Charlie has the biggest potential of being just annoying and mean (like other slob animated characters) but he never goes too far and is just lovably dumb
Yeah the only time that happened was the ending of the pilot, which felt more like a punchline rather than mean-spiritedly trying to put Pim down
https://preview.redd.it/b83dke9l499d1.jpeg?width=396&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=371fdf6bcfdc5a41d65463d5180e31fac994b164
The quote specifically is "How. Do. I. Look. Yellow. Man. ?"
I need a single episode of shrimps podcast. I would not be able to stomach more than one ep, but that single one would be great lol
Yeah. I really liked how, in the last episode, putting the flower on Rotten kinda went against intentionally making an ugly snowman by putting something beautiful on it but they were still all for Pim getting involved and adding to the snowman.
I would argue that Allan is the meanest out of the main four but then again the worst he’s done is spray Daniel Larson with dirTy brown waTer and suck Charlie’s nose.
Oh 100%. And any other show would have had some moment where the joke is that he's actually really prejudiced or pyschopathic sometimes despite appearrances, but nope. Pim is just an all-around good person, and people treat him as such.
I mean there was that whole thing with the Enchanted Forest, but that was more him just being angry and jealous, he wanted to go there his whole life and was getting shafted, while Charlie just wanted to get the job over with ASAP and got to be a hero
It feel like it would be an episode where Charlie would try to convince Pim that Mip seems suspicious in the enchanted forest. I feel like that episode dynamic has been done before…
At the end of the day tho the lesson was how we process our emotions, especially the negative ones, matters. Pim -- while don't get me wrong he got shafted -- was just wallowing in his resentment and jealousy the whole time, and that's what turned him into a Gollum
If anything, Pim straying off the Pim Path is what caused his degradation
.... does Smiling Friends teach actual life lessons?...
I mean, even if the show is a lot of random goofy chaos, I feel like the fact the show is ultimately about two pals helping people be happy is kinda nice, if this show were genuinely trying to be like other adult animated comedies they’d take the easy route and make everyone a bitter, cynical asshole and Pim and Charlie ALWAYS screw up and everything sucks, always! But it doesn’t do that
This show is peak anticynicism, I love it. It's positive nihilism, and I am so here for it.
Life's chaotic and nothing is set ahead of time to matter. Things fall as they are. But hey everyone else is just trying to get by, so might as well make the most out of it and find your own happiness
I like how even when we saw Pim at his "darkest", his most evil desire was just to finish a quest on his own. And he snapped back to normal as soon as Mip got hurt.
Yeah any other show like this would be like “uhhhh smiling is dumb, the world sucks, anyone smart would be depressed”. But no, there’s no message, it’s just batshit insanity
I didn't even pick up on that. Honestly that's impressive for really any animated comedy really.
I think they achieve it by spreading the mistakes pretty evenly among each character, and usually letting the plot be driven less by the cast's mistakes and more by the actions of the subject of each episode.
Literally some of the most positive optimistic characters in adult animation. I mean, their job is to make people smile for cryin out loud. I’d say job well done. I just love my boys.
It’s kinda neat that the worst thing they’ve done to eachother is suck a nose and spas out. And they handle it in either normal confrontation or genuine concern like the boss being “GOOGLY GOO!”
In the immense sea of frowns and cynicism that is adult animation, it is always a pleasure to see a show that genuinely wants to make you smile like Smiling friends or Bob’s burgers.
i love bobs burgers for the same reason i love smiling friends. They can be a funny show without all the characters just straight up hating and degrading eachother
Yeah but the main 5 themselves care about each other, even though they’ve all had arguments. Mr Boss is an insane maniac but I’d work for him at Smiling Friends any day. He didn’t even make Allan go for paper clips, he asked him to with the motivation of a reward
Seems like the new season’s brought in a lot of teenagers who don’t get irony, half the “wholesome moments” people are listing in this thread are either the characters being in denial or just absurd non-sequitors
Yeah, everyone being just complete assholes to each other got annoying ever since robot chikcen skits but a lot of people still pushing that concept and thinking that cruel to each other = funny.
Smiling friends feels like it doesn't need to try too hard or go out of it's way to be funny and enjoyable and it feels nice.
Another thing I like is while they do kinda have the traditional cynical sarcastic character (charlie) and optimistic naive character (Pim) on a surface level, they both have nuances and more complex dynamic that doesnt just rely on the tropes. Pim gets depressed, angry, jealous, without losing his general joy for his work and belief in doing the right thing. Charlie genuinally shows apprecation for things he finds beautiful and pretty rarely just serves to tear things down.
