History WesternAnimation / AquaTeenHungerForce

* ArtEvolution: While the animation continued to be minimal throughout its entire run, later seasons started giving the characters more dyanamic (for this show at least) movements and angles to move and appear in. The animation itself also became more smooth, and the character models and backgrounds also became more polished and detailed.

** Music/AndrewWK - as himself.

* CanadaEh: In the episode "The Marines", Frylock goes to Canada in lieu of joining the Marines with Master Shake and Meatwad, and ends up captive in a barn with "CANADA" painted on it, with, oddly enough, a ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' reference.

* CargoShip: Dr. Weird with a lawnmower. [[invoked]]
-->'''Dr. Weird:''' Gentlemen...BEHOLD! I have made love to this machine! And now, upon retrospect, I ask, WHY?!

* TheBeard: PlayedWith. Shake and Meatwad make out in order to deceive the Navy into thinking that they're gay, the idea being that the "Don't ask don't tell" policy would save them from serving. It works.

* BeleagueredAssistant: Steve. Poor, poor Steve..

Their "adventures" (such as they are) are usually limited to making each other's lives hell or doing the same to their next-door neighbor [[ButtMonkey Carl Brutananadilewski]] ([[ActingForTwo also Willis]]) -- a fat, bald, slovenly Joe Average -- by borrowing his stuff or swimming in his backyard pool without permission. The Aqua Teens occasionally have run-ins with bizarre monsters or aliens who turn out to be [[AffablyEvil more obnoxious than they are evil]]. The best examples are two sets of recurring nuisances: the Mooninites (Ignignokt and Err), two aliens from the moon with an uncanny resemblance to sprites from an Atari 2600 game, an unshakable belief that they are superior to everyone else, and a predilection for tobacco, alcohol, petty larceny, and [[FlippingTheBird flipping people the bird]]; and the Plutonians (Emory and Oglethorpe), two spiny, cone-shaped aliens with designs on world domination and nowhere near enough competence or common sense to pull it off.

* BlackComedy: The various gruesome ways characters on the show have died.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Starting with Season 4, the show becomes a lot more violent and the humor bcomes far more grotesque.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mainly Frylock and Carl. Meatwad in his more lucid moments, and even then, unintentionally.
** Shake and Meatwad have their moments too, albeit more rarely than Frylock or Carl.

* DenserAndWackier: While the show was always weird, each season got progressively more sillier and surreal as the show went on.

The first episode of the show aired as a preview on Adult Swim on December 30, 2000, and it has since run for 11 complete seasons. For the first two seasons, the show featured [[TheTeaser teasers]] starring Dr. Weird (Creator/ClayMartinCroker), a MadScientist living in an abandoned New Jersey insane asylum along with his long-suffering assistant, Steve (also voiced by Croker), who may or may not have had a hand in creating the Aqua Teens[[note]]fans have long speculated over the meaning of a picture, seen in Frylock's room on occasion, that shows Frylock with a much younger Dr. Weird[[/note]]. While the earliest episodes of the series showed Dr. Weird revealing his latest invention, only for it to escape and cause mayhem for the Aqua Teens, later teasers had nothing to do with the episode that followed: compare the teaser for the third episode of the first season (Dr. Weird reveals the creation of Mothmonsterman, who promptly escapes out the Rabbot-shaped hole in the wall and heads for the bright lights emitted by Shake's new "Shake Signal" helmet) to the twentieth episode of the second season (Steve is ordering hoagies for lunch over the phone and asks Dr. Weird if he should get one for him, Dr. Weird declares his hand has been [[AssShove eaten by his ass]] before the rest of him is pulled in as well, so [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight Steve tells them he's only getting one hoagie]]). In the third season, the Dr. Weird clips were replaced with "Spacecataz", a failed pilot (split up into multiple parts) that followed the story of an escalating prank war between the Plutonians and the Mooninites (the full, uncut pilot is an extra on one of the DVD sets for the show). Episodes in the following seasons had no opening clips, with the exception of a cold opening being used in the Season 8 premiere as a one-off gag.

