Television is a huge part of American society. Every night my sister and I sit down to watch tv together after a long day’s work at the restaurant. After endless hours of making people happy I thought that Smiling Friends would be a fitting show for this project. It's humor is described as surreal and absurd but the underlying themes are very close to home for most blue collar americans like myself.
The first episode of Smiling Friends aired on April Fools' Day in 2020. I think it is telling of the type of comedy featured in the show. They had originally only planned on airing the first episode but due to the tremendous support the creators started working on the show. The rest of the first season came out in 2022 and the second season aired again on April 1st in 2024. The audience is unsure when the third season will be aired but it has been announced that they are currently working on it. The show explores universal personal issues that almost everybody has dealt with. The business featured in the show focuses on a lot of depression, friendships, and battles with religion, all in a light and hilarious manner. For example it one of the episodes the smiling friends crew visits the devil in hell who has a gaming addiction. While they are there a pizza is delivered. I think this is so telling to our current state in society. Most people are depressed and most people order food to their house because they cant get up and out to get their food. I think this pertains to my generation more than anything. It is also interesting because the first season came out around the beginning of covid. During covid a lot of people lost track of their lives and this show does a very good job illustrating the struggles of the average person.
Since this is an animated show, it is not filmed anywhere rather it is drawn in a studio. The show is constantly juxtaposing the weight and seriousness of life’s crises and using funny looking colorful characters in a funny looking town. The show is similar to other adult cartoons like Bojack Horseman. There are layers upon layers embedded into each episode and each character. In the episode that I watched there is a tiny little nonverbal green guy who is part of the team. You can often see him watching silly videos with headphones on not interacting with the group. I gathered that this is a comment on today’s kids and their addiction to constant serotonin as well as us adults. His simple character embodies the childhood aspects of underperforming adults. The primary target for this show is young adults, or adults who are still trying to get it together. When I hear people mention this show it is usually men. I believe since it is made by men it caters more to men than to women but women are still able to enjoy it. If I was a visitor from another country I would think Americans are mostly sad and pathetic after watching this show but equally funny and hopeful. There are few who are successful and most are lost.
Smiling friends does a thorough job expressing its concerns for American society. It successfully illustrates the main issues that an average person faces while bringing a lighthearted view on serious issues. This show has so many little statements embedded into the show and I think in order to notice them one must watch it over and over again. And since there are so many layers and it is so short, it is easy to watch over and over again. Everytime you turn it on you will notice something new. Since it consistently made me chuckle, I would gladly share this show with my friends. For example the episode I watched was a spin off of Frosty the Snowman. They brought the snowman in the cooler with beer to the beach. While they played beach volleyball the snowman tossed them beers and watched. I think this show has genius comparisons and I think critics agree. The show was nominated by the Hollywood Critics Association Television Awards for best animated short film series in 2022. There are a lot of fan reviews but not many professional reviews on the show that I can find. There was a new york times article but it was unfortunately behind a pay wall.
Since this show has only two seasons so far, there are not that many reviews. I first found this show in 2020 when my boyfriend at the time told me to watch it. We didn’t have much in common so I was surprised that I had enjoyed it. I forgot all about it until I was at work a couple months ago and my male coworkers were discussing the new season. I am not a diehard fan of this show. I do not follow any of their socials. I checked to see if they have an instagram and despite not having aired an episode in an entire year, they are currently posting on their instagram story and main feed They have one hundred andt hirty thousand followers. Today as we speak there is something on their story. They are actively keeping viewers engaged by posting during the production. I checked to see if they have a tiktok but they don't. Although they do not have a TikTok, there seems to be a viewer presence about the show. I saw a lot of female presence as well which I didn't see until now.
After my extensive research on Smiling Friends, I realized this is not only something that has been mentioned to me by people I know. It's a TikTok sensation and was even nominated for an award. As I haven't revisited for any reason besides this paper, I am surprised again by how funny it is. The issues at stake are so detrimental and realistic it is enlightening to see such a silly take on all of these issues. It gave me a little bit of space of mind knowing that there are women who watch this show. Overall I do appreciate the ability of the writers to create something so heavy and so bright at the same time.
Sources
https://websterjournal.com/2022/02/26/review-smiling-friends-is-equal-parts-gruesome-and-wholesome/
https://smilingfriends.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Characters
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12074628/awards/?ref_=tt_awd
Watch the episode for yourself here!
https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/cc2fb5dae1a1d4fa9f075a951476f920/watch
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