Has Desmond really made up his mind about wanting to kill himself or does he want the Smiling Friends to talk him out of it? While he questions Charlie and Pim's efforts, he always complies and admits to enjoying all of the places they take him. He even asks Charlie if he wants to show him anything before all three of them just give up on the whole thing, implying that he still has hope that Charlie can talk him out of it after Pim is broken by Desmond's nihilism. The problem is that the Smiling Friends are hired to cheer Desmond up when what he actually needs is a reason to live, as evidenced by how quickly his life turns around once he discovers a love for exterminating bliblies. (Truth in Television for suicidal people: by and large, they don't really want to die so much as they just don't want to continue living with depression; and tragically, the ones who truly want to go through with it don't wait for someone to talk them out of it.) Furthermore, is the fault for them doing such a bad job solely the problems of the Smiling Friends, or is Desmond's mother that out of touch with her son that she can’t even recognise suicidal tendencies?
Is Mr. Frog such a violent lunatic because of his drug use or does he have a form of mental illness that prompts his behavior? Or could it be a mixture of both? Was he always like this or did he just get worse over time because of his drug use?
Was his apology genuine and his return to form just a case of a severely disconnected from reality mindset or was he just lying through his teeth? Given that he replied with "Hello, but I'm not sorry" when Pim suggested he apologize for putting the TMZ reporter in his mouth, this strongly suggests that he's against giving fake apologies, which lends credence to the former interpretation.
Taking into account the way Rex the Producer treated Glep (and the implication that he treated Mr. Frog the same way), was Mr. Frog's behavior his own doing, or was it a result of having to work under a meddling, contradictory Jerkass like Rex which turned him towards a life of drugs and antisocial behavior? And was Rex's demise just another of Mr. Frog's violent, seemingly uncontrollable outbursts, or was it a very conscious and deliberate decision after deciding he's finally had enough and he had nothing to lose anymore?
Was Mip actually being friendly with Charlie and Pim or was he just playing them for fools to deliver his bomb to the princess? His final request was clearly manipulation, but it's unclear if his plan involved framing them from the beginning or if it was just some fast thinking while he was on the verge of death.
DJ Spit never actually opens fire on Charlie and Pim, giving the former the time to try and fail to wrestle the gun out of his hands, and he doesn't even accidentally fire it while Charlie's in the process of doing so. Was he actually going to shoot them and somehow simply not competent enough to open fire, or was he trying to scare them away because he was afraid they were going to escalate from apparently emotionally manipulating him to physically harming him?
In "Frowning Friends", was Mr. Boss actually intending to murder Grim and Gnarly, or was he just putting on an act to test and see if they actually believed life wasn't worth living? Notice how as soon as Grim starts begging for his life, thus exposing himself as a hypocritical Dirty Coward, Mr. Boss immediately regains his sanity and decides to spare the Frowning Friends.
Was the "are you a tourist?" guy from the Brazil special trying to rip off the Smiling Friends and take their money, or is he merely a very strange man who speaks in an unusual way?
The Salt and Pepper. One of their most notable character traits is that they love kissing each other on the job, to the point that they kill Salty because he didn't allow it, but the question is why Salty didn't approve of them kissing. Their voices are high pitched and effeminate, implying them to be female, but some have argued that it's a mixed race relationship as salt is a mineral and pepper is a spice. Some like to believe Salty didn't frown upon them kissing for any of these reasons, and that the rule applies for every worker.
When Mr. Boss tells the weeping, begging Grim "Relax, I was just going to shoot you in the head and kill you", it can be seen either as a parody of the usual armed bluffs where the gun is revealed to be false/unloaded and it was just a scare, or as a Bond One-Liner without the death aimed to mock a Straw Nihilist that should be indifferent to the fact he was about to die quickly and painlessly.
Did Mr. Millipede die of a fentanyl overdose, as implied (but not stated) by Gwimbly at his grave? Or was it a Non Sequitur, and Pim's response was more confusion than anything?
"Brown Smile", the end credits tune to each episode, is a bouncy and eccentric tune that overall fits the overall weirdness of this show.
The cover of So It's You by Raymond Lauchengco sung by Jason Paige that plays over the montage of Pim imagining himself falling in love with Shrimpina, getting married, and starting a happy and loving family. Yes, that Jason Paige, the same one who sung the original theme song for the original Pokémon anime. It is EXTREMELY moving, and the genuinely touching montage that it's coupled with makes it even more so, to the point where you might start crying from it.
Many. The first episode alone includes the boss and his child, the suspicious man living in the office walls, and the alien bursting from the TV set.
