Style is something that can be super powerful when it comes to art. Everyone has a style or even genre of art that they gravitate towards when it comes to the pieces of entertainment that they decide to consume. Whether it’s horror or comic book movies, most people who consume art have a style or aesthetic that they find the most appealing. As an older teen and a younger adult, I found myself watching more Adult Swim as it became a permanent channel at that moment in time in Canada. I was aware of the block and I had seen things that has been acquired by it in the past, but I didn’t fully “get it” though. Adult Swim is partly known for the adult oriented animated shows they put back into syndication, but that’s not the thing that attracted me to it as a whole. I could watch Family Guy or Robot Chicken on a streaming service or on the home releases. What drew me to it was the original live action programs that can easily be summed up as “unique”. There was some element or style that I could absolutely fascinating with this content, that being what some would consider “random access humor”. In this deep dive, I want to look at the things that flesh out what I love about this style of art from the stuff featured on the channel and the stuff created separately by fans of the “Adult Swim Aesthetic”. By the end of this journey, I hope to fully flesh out why I love the style so much and the reasons why I want my art to also implement said style.
The most mainstream and most recent example of this is The Eric Andre Show. The series just wrapped its latest season and it still somewhat surprised me this time around. The whole hook of the show is Eric fucking with the guests he has on. The show is formatted like a late night talk show while also being a takedown of that format of entertainment. Through six seasons so far, the writers have found a way to elevate the craziness as each season has went on. While the comedy doesn’t always work for me in some cases, this show houses one of the elements that I find appealing about this style of content. That element i’m speaking of being the idea of the unexpected. Most of the jokes and the situations are things that you wouldn’t necessarily expect, but the humour comes with how out of the ordinary they go with this comedy. The strength of this show comes in the editing. They shoot the show for hours but they cut it down to around 11 minutes. This choice of editing helps the style of the show heavily. The chaos is rampant because the show is so quickly paced. You jump around from thing to thing without enough time to fully comprehend what you just saw. This leads to a feeling of being in a trance or being on a trip. Eric Andre is the one example of this style that most would recognize in connection to this style.
Tim and Eric is another example that most would recognize when they see it. Many of the sketches are common memes now and some don’t realize where they came from. While Eric Andre is a fake talk show with one gimmick, Tim and Eric is a sketch show where they throw everything they can at the wall and it somehow becomes a beautifully weird painting by the end. Tim And Eric’s Awesome Show, Good Job is the most popular of their variety series’ but they have made many others that have implemented themselves into the minds of those browsing the television late at night. That’s another element of the Adult Swim style that I find appreciation in, that idea that you’re scrolling channels and you come across something wild or crazy late at night. The show is basically that idea but stretched out to a whole sketch show. Whether it’s a super soapy drama, or a strange song from David Liebe Hart or even a wild infomercial, you never truly knew what you were getting into. There’s even some popular sketches that include some bigger celebrities the likes of Paul Rudd. The show truly was an experience that was never the same every time you tuned in. This is also present in Tim and Eric’s movie that follows them trying to save a dying mall when they become the owners. The film is very much UHF in the style of Tom Green and that’s what makes it work so well. It’s a film that has a very solid story throughout but it also goes down some random paths when it comes to characters and conflicts that you won’t see in any other film at its time of release or even today. The random uniqueness of the Tim and Eric world has always been quite appealing to me.
Check It Out with Steve Brule is the spin off from Tim and Eric that I find the most personal to me. It’s a news style show that follows John C Reilly as the wild Steve Brule as he discovers such ideas as words, religion and death. Steve Brule’s strength is that he’s always out of his element and seems to live in a world of his own. We follow him as he discovers these concepts in the world in his own unique way. This show has also birthed many memes that some might not realize are from this show. The series has all the strengths of the Tim and Eric material but it’s a bit more focused as we follow this wacky guy throughout. Similar to Steve Brule, David Liebe Hart’s work was featured on Tim and Eric and was spun off into its own thing afterwards. David Liebe Hart is in some ways the other side of the metaphorical coin. Brule is strange and upbeat while Hart is strange and downbeat. David’s stuff plays in a more sincere realm and some of his most prominent work plays off of how strange and eerie it is like Chip The Black Boy. He even got his own show at one point called “I Love David” that emulates his unique style of strange in the best ways. That show was heavily a project of Vera Drew, someone who i’ll be speaking of later. Both Brule and Hart were showcased pieces on Tim and Eric’s show that also worked really well on their own. They maintained the style that made them work and intrigued me in the first place.
Adult Swim also had a thing they would do where they would play random shorts that became ingrained with the identity of the block. Some of the most popular of these being Too Many Cooks, Unedited Footage of a Bear and This House has People In It. These shorts were usually connected to a show they called “Infomercials” that was fluid and includes really anything that they wanted to add. Many of these shorts were even more popular in the age of Youtube where many people stumbled upon it and would show it to more people as a result. I discovered the three listed that way. I saw them on youtube because of merely discovering them or I was shown them and the cycle continued as I showed others. I only discovered a big chunk of the other shorts when I began to watch Infomercials and there’s some truly excellent work contained in that part of the block. Many of these shorts are deeply comedic while also being deeply fucked up in a way that only a few have been able to replicate. The director of some of the more popular shorts ended up releasing a film last year on the channel called “Adult Swim Yule Log” that was one of the most unexpected and fresh things that I saw the entire year along with The People’s Joker. A film that starts out as a simple yule log and becomes something more sinister as the film goes on. Yule Log is something that I see myself watching every year during Christmas for the rest of time. These shorts showcase something that I love about Adult Swim as an institution and that is the freedom of creativity. They let their creators make anything as crazy as it could end up being. The art that comes out of these creators seems super unique and singular in a way that even smaller independent cinema can’t grasp. It’s almost as if the artists let go of any possible restrictions and make pure art that only some will truly get, but if they do, they will really love.