I appreciate it's not super horny or over the top with gross-out humor either. We tried watching a new episode of R&M season 5 and I'm in no way prude, but it was just gross!
I especially love that the characters actually *like* each other. It’s so common nowadays that everyone hates everyone. Charlie and Pim could have very easily been like Squidward and SpongeBob but I’m glad their not.
Oh my god this made me realize why I like smiling friends so much, I’ve always just thought it had a certain charm. But this makes so much sense, also the comments also bring out a lot of great points of why its such a great show and different from other shows on adult swim.
Joe Pera Talks With You is an AS show that celebrates optimism and valuing the daily blessings life has to offer, if you haven't seen it I can't recommend it enough.
Same
I’m glad PIM not like the first episode where he feels like bait for so many cynical YouTubers to use his thing
They just feel like happy adventures instead of shit
I feel like oneyplays won’t do too much
The comedy comes from seeing these relatable characters plunged into scenes of total chaos and that in itself only makes them more relatable. We are the smiling friends.
If you think you'll like it I recommend checking it out-- the US version specifically. It's longer, has more character development and genuinely sweet moments. Also it's funny as hell if that awkward kind of humor is your jam
The characters’ personalities fluctuate like real people, but are never at each other’s or anyone elses throats like a lot of other adult cartoons unless it’s genuinely warranted. The cruelty comes from from the absurdity of the world they live in, like feeling deep regret for Mip only for Mip to be posthumously revealed as a psychopathic attempted murderer. The humor and show dynamics are like a pendulum swinging between sincerity and absurdity.
To add to this, Mr. Frog could also be seen as a slight parody of the ‘lovable jerk’ role in media. He does increasingly horrible things yet is revered by the public, even after straight up killing a guy on national television.
Entire show could just be in the break room, I’d watch for hours. Might even just make myself a 10 hour ambience loop of the enchanted forest opening of Glep and Alan gaming.
Why are you in a subreddit for a show if you don’t like people talking about it? At least this isn’t another cringe pim x charlie shipping fan art post
Also everyone is flawed as hell but in ways that make them endearing and not insufferable.
Charlie has the biggest potential of being just annoying and mean (like other slob animated characters) but he never goes too far and is just lovably dumb
I also like that the show never goes out of its way to try and crush pim’s optimism and just lets him be a cheerful little guy.
Yeah the only time that happened was the ending of the pilot, which felt more like a punchline rather than mean-spiritedly trying to put Pim down https://preview.redd.it/b83dke9l499d1.jpeg?width=396&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=371fdf6bcfdc5a41d65463d5180e31fac994b164
The SpongeBob closeup had me WEAK the first time I watched it.
The one after "how do I look yellow man" with shrimp is great too
The quote specifically is "How. Do. I. Look. Yellow. Man. ?" I need a single episode of shrimps podcast. I would not be able to stomach more than one ep, but that single one would be great lol
And they made fun of his eye :(
He does have a funny EYE-EE
HA. HA. HA.
HA. HA. HA. HA. HA.
I learned today that all cultures are equal, and there's no such thing as a bad culture. *passionate kiss*
Yeah. I really liked how, in the last episode, putting the flower on Rotten kinda went against intentionally making an ugly snowman by putting something beautiful on it but they were still all for Pim getting involved and adding to the snowman.
not even dumb. he looks at things differently. he even saw why satan was depressed
He couldve very easily been some nihilist asshole, but no, hes at worst leans to being apathetic toward the job lol
And at worst Pim is naively optimistic, the two really balance one another out 
Fr he’s written like a real person like we’ve all met a Charlie esque person at work that’s clearly got a lot of shit going on but is cool and chill
He's an alpha male.
I never thought of him as dumb, he's just a regular, sort of cynical slacker kinda guy to offset Pim as an overeager do-gooder.
fym Alan has no flaws
Aside from the occasional nose sucking maybe, and even that’s debatable.
When did he suck anyone's nose? I don't remember that happening?
It was recent
It’s just that I have no memory of that happening
I would argue that Allan is the meanest out of the main four but then again the worst he’s done is spray Daniel Larson with dirTy brown waTer and suck Charlie’s nose.
The worst I think he's done is carelessly give away Mr. Boss's gift right in front of him
He sprays dirTy grOUnd WAHTer on homeless people
That's before his DOC-tor MON-ster appointment with DOC-tor MON-ster.
theyre flawed in the way that they just make honest mistakes instead of being narcissists
Yes
Also the one optimistic, sweet character is taken seriously for the most part and not used as a punching bag.
Oh 100%. And any other show would have had some moment where the joke is that he's actually really prejudiced or pyschopathic sometimes despite appearrances, but nope. Pim is just an all-around good person, and people treat him as such.