After Season 7, the show [[NewSeasonNewName changed its name]], and the producers said they planned to reboot the series from the ground up and revisit the notion of the characters being detectives. As you might expect, the show didn't change squat; in each successive season past the seventh, the show received a new title and opening/closing sequence, but remained otherwise unchanged in terms of content. (Willis later stated that this was an unsuccessful stunt to generate buzz.) The name changes are as follows:

The first episode of the show aired as a preview on Adult Swim on December 30, 2000, and it has since run for 11 complete seasons. For the first two seasons, the show featured [[TheTeaser teasers]] starring Dr. Weird (Creator/ClayMartinCroker), a MadScientist living in an abandoned New Jersey insane asylum along with his long-suffering assistant, Steve (also voiced by Croker), who may or may not have had a hand in creating the Aqua Teens[[note]]fans have long speculated over the meaning of a picture, seen in Frylock's room on occasion, that shows Frylock with a much younger Dr. Weird[[/note]]. While the earliest episodes of the series showed Dr. Weird revealing his latest invention (only for it to escape and cause mayhem for the Aqua Teens), later teasers had nothing to do with the episode that followed (compare the creation of Mothmonsterman to Dr. Weird ripping his own brain out over Steve not bringing him lunch...with the brain demanding fries and firing lasers at Steve immediately afterward). In the third season, the Dr. Weird clips were replaced with "Spacecataz", a failed pilot (split up into multiple parts) that followed the story of an escalating prank war between the Plutonians and the Mooninites (the full, uncut pilot is an extra on one of the DVD sets for the show). Episodes in the following seasons had no opening clips, with the exception of a cold opening being used in the Season 8 premiere as a one-off gag.

!!'Cuz we are the Aqua Teens, make the homies say say 'Ho!' and the girlies wanna trope!

-->'''Carl:''' [[YourMom "........Your moth-"]] ''''BangBangBANG'''

A movie based on the show, ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForceColonMovieFilmForTheaters'', was released in April 2007 during the interim between Seasons 4 and 5. It is the first and only feature film adapted from an Adult Swim series, and the second-ever feature film adapted from a Cartoon Network property after ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie''. Written and directed by both show creators, the movie (loosely) explores the origins of the Aqua Teens amidst the typical insanity of their misadventures. It additionally "premiered" days before its theatrical release (yes, it had an actual theatrical release) on Adult Swim as an [[AprilFoolsDay April Fool's]] gag: while the first couple minutes played in full, the network quickly shrunk its video down to an unwatchable size, put its inaudible audio track on the rarely-used SAP channel, and made frequent notices of said premiere during the regularly scheduled programming (i.e. reruns of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' on the network) with ads that took up 3/4 of the screen. The movie was additionally submitted for the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedFeature; it did not get nominated.

A golf game based on the show, ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Zombie Ninja]] Pro-Am'', was released in November 2007 on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2. In the game, you alternate between hitting the golf ball (or, occasionally, Meatwad) towards the hole, racing a golf cart against frat aliens, and killing a variety of frankly insane opponents (ranging from robotic turkeys to mummies) with everything from golf clubs to swords to [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]] to [[MusicalAssassin an electric guitar]].

** The sample of Shake's voice in the end credits ("Dancing is forbidden," spoken in the first episode) has been variously captioned and subtitled - even on the [[UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} DVDs]] - as "dancing is forbidden," "dancing is stupid," "dance finger puppets," or "Danzig is morbidity." [[invoked]]

* DistantFinale: [[spoiler: The last moments of the series cover Meatwad, years later, starting his new life with his new family.]]

*** Though some people spend their whole lives training to go to [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers a dimension with H. Jon Benjamin]].

On April 27, 2015, Adult Swim [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXS3MYMsHXw announced]] that the eleventh season of the show, ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force [[TheLastTitle Forever]]''[[note]]The WorkingTitle was initially thought to be ''Aqua [=TiVo=] Avoidance Plan'', but was later given a MeaningfulRename[[/note]], would be the final one, echoing the official word of Dave Willis, who had confirmed [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/27/aqua-teen-hunger-force-final-season_n_7153218.html the news just a short while earlier]]; the final episode of the season aired on August 30 of that year. However, a five-episode Season 12 was officially announced on January 25, 2023; it will premiere on November 26 of that year. At the time of its conclusion, the show was the longest-running Adult Swim series ever; it was later surpassed by ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' in 2020.

** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPVv4sNs0LY first look]] clip of ''Plantasm'' depicts the characters being ''far'' more fluidly animated than their base series.

