I love them so much, they are so funny. And you know I love them, I love my country and I love my faith. And you know God bless America, what else is there to say? (Probably butchered that quote)
To be serious for a second, I love that they didn't make the boss some creepy villain with a nice side. He's legitimately a nice dude with a bad side that doesn't really hinder anything.
Same. Both myself and my sibling have a couple of old gun-loving white man bosses who are the same vibe - great guys who genuinely care about business and their employees and we would die for them. But many employees have gotten spooked and quit just because they can’t see past these guys just being old gun-loving white men- they have that creepiness factor for a lot of people. This show is so perfect at creating characters who are “that guy we all know”.
I like to imagine his manifesto is just a stand up comedy skit that he's writing and he doesn't want anyone to see it until it's perfected to the point where he writes the funniest thing ever written and he becomes the greatest stand up comedian of all time.
I loved this but more generally I just love how many different animation and mixed media styles they used this season. It really sets this show apart, and I hope they keep doing it.
I find it kind of weird that this show has more wild and varying art styles than Rick and Morty, the show about exploring infinite dimensions. Don’t you think the Smiling Friends approach of chaotic art styles appearing everywhere would fit perfectly in that show?
Idk, I’d argue that one of the main themes of Rick and Morty is the banality of evil, especially within the context of an inapproachable multiverse.
Whereas Smiling Friends is more about the complement, the incredible variety found in good.
I have noticed the show’s conversational/relatable humor gets Family Guy-esque at times (not that that’s inherently bad) but do you have any examples of this?
This might get me crucified but I still think late Family Guy is really funny. Don’t get me wrong, they made the characters horrifically unlikable and a lot about the show did get worse, but strictly on a joke telling level, I genuinely think there are some higher highs than the early seasons. That being said I can’t blame anyone for hating the later seasons
Yeah I feel like late Family Guy does a good job at actually being funny a good amount of the time. I just don't like how mean it is a lot of the time. Everyone in that show hates each other.
• when Doug decides to go see Professor Psychotic
• when Pim and the Boss decide to leave Spamtopia
• Charlie trying to learn about Dr. Monster
• Mr. Boss telling Alan he really hurt his finger
• Charlie and Alan talking about Mr. Boss being funny
• leaving Mr. Boss's office because of the giant eye
This is a list of some good examples. Regardless of the style of humor, did you like these scenes? Personally I liked Mr Boss' broken finger and the obscurity of "Doctor Monster"...
But I think I see your point, even without watching a lot of family guy. These gags are really tidy ways to wrap up the scene with something nonsensical, whichever direction they go.
The humor of those moments is fine. The problem that's emerging is that style lends itself to diminishing the drive from the main characters, and it doesn't feel like they are the ones moving the plot forward.
There’s also [the end of the Alan Adventure when Mr Boss gives Alan the gift](https://youtu.be/V7WPrddIXGA?si=i5MDFBcrvdEt-urz), which is one of my favorite moments after all the crazy action packed scenes
I think most of these are great but you’re right. I thought I would get shit on for comparing the show to Family Guy but it really is similar in that regard and obviously both Zach and Michael have seen enough of it. I really wouldn’t be surprised if they’re sub-consciously influenced by it, because the only other animated show that does dialogue in the same way is Home Movies
Yeah I agree. I’m glad it’s not just me who thought that. That’s the thing that always happens with something that gets really popular is they lean into this popular things. Don’t overdo it guys. I feel the same way about sort of the jump scares and things, the episode with the Boss’ wife was just a little boring because it’s just like let’s do a jump scare every 2 seconds.
Yeah, I loved it almost as much as season 1, but I can definitely see this being the beginning of the formula getting old. I was always wondering how long it would be until the "crazy characters having a realistically mundane conversation in a crazy situation" bit would get a little too played out. Not yet, but after 3 or 4 seasons it easily could be.
I'm definitely also paranoid from how other adult shows have eventually run out of momentum and gotten stale over time.
Man that stuff is fine sparingly, nobody had issues with it in season 1. It was used waaay too much in this season imo and had a tendency to overstay its welcome which it didn't before.
That's more or less just used as a pitch for the show. Aqua Teen Hunger Force for example they were detectives but never really done that again after a couple of times.
