History WesternAnimation / SmilingFriends

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Alan is set up as an obnoxious, SuperOCD snob, but is shown to also be genuinely affectionate with Charlie at the end. Before that, he comforts the Bliblie who stole his cheese when he sees how frightened it is... unfortunately leaving him vulnerable to [[KillerRabbit what turns out to be a violent pest]].

The show's pilot, "Desmond's Big Day Out", debuted on [[AprilFoolsDay April 1st, 2020]] to a rapturous reception. In May 2021, ''Smiling Friends'' was picked up as a full series with its first season airing with nine episodes.[[note]]The pilot, seven additional ones, and an extra released on August 6 2022.[[/note]] The first season premiered on January 9th, 2022, before coming to HBO Max on 9th February. That same day, the show was picked up for a second season.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Surprisingly lies in the middle, which is fairly idealistic for an [[Main/AdultSwim [adult swim]]] cartoon. The Smiling Friends organization is genuinely interested in making people happy despite the Boss’s creepy moments, but run into difficulties due to the bizarre and occasionally horrifying nature of the world they live in. The protagonist Pim and Charlie represent two opposing sides, with Pim often being too idealistic for his own good while Charlie is often cynical in a defeatist fashion. Despite their difficulties, they always do manage to reach their assigned goal, but generally in a strange, darkly humorous or accidental fashion. "Frowning Friends" best displays the show's status in the center by having the Aesop that extreme cynicism is just as silly and useless as extreme idealism.

** "Enchanted Forest": Charlie and Pim help the princess to smile again and she ends up surviving unharmed despite [[spoiler: an attempted bombing]], but it's revealed that [[spoiler:Mip, the hobbit who was joining the two on their quest, was a psychotic stalker who tried to kill the princess with the aforementioned bomb and ended up getting Charlie sick with a potion he had given him earlier]].

* BoomHeadshot: Desmond [[spoiler: turns his gun on the paperclip-wielding bliblie when it charges towards him, reducing its head into a red streak.]]
* BottleEpisode: [[spoiler: "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil", which basically involves the guys being stuck at the airport when Pim fails to book them into a hotel]].

** In the pilot, Pim and Charlie are watching a video of an alien dancing. Pim loves it, but Charlie is annoyed. At the end of the episode [[spoiler: the alien smashes through the television screen, horrifying everyone.]]

** In "Shrimp Quest", a fake poll for a new character named "Smormu" appears at the very beginning. At the end, [[spoiler:Smormu appears and it's announced he won the poll.]] Of course, [[spoiler: he immediately dies, so it doesn't matter.]]
** In "A Silly Halloween Special!" Charlie says he doesn't wear Halloween costumes because he doesn't want to get in trouble for wearing something offensive. In the last scene, [[spoiler: the monster stalking Pim is torn limb from limb, has his entrails ripped out and eaten, and is finally set on fire by an angry mob who assumed he was wearing an offensive costume.]]

* DealWithTheDevil: Charlie makes a deal with Satan where if he makes Satan smile, Satan will then revive him and put him back on Earth. [[spoiler:Charlie succeeds but Satan goes back on his word and tries to keep Charlie to torture for all eternity until God himself comes down to fulfill Satan’s half of the deal.]]

-->'''Pim:''' Your uncle seems to get into lots of car accidents...
-->'''Charlie:''' Yeah he loves his cars! He loves his cars...

** Happens again at the end of "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?" Where Pim and Charlie are left laughing uncomfortably [[spoiler: having let very unstable fast food mascots loose in the streets after they’d been acquitted of murder charges.]]

** The first episode ends [[spoiler: with the dancing creature from the TV breaking out of the screen, [[MotorMouth rapidly saying "Hello, thank you for watching!"]], with Charlie and Alan [[OhCrap panicking about it and arguing about who should grab it]].]]
** The second episode ends [[spoiler: with a news reporter announcing Mr. Frog's rise in wealth and popularity, right before Mr. Frog attacks her with a hammer.]]
** The third episode ends [[spoiler: with Smormu showing up out of nowhere and dancing a funny jig while an announcer reveals the gag poll's results. An unfazed Charlie walks off.]]

-->'''Pim:''' This is gonna be great, Charlie! I love helping kids! I love kids, Charlie! ''I LOVE KIDS!''
-->'''Charlie:''' ''(Looks around nervously)'' Pim, I really would not be, uh, screaming that at the top of your lungs.

* SecretTest: [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] with [[spoiler:God]] who plays it off as if Charlie's stay at [[spoiler:Hell]] has been that the entire time.

** "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?" ends with [[spoiler: the Smiling Friends [[LastRequest burying the Century Egg in China]], only to dig him back up once Pim decides he wants a taste.]]

** The Frowning Friends try to force this philosophy on everyone else in town, [[spoiler: but they ([[BringMyBrownPants or at least Grim]]) quickly fold once they're faced with their own imminent deaths.]]

-->'''Pim''': Um, that was uh... [[{{Understatement}} that was really bad.]]

-->'''Desmond's Mom''': I'm so glad you boys came! Now he's just right in here, I hope he's not sleeping. (inhales, then knocks on her son's door at superhuman speed for one second) ''DESMOND!!!!'' The Smiling Friends are here! (leads Charlie and Pim in)

** Early in "Shrimp's Odyssey", Charlie comments on Pim's terrible eyesight, which Pim blows off. Much later in the episode, [[spoiler: it's revealed that Pim got the address of Shrimpina mixed up with the address of a random café worker named Jennifer. The former works at 153 Meep Boulevard, while the latter works at 15'''8''' Meep Boulevard, meaning Pim's poor eyesight caused him to confuse the two]]. As well, Charlie's attempts to toughen Shrimp up by forcing him to bench 100 pounds goes horribly wrong when the latter can barely lift the barbell and shatters his shoulder.