A weird, crude, and [[QuirkyWork often completely random]] original series from Williams Street, created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, ''[[WordSaladTitle Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' is a show on Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/AdultSwim lineup [[NeverTrustATitle which has nothing to do with]] water (save their neighbor's pool and the occasional beach trip), teenagers, or whatever a "hunger force" is.[[note]]At most, in the three lead characters' primitive debut appearance on ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'', the name "Teen Hunger Force" was derived from their mission to conquer hunger in teens.[[/note]]

The first episode of the show aired as a preview on [adult swim] on December 30, 2000, and it has since run for 11 complete seasons. For the first two seasons, the show featured [[TheTeaser teasers]] starring Dr. Weird (Creator/ClayMartinCroker), a MadScientist living in an abandoned New Jersey insane asylum along with his long-suffering assistant, Steve (also voiced by Croker), who may or may not have had a hand in creating the Aqua Teens[[note]]fans have long speculated over the meaning of a picture, seen in Frylock's room on occasion, that shows Frylock with a much younger Dr. Weird[[/note]]. While the earliest episodes of the series showed Dr. Weird revealing his latest invention (only for it to escape and cause mayhem for the Aqua Teens), later teasers had nothing to do with the episode that followed (compare the creation of Mothmonsterman to Dr. Weird ripping his own brain out over Steve not bringing him lunch...with the brain demanding fries and firing lasers at Steve immediately afterward). In the third season, the Dr. Weird clips were replaced with "Spacecataz", a failed pilot (split up into multiple parts) that followed the story of an escalating prank war between the Plutonians and the Mooninites (the full, uncut pilot is an extra on one of the DVD sets for the show). Episodes in the following seasons had no opening clips, with the exception of a cold opening being used in the Season 8 premiere as a one-off gag.

On April 27, 2015, [adult swim] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXS3MYMsHXw announced]] that the eleventh season of the show, ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force [[TheLastTitle Forever]]''[[note]]The WorkingTitle was initially thought to be ''Aqua [=TiVo=] Avoidance Plan'', but was later given a MeaningfulRename[[/note]], would be the final one, echoing the official word of Dave Willis, who had confirmed [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/27/aqua-teen-hunger-force-final-season_n_7153218.html the news just a short while earlier]]. The final episode of the season aired on August 30, 2015.

A movie based on the show, ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForceColonMovieFilmForTheaters'', was released in April 2007 during the interim between Seasons 4 and 5. It is the first and only feature film adapted from an [adult swim] series, and the second-ever feature film adapted from a Cartoon Network property after ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie''. Written and directed by both show creators, the movie (loosely) explores the origins of the Aqua Teens amidst the typical insanity of their misadventures. It "premiered" days before its theatrical release (yes, it had an actual theatrical release) on Adult Swim as an April Fool's gag: while the first couple of minutes played in full, the network quickly shrunk the video down to an unwatchable size and put its inaudible audio track on the rarely-used SAP channel while making frequent notices of said premiere during the regularly scheduled programming (i.e., reruns of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' on the network) with ads that took up 3/4 of the screen.

Six years after the series' conclusion, [adult swim] [[https://io9.gizmodo.com/aqua-teen-hunger-force-metalocalypse-and-the-venture-1846878179 revealed]] that a sequel to ''Movie Film for Theaters'' (as well as films for other network powerhouses ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros''), titled ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenForeverPlantasm'', would be released to home video that fall. [[https://www.cbr.com/adult-swim-rick-morty-aqua-teen-hunger-force-spinoff-series/ There is also]] a SpinOff series, ''Aquadonk Side Pieces'', starring ''Aqua Teen'''s RoguesGallery, which can be seen on [adult swim]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQl8zBB7bPvJAB_ak87ztVoPiKUxZr47x YouTube channel]].

There is also a golf game based on the series released on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Zombie Ninja]] Pro-Am'', in which you alternate between hitting the golf ball (or, occasionally, Meatwad) towards the hole, racing a golf cart against frat aliens, and killing a variety of frankly insane opponents (ranging from robotic turkeys to mummies) with everything from golf clubs to swords to [[ChainsawGood chainsaws]] to [[MusicalAssassin an electric guitar]].

[[WhatCouldHaveBeen Was almost]] Creator/{{Toonami}}'s [[WhatCouldHaveBeen first original series.]] [[http://www.thexbridge.com/timeline3.html No, really.]]

Internationally, it has aired in Canada on Creator/{{Teletoon}} as well as [[Creator/G4TV G4 Canada]]'s ''[=ADd=]'' block and in Australia on Creator/{{SBS2}}.

