show takes a fun re-examination of hell as an everyday workplace filled with demons just trying to do their jobs (usually failing at them) and Satan as a primary manager who delights in putting his employees in harsh situations. It acts in many respects like a typical workplace comedy, making it even funnier when the violent and horrifying subject delightfully undercuts it.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Hunger Force

Much Like Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, this began on Cartoon Network but quickly moved to Adult Swim to become the face of the network's early years. The Hunger Force is three sentient fast food items – Meatwad, Master Shake, and Frylock - all living together in an apartment in New Jersey (or Seattle). The trio often gets up to antics and misadventures while dealing with their enemies and allies – including next-door neighbor Carl Brutananadilewski, the Mooninites, the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, and Dr. Weird.

The trio themselves make for a delightfully mismatched group, from Master Shake being an unapologetic narcissist, Frylock being the exasperated "straight man," to Meatwad being childishly naïve. Nevertheless, these three have become one of the most recognizable teams in cartoon history and helped make this show the cult powerhouse it became.

The Eric Andre Show

Eric Andre

It can make for a surprisingly strong debate whether the most surreal person ever to host a talk show is Space Ghost or Eric Andre. Indeed, the famed comedian brings a particular brand of zaniness to his part talk show; part sketch show, part surrealist art.

With his co-host, Hannibal Buress, he talks with many celebrities, often pranking them in gross, terrifying, and straight-up bizarre ways. Andre often flips the switch on the general situation almost as fast as he built the setup, resulting in a viewing experience wherein you never really know what to expect.

Smiling Friends

Smiling Friends

This series is one of the most recent amongst the channel's line-up, but that hasn't stopped it from proving itself a massive hit. Charlie and Pim work together at the Smiling Friends charity, helping people with their problems, which is easier said than done in this world full of deep-seated, strange, and uncanny personalities, appearances, or general issues.

The show is primarily 2-D animation, mixed in with a bit of stop-motion, live-action, and other animation forms. Of course, apart from its characteristically surreal nature, the show brings some delightfully charming characters together that genuinely care about each other and want to make people happy. No matter how absurd it all gets, that is what Smiling Friends is all about.

The Boondocks

Boondocks

Ranking among the most controversial animated shows in history, The Boondocks revolves around two Black kids living with their grandfather in Woodcrest, Illinois. Based on the comic strip of the same name, it deals heavily with African-American life in the 2000s, each character's relationship with their culture, and how they settle into the world around them.

Indeed, much of the show's social/political critique and overall vulgar attitude have made it rife for discussion amongst critics and audiences. As a result, it has become one of the most well-remembered adult animated shows of the last 20 years.

Robot Chicken

Robot Chicken

Seth Green and Matthew Senrich are the minds behind perhaps the most unique sketch show in recent memory. Robot Chicken is a stop-motion animated series animated with action figurines and plush toys from famous movies, TV shows, and video games. It seems to have made it its mission to defile every entertainment brand currently in circulation today. Name an intellectual property, and chances are Robot Chicken has sketched it.

Every episode is book-ended through the intro, a story of a mad scientist turning a roadkill chicken into a robot. He then forces the robot chicken (get it?) to watch dozens of sketches, lasting from 10 seconds to 9 minutes.

Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty

It might just be the jewel of the Adult Swim crown, garnering a more significant mainstream response from critics and audiences seen on the channel in years. Rick and Morty revolves around the titular duo comprising Rick Sanchez, an alcoholic, aggravated, depressed scientist, and his anxious and far more moral grandson Morty.

The show deals with Rick and Morty's adventures on alien planets and other dimensions while dealing with the complex relationships of their family – notably dissatisfied mother Beth, insecure father Jerry, and apathetic daughter Summer. This modern classic combines fast-paced, absurd humor and existential dread in a beautifully unpredictable package.

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