Parodied with the Renaissance Men in the Frowning Friends episode. They show up randomly at the end to kill the Frowning Friends, and the characters can only express confusion about what just happened and Charlie reminding them about mentioning them earlier and Pim asking if he knew they were going to do that to The Frowning Friends and Charlie saying he didn't.
Also from the same episode, Mr. Man's head randomly turns into the head of DJ Spit from earlier (although his body is the same). It's never addressed or brought up again, and is made even stranger by the fact that the two of them later appear together in the same scene.
The very end of "Mr. Frog" where Mr. Frog pops up at the last minute, maniacally laughing with a hammer in his hand and ready to attack the live-action reporter, who understandably screams in terror at the sight of the Ax-Crazy man-frog-demon-thing.
"The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil", thanks to the Bait-and-Switch synopsis and the fact it was merely a Bottle Episode is either hilarious because of that fact or is disliked for the same reason, with the episode's detractors feeling cheated out of an actual special.
By far the biggest point of contention within the show's fandom thus far has to be....whether or not Pim is supposed to be pink or purple. While the consensus slightly leans on agreeing that he's Cheery Pink (like on this very wiki), he is occasionally (jokingly) referred to as "purple man". And further more, Pim has become a popular choice for both Pink and Purple in fanmade "Character Color Wheel Challenges".
Cry for the Devil: While the Forest Demon did try to kill Pim, it's hard not to feel a little bad for him when he gets beaten to death by the party-goers, given how brutal it is. Especially since his murder isn't actually because of his genuinely malevolent actions but instead due to his appearance being misconstrued as racist.
While it has some fans, the option to ship Mip with Charlie is nowhere near as popular among shippers as Charlie x Pim (of which fans of that pairing love to bash him for getting in the way of it) or even Charlie x Alan, likely due to Mip turning out to be a manipulative stalker the entire time.
Fan Nickname: The fat guy who takes a bite out of a burnt Shrimp is refered to some people as "Bosnian Homer".
Fan-Preferred Couple: Charlie x Pim; Not that we didn't see that one coming considering all the adorable interactions they have with each other.
Fanon: In humanized fanart, Charlie is often drawn as a blonde due to his yellow skin.
It's clearly obvious that anyone who is a fan of old Newgrounds-style humor will love this show.
Smiling Friends sees a metric ton of crossover from the OneyPlays fandom due to Zach Hadel being a major contributor in both, not to mention from anyone who has followed Zach as "psychicpebbles" on Youtube since the beginning of his animation career.
Also Hazbin Hotel and its spinoff Helluva Boss, due to both being praised for similar reasons (having more creative and appealing animation than most adult cartoons, as well as being unafraid to have genuine heart). It helps that there is a lot of overlap production-wise between both series, with Mick Lauer, Josh Tomar, Lyle Rath, Monica Franco, Erica Lindbeck, Harry Partridge, and even Princess Bento Studio as a whole being involved in both Smiling Friends and the Hellaverse franchise.
When Alan is crucified by the bliblies, one of them throws a sponge at him while another stabs him with a spear, a reference to two of the lesser known occurences during the crucifixion of Christ.
The content of Mip's gift to the Princess of the Enchanted Forest is identical to an FBI recreation of one of the mail bombs constructed by the Unabomber, down to it being delivered in a rudimentary wooden box.
Harsher in Hindsight: "Shrimp's Odyssey" features a character named Jennifer, whose backstory involves her boyfriend dying. Jennifer's voice actress, Erica Lindbeck, would tragically lose her real-life boyfriend several months after the episode aired to stage IV colon cancer.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: Smiling Friends featured Gilbert Gottfried's final role prior to his passing in April 2022 (at least during his lifetime; the film Hassle at the Castle, and an episode of Paradise PD, both of which he also participated in, were released posthumously). Who was one of his final roles? God himself, of course.
On OneyPlays Zach promised that, during a LetsPlay of the game Worms, that a worm would make an appearance in Episode 2. He wasn't kidding. Some providers list "Mr. Frog" as episode one, though Pim eats worms in "Shrimp's Odyssey" so either way there are worms in Episode 2.
The CEO of Insane Groundbreaking Games considers making Gwimbly a skin in the new Troglor game. 4 days after the episode aired, Capcom announced skins for Exoprimal based on Mega Man'', the same franchise known for barely getting any new games in The New '10s onward despite being considered one of the faces of Capcom.
Alan playfully "nom"ing on Charlie's nose at the end of the pilot.
In "The Enchanted Forest", Pim is VERY jealous over Charlie getting attached to Mip (and really attached at that), and at one point the latter two look like they're about to kiss before they both awkwardly snap out of it, lord knows how Pim in Green-Eyed Monster mode would have reacted to that scene.
