Welcome to my Smiling Friends shrine! Scroll down to read a little bit about what Smiling Friends is. You can click on one of the tabs above to read about my personal history with the show and its creators, and you can check out a gallery of web graphics I've compiled and/or created.

Smiling Friends is an Australian-American adult animated sitcom created by Zach "psychicpebbles" Hadel and Michael Cusack for Adult Swim. It initially debuted in the early hours of April 1st, 2020 when Adult Swim stealth premiered the pilot episode, and the full series premiered later on January 9th, 2022. The series was the most successful and talked-about Adult Swim series since Rick and Morty's debut in 2013, recieving praise for its humor, charm, animation, and its optimistic outlook compared to many other adult cartoons.

The show's premise is simple - Smiling Friends, Inc. is a charity organization whose number one goal is to make people smile. There's the cynical realist Charlie, the optimistic and cheerful Pim, the eccentric and deadpan Allan, and the tiny 1,695-year-old iPad baby Glep. They go on adventures in their happy, colorful, terrifying surreal world. With such a simple premise, this show fires on all cylinders, bringing out Adult Swim craziness that hadn't been seen in years.

The series is notable for its usage of different mediums of animation, similar to The Amazing World of Gumball. In fact, many fans have described the show as being TAWOG for adults. Many Generation Z adults who watched TAWOG as kids grew up to be fans of Smiling Friends.

SF is also notable for not only kicking off the TV industry careers of Zach and Michael, but also featuring cameos from many other popular Newgrounds users and niche YouTubers. This was a completely new thing for traditional TV cartoons - cameos would usually be reserved for A list celebrities that would be recognized by the average Joe. Aside from cameos like Gilbert Gottfried, you can also hear/see cameos from niche internet personalities such as Mike Stoklasa, Doug Walker, James Rolfe, David Firth, Chills, and more. The show itself is even set in Philadelphia, which is a mecca for niche internet happenings - Philly is where both Newgrounds and Screenwave Media (controversial but popular multi-channel network for nerdy gaming YouTubers) were founded. Basically, this show does more for autistic people than The Good Doctor or The Big Bang Theory ever have.

Around 2012 when I was only 10, I used to binge all kinds of crazy videos on YouTube on my iPod Touch. My little sister - who was only 4 - also had access to YouTube. One day, I found her watching this strange animation called "Cats"...dubbed in Spanish. Both her and I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. Eventually we found the original animator responsible: psychicpebbles.

I would end up watching a good chunk of his catalog at that point, including Hellbenders. I found a bunch of other hilarious Newgrounds animators like Oney and Egoraptor. However, I never got super big into SleepyCabin or OneyPlays; I remained a casual fan of their animations (as poorly as a lot of them have aged). I mostly resided on the HiddenBlock/NormalBoots/Vinesauce side of things, with a dash of Channel Awesome and Game Grumps occasionally.

Years later, I admired Zach's work on the 2014-16 era of JonTron. I used to laugh my ass off at the Grimbo scene. I also had a major Frozen hate phase, so his "cover" of Let it Go with Oney had me choking in laughter.

I was busy with my Caddicarus special interest from 2014-19, so unfortunately I missed out on the start of Zach climbing the ladder in the industry. I missed out on his friendship with Michael starting, and I missed the Very Positive Stream series. I wasn't reminded of psychicpebbles again until April 2020, when I heard that Adult Swim had stealth premiered a pilot co-created by him.

And I never watched it.

At that point, I had secured a special interest in Onward/Pixar, and I didn't want anything interfering with that. By January 2022, I was still hyperfixating on Onward, and for some reason I thought engaging in fandom drama and insecurities was a bigger priority than...watching Smiling Friends.

Two more years later, I was in a complete rut. Physical and mental issues were plaguing me, and my special interest at the time - my second run with Caddicarus - was starting to wane due to inactivity from him. After trying out a few different hyperfixations, a certain Adult Swim cartoon decided to return at the perfect time.

On the late night of April 5th, 2024, I finally sat down to watch Smiling Friends. And I had no idea how much that show would alter my brain chemistry. I hadn't loved a cartoon this much in over half a decade. It also helps that SF isn't my first rodeo with Cartoon Network - I had a TAWOG special interest from when I was 9-12. Stylistically and tonally, Smiling Friends reminds me so much of the CN shows I was obsessed with in the early 2010's. That combined with the internet culture is what really pushed forward my obsession with SF.

I hope that I can pursue a special interest in Smiling Friends that lasts at least a few years, until Season 3 comes out.