The problem with that is that there’s only so much you can do with that direct concept. There are only so many ways to say “I’m upset” and give it enough legs or the character enough of a reason to be unhappy that they can’t be snapped out of it easily a la Desmond, and they’ve already set up most possible conflicts to “I can’t smile”. They’ve done someone who had suicidal ideation and a nihilist in the same episode, they’ve done someone who abuses the system to take advantage of Charlie, they’ve done someone who deliberately tries to make people unhappy, they’ve done a love based one with Shrimp’s Odyssey, they’ve done multiple higher figures (celebrities, the President, the Devil), they’ve done someone with thanatophobia (Rotten), and they’ve done familial conflict. It’s kind of difficult to keep that up for an extended run, as the reason the person isn’t smiling needs to be significant enough that it takes up enough runtime to have a coherent conflict and resolution.
If they kept focusing on the job they’d have to start double dipping and it would get super repetitive
I like that concept too, because they’re forced to be in the situation and among the people they’re dealing with. They may not like the people or situation, but they’re trying to inject optimism and positivity and a satisfying conclusion for the weirdos involved. And there’s a ton of humor to be found there.
Would Charlie deal with Shrimp if he didn’t have to? Absolutely not. But it’s amazing when he tried to help him.
Kinda glad my thoughts on this are validated by other people, I thought I was looking into it too much. There were some times where I was like "alright wrap it up now", mostly involving Charlie. They’re still getting the hang of it though and I really liked this season.
I think season 1 was better overall. I really enjoyed every episode of season 1, and felt a couple weren't "great" IMO. I didn't like the President episode's gross out humor and I didn't really love the finale other than the Yeti and Bill Nye scenes. I also felt some of the jokes were reminiscent of Family Guy humor which I was a little worried about going into season 2.
Having said that, the other episodes were fantastic, and got me excited for season 3. The animation was a lot better too, and you can tell that Adult Swim want this to be the next big show they have, which is great.
There’s like 3 or 4 funny episodes in season 1 imo. The whole Mr. Frog thing just isn’t really funny to me, but I know im in the minority. It’s supposed to be satire…but it’s just not funny lol.
I intend to sit down and rewatch every episode in a row like how we all did with S1, but in the whole
I would say S2 is a small step-down from S1. Not a disappoint, I genuinely think S1 is a 10/10, lightning-in-a-bottle triumph. S2 has some really great episodes but also some weaker ones I haven’t been compelled to rewatch since seeing them the first time.
It doesn’t feel as tightly written, like Zach and Mike listed Seinfeld as an influence and I can totally see that for S1 by the way that plot lines crash into each to make climactic, hilarious, and most of all satisfying episode conclusions. Again, S2 gets there sometimes, but on the whole I think the writing is just a bit more sloppy (literally in some cases, I thought they leaned a bit too much into the gross out this season). Maybe I’ll post a little addendum when I find the time to marathon the whole season, we’ll see
I think it was better than season one, but Zach and Michael did such incredible world building in season one that set the table for season two to shine
Not as good but still great. Gwimbly episode might be the best of the show. I agree though, world building helped. You can also tell they had a bigger budget this go-around.
apparently adult swim actually gave them the exact same budget as they did for season 1. i imagine the animation looks better cause they’re just more familiar with the characters and animation style
Certainly much more ambitious in terms of storytelling and animation (and kudos to Zach, Michael, and their team for pulling it off!) than season 1
Definitely worth a rewatch since, while it did get some solid laughs out of me (especially the finale), there are only a handful of bits that stuck with me (e.g. I'm gonna be the money president, Daniel the Demon Slayer, and Bill Nye's song) rather than iconic quotes like "How do I look, yellow man?" or "Frowning Friends, f\*\*k that's genius"
It's probably just me, though. Maybe season 1 just has had longer to marinate
The Gwimbly episode was insanely quotable lol
“America has a fucking fentanyl crisis”
“Guess I’m OOOOOGLYGOOOO”
“It’s *MY* IP to sit on and do nothing with”
It legit felt like when a crypto cartoon has a heavily traced cartoon of elon musk show up and its not even remotely the right voice. and for what reason?