This aesthetic also stretches past the Adult Swim brand as artists who have worked for them or were inspired by them keep the spirit alive. The most popular and recent of these examples is I Think You Should Leave, a sketch series by Tim Robinson that unlocks a higher level of comedic genius that many mainstream comedy projects can’t reach. This is probably the most popular of any of the projects listed in this article as the recent season was just released and a few of the sketches have become iconic memes on social media. Whether its a pig in a Reagan mask, becoming a blues brother to liven up a party or being a “driving crooner”, Tim Robinson somehow manages to craft sketches that are so out of left field that you are entertained by how random they become. The Adult Swim formula can probably be boiled down simply to the idea of abstract avant garde humour with a bit of dadaism attached and Tim Robinson’s show is a perfect example of that outside of the Adult Swim brand.
Another example of this is from a place that you would expect it the least, that being E3. The Pre Pre Show was a bi annual variety show that occurred in the early hours of E3 where they would let a crew take over the stream and do whatever they wanted. They did this a total of 3 times and I was fortunate enough to catch it when they last did it in 2019. I remember finishing up the devolver panel at E3 that year and stumbling upon a show after where a floating skull was playing an indie game. That was followed by people in food costumes wrestling and a 40 minute segment where Wham City Comedy did a dramatic reading of a fan written Mortal Kombat 3 play. My response upon stumbling on to this was “what the fuck am i watching?” I watched the rest of it that night and went back to watch the previous two years after E3 wrapped up. I was completely taken over by the pure artistic spirit of this 12 hour stream. You didn’t know what you would see next and that made it even more fun to watch. The element of everything showcased being from small creators from the games, to the music and even the shorts and performances made it even more special. It just felt like a group of crazy artists coming together to do whatever they felt like for 12 hours. The spirit of late night public access was super strong with this program. I hope in some way this program can come back in someway because it felt like I discovered hidden treasure and it was so much fun to witness live. True anarchic artistic spirit at play and I loved that.
There are a couple projects from last year that I was able to watch that I think showcase this style the absolute best in every way. The first of those projects is an internet show called “The Ember Knight Show” created by Ember Knight. The show took on the kids show style and looked at the concepts and ideas around being in your 20s and not knowing where you’re going. While it was a pitch perfect satire on such shows as Mr Rogers, it also felt like it had a weight to it. The concept was super personal and honest in a way that only someone who had a singular artistic vision could achieve. It was fun and comedic while also being dramatic and personal. I watched every episode on youtube one night and it was truly an experience. It was one of the most artistically fulfilling things that I had seen in a while. This project turned me onto the work of Ember Knight and i’ve been following her since. She is apart of a movement of art connected to this aesthetic in Los Angeles that I find extremely appealing. I can’t wait to see what she does next.
The last of these examples is the one that made the biggest impact on me, that being The People’s Joker. The film is finally getting an official release and I have definitely wrote a whole article on it already, but it made such an impact on me as a person and as an artist. The trans element for one as it hit me in a way where I couldn’t hide my trans identity anymore and I finally felt comfortable to be honest about myself. Another part of my love comes from how well it is able to express the aesthetic that i’ve been speaking on this entire article. This film feels like a singular vision where one person is able to convey their deepest emotions while also building a world that feels so connected to what makes these projects so unique and special. Vera Drew made a fantastic piece of art with this one that is on the top of my list when it comes to art pieces or films of recent that made an impact on me. I’m excited that the film has finally been freed as people can finally see what I mean when I speak so highly about it. This is a film that I would consider high art, the highest of high art for that matter. I don’t say that about many projects, but this film is a singular vision that feels like it doesn’t have any interference from any outsider opinions or ideas, just the wacky complete vision of Vera Drew. I’m so happy that the film is finally getting its day.
The big picture of all of these projects connected is what I would consider the Adult Swim Aesthetic, projects that feel so unique and singular while also tapping into a style of comedy that only some get, but when they do it hits them in a certain way that is indescribable. When it comes to my art moving into the future, it’s undeniable that these projects will have an impact on me. The idea of these lower budget but high artistic projects that feel so personal and creative in something that I want connected to my work. Just like Eric Andre, Tim Robinson, Tim and Eric, Ember Knight and Vera Drew, I want my stuff to hit the audience in a way that they can’t really fully explain but it leaves and impact on them and inspires them to do their own wild projects. The Adult Swim Formula is a huge part of me as a person and I can’t see a world where my art isn’t heavily inspired by it. I love this weird quirky world that these artists have cultivated and I would love to be apart of it as well.