** When Charlie [[spoiler: dies in the season finale]], he meets a demon called Jeremy who shrieks and violently flails his hands in front of Charlie's face. After pushing him away, Charlie says that if Jeremy does that again, he'll punch him. Sure enough, when Jeremy pops up later in the episode and does that exact thing, Charlie throws a punch to his solar plexus. Instead of merely falling over, Jeremy hunches down to his knees and begins wheezing and drooling, much the same way someone would react to having the wind punched out of them.

** The scene where [[spoiler: Grim declares that “Nothing matters because we’re all gonna die someday!” and then immediately after is held at gunpoint and proceeds to not only tearfully beg for his life but ''piss his pants while he does this'']] may be a jab at the overly cynical and nihilistic attitudes of other adult animated series (''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', etc.), as well as that of a lot of media in general.
** While Charlie criticizes many of [[spoiler: Satan's]] lifestyle choices in the first season finale, what ''really'' sets [[spoiler: the Devil]] off is Charlie commenting on his vaping addiction. Him playing ''Videogame/{{Rust}}'' may also be a subtler jab at the game's infamously toxic fanbase at the time of the episode's airing.
---> '''[[AddledAddict I AM NOT ADDICTED!!! I CAN QUIT MY ADDICTIVE VICES ANY TIME I WANT!!!]]'''

* TheOner: "The Smiling Friend Go to Brazil!" is (apart from the intro) shot in one continous take.

* TitleOnlyOpening

** The TV Alien looks creepily realistic compared to everyone else. [[spoiler: Charlie's panic and freakout at it in the end is understandable.]]

--> '''"Babe"''': Sorry! I- I'm sorry. I ruined it. I'm sorry.

'''Princess:''' He was the entire reason I wasn't able to smile for my portrait. [[spoiler: He's my ''stalker!'']]

* AnimatedShockComedy: While the overall message of how helping people with depression is more complex than one might think is genuine, the show otherwise revels in BlackComedy, random bursts of violence, and surreal humor.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg Century eggs]] are an actual Chinese dish, [[spoiler: which makes the Century Egg's LastRequest much more understandable]].

* GrossupCloseup: By the end of the pilot, one is given of a slouched, emotionally-drained Pim (drawn by Dan "[=PencilMoose=]" Peacock).

* [[invoked]]InMemoriam: [[ParodiedTrope Spoofed]]. All end credits have one of these, the first including a slightly distorted picture of animator Adam Paloian, accompanied by the captions "In Loving Memory, Johnathan Q. Shrimpling (2004 - 2017)".

* AnimatedShockComedy: While the overall message of helping people with depression being more complex than one might think is genuine, the show otherwise revels in BlackComedy, random bursts of violence, and overall surreal humor.

* SmitingEvilFeelsGood: Having blown the head off of a Bliblie with his revolver, Desmond says killing it felt good and finally cracks a smile, turning his life around right after. What keeps it from veering into the territory of BadPeopleAbuseAnimals is that the Bliblies are massive infestations of pricks to deal with.

** Rex claims that the new Mr. Frog Show premiere starring Glep costed $250 million to produce.

* VacationEpisode: [[spoiler:Subverted with "The Smiling Friends Go To Brazil", where thanks to Pim forgetting to book hotel rooms, he, Charlie, Alan and Glep decide to cut their losses and catch the next flight home.]]

* BottleEpisode: [[spoiler: "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil", which basically involves the guys being stuck at the airport when Pim fails to book the hotel]].

The show's pilot, "Desmond's Big Day Out", debuted on [[AprilFoolsDay April 1st, 2020]] to a rapturous reception. In May 2021, ''Smiling Friends'' was picked up as a full series with seven additional episodes (another episode premiered on August 6 2022, bringing the first season's count to nine). The first season premiered on January 9th, 2022, before coming to HBO Max on 9th February. That same day, the show was picked up for a second season.

The show's pilot, "Desmond's Big Day Out", debuted on [[AprilFoolsDay April 1st, 2020]] to a rapturous reception. In May 2021, ''Smiling Friends'' was picked up as a full series with seven additional episodes. The first season premiered on January 9th, 2022, before coming to HBO Max on 9th February. That same day, the show was picked up for a second season.

* NeverTrustATrailer: The Brazil vacation episode was hyped up to seem like the gang would finally get some relaxation. In the episode, they do nothing but sit inside the airport talking about nothing. They never actually went to the beach. The episode description was deceptive as well; Glep does not, in fact, work on his novel.

** The scene where Grim declares that “Nothing matters because we’re all gonna die someday!” and then immediately after is held at gunpoint and proceeds to not only tearfully beg for his life but ''wet his pants in the process'' may be a jab at the overly cynical and nihilistic attitudes of other adult animated series (''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', etc.), as well as that of a lot of media in general.

* RoleEndingMisdemeanor: This happens InUniverse to Mr. Frog, as he gets fired from his own show after he attempts to eat a TMZ reporter. Pim and Charlie spend the rest of the episode trying to fix his reputation so he can get his career back.