Pim glances to Charlie's lips when they discover Salty's SUH-SUH-SUH-SECRET ROOM!
I Knew It!: Several fans have correctly predicted prior to "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil" that the cast wouldn't actually get to vacation in Brazil like the synopsis and marketing suggests, instead being stuck in the airport for most of the special due to some mishap or misunderstanding, which is exactly what happens in the special (with the mishap/misunderstanding in question being that Pim forgot to book a hotel when he was supposed to, as he thought Alan was gonna do it).
Mr. Frog's life and career is in shambles, but that's because of his insane and offensive actions. His sympathy level goes up though when you see he has a crippling addiction to drugs, and the one time he gets clean he's so cold turkey that he seems utterly terrified by his surroundings and still causes suffering, now seemingly unintentionally. While he wins over the public and becomes more successful than ever, Pim and Charlie still aren't sure if his issues are fixed, and the ending hints at him still being stuck in his violent lifestyle, though now blissfully happy anyway.
Simon S. Salty doesn't seem to care at all that his horrifically unhealthy food has killed several people, addressing this horrible statistic mockingly. Still, his death is rather pitiable given every single one of his mascots except for the two physically incapable of doing so tried to kill him over incredibly petty reasons. And not only that, but his death actually comes from eating one of his own burgers, which was supposed to be his last one before a healthy change in diet.
Charlie in the season finale, sure he's a bit of a slacker and a snark but he doesn't deserve to literally die and go to hell, let alone on Christmas of all holidays!
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Both Pim and Charlie are headed this direction, as they are often shipped with Alan, their "Frowning Friends" counterparts, each other, and respectively, Pim with Smormu and/or Shrimpina /Jennifer and Charlie with Mip...not to mention also getting shipped with numerous fanmade "Crittersonas"!
Like You Would Really Do It: The Season 1 finale is titled "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back." He comes back.
Love to Hate: Insane Groundbreaking Games' CEO is everything gamers hate about the modern gaming industry, crammed into one Fat Bastard. Gamers love him for it.
Thanks to fanedits of the scene where he punches Jeremy, Charlie is now considered a total badass capable of knocking the wind out of anyone no matter how powerful they are in their established universes.
Desmond is seen as a badass One-Man Army, which fair enough, isn't far off from what's implied to have happened to him when he went on a one-man killing spree against the Bliblies. The fact that he carries a Smith and Wesson Model 500 Magnum with him, an absolute Hand Cannon that weighs 5 pounds fully loaded, and carries it aimed at his head for an entire day while not showing any signs of physical strain or discomfort, not to mention quick-drawing a bliblie that was charging him without experiencing any visible recoil either help cement this reputation.
Moe: Surprisingly, in a show full of Uncanny Valley, Gonk and Ugly Cute (at best), there are a few characters who count as this.
Pim, being a happy-go-lucky Keet with a rather simplistic yet huggable design.
Also Glep, who's as tiny and irreverent as he is oddly charming.
Smormu is an energetic little blue critter who sings and dances in an Adorkable fashion as his way of making people smile, there's a reason why some people voted for him to be the fifth Smiling Friend.
The Boss manages to completely dismantle the Frowning Friends philosophy and business. How? All he does is point a gun at Grim and threaten to kill him, causing Grim's nihilistic outside to fall apart and start begging for his life, revealing him for the Dirty Coward he is and shattering his plans to spread misery.
This show is one as a whole for the alumni of Newgrounds, given that Zach Hadel, Christopher O'Neil, Joshua Tomar, Mick Lauer, and many others have started out making and voicing flash cartoons for fun on the internet to making an astronomically successful cartoon on live television and on streaming services.
Most Wonderful Sound: The jingle that plays whenever an episode's client ends up smiling.
Nausea Fuel: For most of the pilot, Desmond looks pretty disgusting. Not only does he have overly-detailed features, but his overgrown body hair and nails imply that he hasn't bathed in ages. And when he smiles at the end, you can just make out his plaque-coated teeth. Thankfully, He Cleans Up Nicely.
The clients are all one-shot characters, but tend to be very memorable and funny.
The screaming bird outside Pim's family's house is on screen for less than a second, yet is considered one of the funniest bits of the whole pilot.
The guy living in the office wall is only in once scene and only has a handful of short lines, and is also considered one of the funniest parts of the short, thanks especially to Finn Wolfhard's excellent deadpan delivery.
Smormu only appears at the very beginning and end of Episode 3, but quickly became popular with fans of the show, despite their death at the end of the credits.