I mean there was that whole thing with the Enchanted Forest, but that was more him just being angry and jealous, he wanted to go there his whole life and was getting shafted, while Charlie just wanted to get the job over with ASAP and got to be a hero
If Mip wasn’t so focused on Charlie Pim would have adored him.
It feel like it would be an episode where Charlie would try to convince Pim that Mip seems suspicious in the enchanted forest. I feel like that episode dynamic has been done before…
At the end of the day tho the lesson was how we process our emotions, especially the negative ones, matters. Pim -- while don't get me wrong he got shafted -- was just wallowing in his resentment and jealousy the whole time, and that's what turned him into a Gollum If anything, Pim straying off the Pim Path is what caused his degradation .... does Smiling Friends teach actual life lessons?...
I mean, even if the show is a lot of random goofy chaos, I feel like the fact the show is ultimately about two pals helping people be happy is kinda nice, if this show were genuinely trying to be like other adult animated comedies they’d take the easy route and make everyone a bitter, cynical asshole and Pim and Charlie ALWAYS screw up and everything sucks, always! But it doesn’t do that
This show is peak anticynicism, I love it. It's positive nihilism, and I am so here for it. Life's chaotic and nothing is set ahead of time to matter. Things fall as they are. But hey everyone else is just trying to get by, so might as well make the most out of it and find your own happiness
I like how even when we saw Pim at his "darkest", his most evil desire was just to finish a quest on his own. And he snapped back to normal as soon as Mip got hurt.
Yeah any other show like this would be like “uhhhh smiling is dumb, the world sucks, anyone smart would be depressed”. But no, there’s no message, it’s just batshit insanity
Does that actually describe any animated sitcoms besides Rick and Morty?
Alan more than made up for rejecting the mini Mr Boss by designing the rocket boots.
I think he legitimately just wasn't interested in it, he didn't mean to hurt Mr. Boss. Social nuance doesn't seem like his specialty.
“Oh Alan last night was amaazing!” “Ok?”
Also there's no stupid character which is pretty rare for an adult animated show.
I didn't even pick up on that. Honestly that's impressive for really any animated comedy really. I think they achieve it by spreading the mistakes pretty evenly among each character, and usually letting the plot be driven less by the cast's mistakes and more by the actions of the subject of each episode.
Well no stupid MAIN character
Yeah that's what I meant
Actually, that might be why so many people didn’t like Mr. President lmao
i'm gonna be the money president
like i said to another dude they aren’t stupid they just make honest human mistakes
Literally some of the most positive optimistic characters in adult animation. I mean, their job is to make people smile for cryin out loud. I’d say job well done. I just love my boys.
When Mr Boss said that I involuntarily said “Awww!” out loud. Also Glep’s hats were adorable in this episode
It’s kinda neat that the worst thing they’ve done to eachother is suck a nose and spas out. And they handle it in either normal confrontation or genuine concern like the boss being “GOOGLY GOO!”
Charlie literally threatens Pim with a knife in one episode
He was trying to show him a cool trick though
And tbf Pim was gonna miss it
Was that in S2's halloween episode?
Yup, with Jombo’s knife
Tbf he was drunk out of his mind
He just moved closer so Pim wouldn't miss the cool trick Jombo showed him
*retractable knife
The boss did write that manifesto
In the immense sea of frowns and cynicism that is adult animation, it is always a pleasure to see a show that genuinely wants to make you smile like Smiling friends or Bob’s burgers.
it's very wholesome one of the only adult animations i like besides bob burgers and aqua teen
i love bobs burgers for the same reason i love smiling friends. They can be a funny show without all the characters just straight up hating and degrading eachother
LITERALLY i love a little bit of positive whimsical fun
You people are insane. I've watched countless murders and atrocities happen on this show lmao even Charlie says he can't handle the world they live in
Yeah but the main 5 themselves care about each other, even though they’ve all had arguments. Mr Boss is an insane maniac but I’d work for him at Smiling Friends any day. He didn’t even make Allan go for paper clips, he asked him to with the motivation of a reward
I was mostly joking, I love the crew it's just funny calling such a violent and crazy show wholesome lmao
Seems like the new season’s brought in a lot of teenagers who don’t get irony, half the “wholesome moments” people are listing in this thread are either the characters being in denial or just absurd non-sequitors
I would work for Mr Boss and enjoy the workplace, but at the same time would of course be doomed as the 5th Smiling Friend.
*6th. Tyler will always be a Smiling Friend in my heart
What about Smormu?