!!'Cuz we are the Aqua Teens, make the homies say say 'Ho!' and the girlies wanna trope!:

A weird, crude, and [[QuirkyWork often completely random]] original series from Williams Street, ''[[WordSaladTitle Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' (2000 - 2015) is a show on Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/AdultSwim lineup [[NeverTrustATitle which has nothing to do with]] water (save their neighbor's pool and the occasional beach trip), teenagers, or whatever a "hunger force" is.

Instead, it covers the adventures of three amateur detectives/superheroes ([[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness only for the first few episodes, though]] - the rest of the series has them reduced to bums; this is [[LampshadeHanging commented on]] at least twice later in the series) living in UsefulNotes/NewJersey. The Aqua Teens originated as one-off characters in a formerly unmade episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast'' (a fellow Williams Street production), but were eventually given their own show -- [[AdaptationDistillation with changes to their appearances and personalities]].

The eponymous "heroes" are [[{{Jerkass}} Master Shake]] (Creator/DanaSnyder), a lazy, insulting, anthropomorphic milkshake who is the self-proclaimed leader of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force; [[OnlySaneMan Frylock]] (Carey Means), an intelligent box of french fries who is the [[SurroundedByIdiots extremely competent]] and halfway-morally-decent member of the force ([[DependingOnTheWriter except during his own moments]] [[NotSoAboveItAll of amoral behavior]]); and [[ManChild Meatwad]] ([[DescendedCreator Dave Willis]]), a dim-but-lovable blob of raw meat who is frequently bamboozled, teased, and/or tortured by Master Shake.

Their "adventures" (such as they are) are usually limited to making each other's lives hell or doing the same to their next-door neighbor [[ButtMonkey Carl Brutananadilewski]] ([[ActingForTwo also Willis]]) - a fat, bald, slovenly Joe Average - by borrowing his stuff or swimming in his backyard pool without permission. The Aqua Teens occasionally have run-ins with bizarre monsters or aliens who turn out to be [[AffablyEvil more obnoxious than they are evil]]. The best examples are two sets of recurring nuisances: The Mooninites (Ignignokt and Err), two aliens from the moon with an uncanny resemblance to sprites from an Atari 2600 game, an unshakable belief that they are superior to everyone else, and a predilection for tobacco, alcohol, petty larceny, and flipping people the bird; and the Plutonians (Emory and Oglethorpe), two spiny, cone-shaped aliens with designs on world domination and nowhere near enough competence or common sense to pull it off.

As noted above, the show is notable for a heavy dose of {{slapstick}}, surrealism, lots of StuffBlowingUp, the Aqua Teens' belongings being destroyed (often through explosions), and stream-of-silliness dialogue. ("Ever since my son was... never conceived because I never had consensual sex without money involved, I've looked at you as a... a thing I could live next door to, in accordance with state law. [...] Whoa, let's not put people on the spot here! '''WHO ARE YOU TAKING TO THAT FRIGGIN' SUPER BOWL?!'''")

For the first two seasons, the show featured [[TheTeaser teasers]] starring Dr. Weird (voiced by Creator/ClayMartinCroker), a MadScientist living in an abandoned New Jersey insane asylum (along with his long-suffering assistant, Steve (also voiced by Croker)), who may or may not have had a hand in creating the Aqua Teens (fans have long speculated over the meaning of a picture, seen in Frylock's room on occasion, that shows Frylock with a much younger Dr. Weird). While the earliest episodes of the series showed Dr. Weird revealing his latest invention (only for it to escape and cause mayhem for the Aqua Teens), later teasers had nothing to do with the episode that followed (compare the creation of Mothmonsterman to Dr. Weird ripping his own brain out over Steve not bringing him lunch...with the brain demanding fries and firing lasers at Steve immediately afterward). In the third season, the Dr. Weird clips were replaced with "Spacecataz", a failed pilot (split up into multiple parts) that followed the story of an escalating prank war between the Plutonians and the Mooninites (the full, uncut pilot is an extra on one of the DVD sets for the show). Episodes in the following seasons had no opening clips, with the exception of a cold opening being used in the Season 8 premiere as a one-off gag.