From the first season finale there's God himself who gets a brief but memorable role due to his design, Big Damn Heroes moment of rescuing Charlie from hell and for being the last voice acting performance by the late, great Gilbert Gottfried.
The man who comes up to the Smiling Friends in the airport in the Brazil episode and repeatedly asks them if they're tourists while pointing at them, and trying to get cash off of them. The episode itself has gotten mixed reactions, but it's generally agreed upon that this character is the funniest part.
In the second episode, The Mr. Frog Show is a fictional program starring the titular celebrity Mr. Frog, which is shown to have been a popular Long Runner with an huge following in-universe in spite of the absurdly barebones formula implied to be used for each episode. NoteMr. Frog runs up to the camera, introduces himself and the show, eats a bug, then proclaims it to be the end, roll credits.The fanbase ran with the joke by pretending to be reviewers or long-time fans of The Mr. Frog Show, doing everything from calling the program a masterpiece, praising the writing and performance of its (non-existent) episodes, sharing their favorite moments from the show, lamenting its Audience-Alienating Era, expressing confusion about a Bizarro Episode, etc.
With season 2, this repeated with Gwimbly, where many fans say that they feel nostalgic for the original Gwimbly games, as well as claiming to be excited for a remake/sequel. This led to fanart of supposed box art; concept art for games, sequels, and remakes; homages from artists and developers whose styles were influenced by the original games, etc. Since his episode ends with him joining a Super Smash Bros.-esque game, fans also like to act like Gwimbly is playable in the real Smash as well.
Realism-Induced Horror: The show generally keeps a good mixture of Nightmare Fuel and off the wall comedy, but the climax of "The Enchanted Forest" is scarily similar to a real life terrorist attack. They reveal that Mip, the expy of Bilbo Baggins has been consistently stalking The Princess of the Enchanted Forest through two separate movings. Her revealing this to Charlie and Pim is treated as dead serious, and it gets worse when it's revealed what exactly is in the package Mip intended to deliver to the Princess: an IED, which neither of the Smiling Friends picked up on. The reveal is disturbingly similar to the real life case of Ricardo Lopez’ attempt on Björk's life!
Pim has a set of bulbous crazy eyes, but the rest of his design is conventionally cute enough that it doesn't matter. Look up Pim on DeviantArt, and see how many pictures people draw of him.
Charlie is heavyset and has a prominent Gag Nose, but there's something adorable about his appearance nonetheless.
3D Squelton can come off as this due to his child-like demeanor as well as his smile after Pim and Charlie briefly manage to cheer him up. There's also his name in the French Dub, Bébé 3D, which is downright adorable as a name.
Unpopular Popular Character: Despite being a scrappy in-universe, with implication that his poll was rigged, Smormu is very popular with the fans.
Wangst: When Desmond starts going on about how moments of happiness are just distractions from the fact that the sun's going to explode someday, you've got to wonder if maybe he enjoys being a basketcase.
Pim comes from quite the dysfunctional family which includes an alcoholic mother and a neglectful father who constantly fight as well as a sister who absolutely hates him. Despite his constant optimistic demeanor, it often gets undermined to the point where he mostly gets the short end of the stick by the end of some episodes.
As over the top as it is, Desmond's tragic backstory of all his losses is indeed quite sad, with the poor guy being so depressed that he spends his entire time with the Smiling Friends pointing a gun at his head.
Century Egg. He's been trapped in a secret room without anybody to talk to aside from his Boss, who put him there in the first place just because his corresponding menu item wasn't selling very well. He's even more sympathetic because he's the only one of the mascots shown to be not on board with the murder of Simon S. Salty.
The Princess of the Enchanted Forest seems like a perfectly nice lady, and she seems to do a good job ruling her kingdom. The reason for her seeking out the Smiling Friends? Because she's being constantly terrorized by a psychotic stalker who's caused her to have to move twice, and who even tries to murder her by building an IED and using his own "friends" as unwitting suicide bombers.
Charlie's grandma comes across as an incredibly sweet woman who nevertheless wound up in Hell, apparently just because she once said "damn" in reaction to a burglar shooting her husband dead.
One can't help but feel bad for Gwimbly. He's been disowned by Insane Ground Breaking Games Inc, he's visibly bruised and filthy, and he relies on the money he gets from doing Cameos for people. And then he tries to get his former co-actors to come back for a revival, only for one to reject the proposal and for the other to be discovered dead from a fentanyl overdose. Luckily, he ends up with a happy ending.
are an actual Chinese dish, which makes the Century Egg's Last Request much more understandable.