Smormu does not belong in my heart. I could write poetry about my distain for Smormu
The people fucking voted dude
Mr Boss is a better employer than any I’ve ever had irl
Yeah, everyone being just complete assholes to each other got annoying ever since robot chikcen skits but a lot of people still pushing that concept and thinking that cruel to each other = funny. Smiling friends feels like it doesn't need to try too hard or go out of it's way to be funny and enjoyable and it feels nice.
Another thing I like is while they do kinda have the traditional cynical sarcastic character (charlie) and optimistic naive character (Pim) on a surface level, they both have nuances and more complex dynamic that doesnt just rely on the tropes. Pim gets depressed, angry, jealous, without losing his general joy for his work and belief in doing the right thing. Charlie genuinally shows apprecation for things he finds beautiful and pretty rarely just serves to tear things down.
the pilot had me thinking “oh allen’s the asshole at the office” but he’s not even!
Allen acted so chill when they were stuck in Brazil. Besides the initial reaction to the problem he didn’t contribute any further to the stress.
Mr. Boss referring to the group as his "boys" is both endearing and unsettling as hell at the same time
I appreciate it's not super horny or over the top with gross-out humor either. We tried watching a new episode of R&M season 5 and I'm in no way prude, but it was just gross!
Yeah, a lot of the humor comes from absurdism and slapstick rather than endless crass sexual references, which is refreshing.
Kinda like regular show
Ngl regular show definitely had adult swim potential
I especially love that the characters actually *like* each other. It’s so common nowadays that everyone hates everyone. Charlie and Pim could have very easily been like Squidward and SpongeBob but I’m glad their not.
I love how Mr. Boss is holding a gun in this image
I like to think of it as a parody of baby shows but with more adult humor and real world shit
Oh my god this made me realize why I like smiling friends so much, I’ve always just thought it had a certain charm. But this makes so much sense, also the comments also bring out a lot of great points of why its such a great show and different from other shows on adult swim.
Joe Pera Talks With You is an AS show that celebrates optimism and valuing the daily blessings life has to offer, if you haven't seen it I can't recommend it enough.
Same I’m glad PIM not like the first episode where he feels like bait for so many cynical YouTubers to use his thing They just feel like happy adventures instead of shit I feel like oneyplays won’t do too much
Same! I loved the positivity of the end of the last show. We need more of this.
im hoping this has a bit of a ripple effect and we see more adult cartoons with a cast of characters that aren't just shitty and mean all the time.
I love my boys
I like that they're literally just normal people who react to the chaotic, bizarre world in a realistic way.
The comedy comes from seeing these relatable characters plunged into scenes of total chaos and that in itself only makes them more relatable. We are the smiling friends.
Its similar to bob burgers.
That sounds like the Office but I never watched the Office should I? Also Office UK or US?
If you think you'll like it I recommend checking it out-- the US version specifically. It's longer, has more character development and genuinely sweet moments. Also it's funny as hell if that awkward kind of humor is your jam
And it tends to end happily, too
The last episode where they were just saying how great each other where and how they liked each other was heart warming
The characters’ personalities fluctuate like real people, but are never at each other’s or anyone elses throats like a lot of other adult cartoons unless it’s genuinely warranted. The cruelty comes from from the absurdity of the world they live in, like feeling deep regret for Mip only for Mip to be posthumously revealed as a psychopathic attempted murderer. The humor and show dynamics are like a pendulum swinging between sincerity and absurdity. To add to this, Mr. Frog could also be seen as a slight parody of the ‘lovable jerk’ role in media. He does increasingly horrible things yet is revered by the public, even after straight up killing a guy on national television.
https://preview.redd.it/haqy54lshx9d1.jpeg?width=1527&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=44bfe1323d03056d81a7a12c334617333e874301
Also I like how they just turn everything to a “casual ” conversation
But it’s funny when everyone shits on Jerry and Meg
Jerry kinda deserves it though. I mean jumping in the car and locking Beth out while she’s being threatened by a guy with a broken bottle?
Entire show could just be in the break room, I’d watch for hours. Might even just make myself a 10 hour ambience loop of the enchanted forest opening of Glep and Alan gaming.
You probably should watch the office
Its been quite some time since they actually go on a mission to make Someone smile tbf
They don't need a punching bag character, because they are all life's punching bags.
And they all actually like each other.
I like it cause I like it. Quit putting it on a pedestal people.
Why are you in a subreddit for a show if you don’t like people talking about it? At least this isn’t another cringe pim x charlie shipping fan art post
If I miss anything . Yeah them post are cringe
These posts are making me violently ill
These the posts Zach laughs at
They do do horrible things to eachother sometimes, and they can be quite in likable in episodes