After the seventh season, the series [[NewSeasonNewName changed its name]] while the producers said they planned to reboot the series from the ground up and revisit the notion of the characters being detectives. As you might expect, the show didn't change squat: in each successive season past the seventh, the show received a new title and opening/closing sequence, but remained otherwise unchanged in terms of content. The name changes are as follows:

In April 27th, 2015, Adult Swim [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXS3MYMsHXw announced]] that the eleventh season of the series, ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force [[TheLastTitle Forever]]''[[note]]The WorkingTitle was initially thought to be ''Aqua [=TiVo=] Avoidance Plan'', but was later given a MeaningfulRename.[[/note]], would ultimately be the final one, echoing the official word of series co-creator Dave Willis, who had confirmed [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/27/aqua-teen-hunger-force-final-season_n_7153218.html the news just a short while earlier]].

The show also had a movie, ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForceColonMovieFilmForTheaters'', which (loosely) explored the origins of the Aqua Teens amidst the typical insanity of the Aqua Teens' misadventures. It "premiered" days before its theatrical release (yes, it had an actual theatrical release) on Adult Swim as an April Fool's gag: while the first couple of minutes played in full, the network quickly shrunk the video down to an unwatchable size and put its inaudible audio track on the rarely-used SAP channel while making frequent notices of said premiere during the regularly scheduled programming (i.e., reruns of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' on the network) with ads that took up 3/4 of the screen.

Six years after the series' cancellation, [adult swim] [[https://io9.gizmodo.com/aqua-teen-hunger-force-metalocalypse-and-the-venture-1846878179 revealed]] that a sequel to ''Movie Film for Theaters'' (as well as films for other network powerhouses ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros''), titled ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenForeverPlantasm'', would be released to home video that fall. [[https://www.cbr.com/adult-swim-rick-morty-aqua-teen-hunger-force-spinoff-series/ There is also]] a SpinOff series, ''Aquadonk Side Pieces'', starring ''Aqua Teen'''s RoguesGallery, which can be seen on [adult swim]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQl8zBB7bPvJAB_ak87ztVoPiKUxZr47x YouTube channel]].

%%* DumbassHasAPoint: See OhCrap below. %% Mentioning another example is not sufficient context.

%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Master Shake (sanguine), Frylock (melancholic), Carl (choleric) and Meatwad (phlegmatic).

* {{Juggalo}}: In the episode "Juggalo". Features an appearance by Music/InsaneClownPosse themselves.

** And the second half of "Hypno-Germ," a bad play acted out by germs and beans inside Shake's head, with voice {{Cameo}}s from Bob Odenkirk, Creator/TimAndEric, Fred Armisen, [[Website/TheOnion Todd]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Squidbillies}} Hanson]] and Creator/JaneaneGarofalo.

* MotorMouth: George Lowe just can't seem to shut up during his cameo.

* TheBeard: Shake and Meatwad make out in order to deceive the Navy into thinking that they're gay, the idea being that the "Don't ask don't tell" policy would save them from serving. It works.

* CatchPhrase

Their "adventures" (such as they are) are usually limited to making each other's lives hell or doing the same to their next-door neighbor [[ButtMonkey Carl Brutananadilewski]] ([[TalkingToHimself also Willis]]) - a fat, bald, slovenly Joe Average - by borrowing his stuff or swimming in his backyard pool without permission. The Aqua Teens occasionally have run-ins with bizarre monsters or aliens who turn out to be [[AffablyEvil more obnoxious than they are evil]]. The best examples are two sets of recurring nuisances: The Mooninites (Ignignokt and Err), two aliens from the moon with an uncanny resemblance to sprites from an Atari 2600 game, an unshakable belief that they are superior to everyone else, and a predilection for tobacco, alcohol, petty larceny, and flipping people the bird; and the Plutonians (Emory and Oglethorpe), two spiny, cone-shaped aliens with designs on world domination and nowhere near enough competence or common sense to pull it off.

A weird, crude, and [[WidgetSeries often completely random]] original series from Williams Street, ''[[WordSaladTitle Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]'' (2000 - 2015) is a show on Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/AdultSwim lineup [[NeverTrustATitle which has nothing to do with]] water (save their neighbor's pool and the occasional beach trip), teenagers, or whatever a "hunger force" is.

** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] with Major Shake, the Plutonian's "replicant" replacement for Master Shake. He only looks somewhat like Shake, but in a show [[WidgetSeries this weird]], you expect that everyone would just go along with it. Not so much: Frylock and Meatwad aren't fooled for a second.

[[folder: #-A]]

[[folder: #-C]]