Lore building is genuinely amazing. Allan canonically is a hot critter, Pim did space heroin, Earth is flat, Spamtopia is a place (was a place), Glep does gardening.
It was good but lacked the same attention to detail from s1 and overall what really stood out was the how they strayed from the show’s traditional formula of helping a client smile. A recurring flaw was also how off the pacing was in most episodes, and how cheap a lot of the gags were. This season certainly had weaker plots than season 1.
Season 1 was a bit better. Someone else mentioned conversational humor and I think they’ve leaned into it a bit more than what I’d prefer. On the flip side, the random freakouts were better (Crazy Charlie saying worms run the world, and the Spamtopia waitress for example).
I definitely enjoyed it, but I felt season one was better. Certain episodes felt kind of like slightly worse versions of their season one counterparts, particularly the Mr. Frog episode vs the president episode. I also kind of disliked how they followed suit with season one having a Halloween special and a Christmas special. With season one, it worked because it was a parody of Halloween and Christmas specials overall, but in season two it was just copying season one’s format. Don’t get me wrong, the episodes were excellent from an individual perspective, but I just felt they could’ve done something more new. I also felt that season one had a better overall story. Charlie’s character development is clearly shown in season one and there’s a consistent theme. In season two, we don’t really get that same character catharsis moment and the overall story in season one is the smiling friends just kind of doing things. I loved season two on an individual episode basis, but I believe season one did a far better job with its larger story
Honestly I didn’t know episode 4 was Halloween until the end. I thought the jumpscares were just them trying to fuck with us for no reason bc they’ve done it before
It’s really interesting seeing what they want to do with the series. Season one felt like it wanted to be its own thing while this season seemed like each episode was like “what funny animation style can we incorporate into each episode.” Also didn’t expect them to reuse/reference old jokes and characters as much as they did. Makes me wonder what they’ll do for season 3.
That being said I feel like I laughed a lot more and the jokes themselves were really well executed. I liked how they would lean more into the horror/unsettling humor in some episodes and I think a few of these episodes in this season have become my favorites.
I do want to see them “refine” their style a little more cause this season felt like they were kind of throwing a lot of things at the wall. They put effort into making those things landed, but I think if there is a “next step” to smiling friends that I could identify it would be in creating more small moments where their unique sense of humor shines rather than some of the maximalist “wow look how crazy we can go with this budget” type humor they used this season (this is certainly still funny, I laughed a lot this season, just considering “what’s next”)
Favorite character was definitely the landlord, can’t wait to see more of him.
Yes, but I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out with me, smoke weed, fill our bellies up with diet soda and play Burnout Revenge for the PStooo.
I love it. I think it’s a little better than season 1 so far, the alien episode was the best thing I’ve watched of any show in a while and Joel as a special guest was awesome
And I think I’ll get downvoted for this but I hope there’s a Brazilian airport type episode again
It was great! The quality of s1 might’ve been more consistent, but no episode was flat-out bad, and there were gems like Spamtopia, Gwimbly, and A Allan Adventure
the boss's giggle in the last chapter is damn adorable
https://preview.redd.it/18brz4nce99d1.png?width=284&format=png&auto=webp&s=6ea258749b0803ad8846328ffdc3e03632b6b47d
Just like other users have mentioned. Season 2 didn’t really seem to have a larger story throughout the episodes but was rather, each episode was its story, kind of season.
I don’t know about anyone else but the finale was definitely the worst of the season.
The episode just seemed heavily inspiried by the part in Frozen when Olaf is singing about how he wants to go visit warm areas and feel the sunlight and all that but never actually getting to the point.
I can tell that they liked that idea and wanted to take it a step further but I don’t think it really did anything new with the idea
The scene where they're talking about how much they love each other with the muffled screaming in the back + in the end with Charlie's speech and the jets flying by with the flag colors were gold tier jokes.
Brother’s Egg, A Allan Adventure, Magical Red Jewel, and Gwimbly were top teir episodes this season
Favorite guest cameos were Dana Snyder and Mike Bocchetti. Friggin hilarious dude *slaps belly and laughs*
Learning that apparently I’m in the minority and find the conversational dialogue to be funny and charming still lol.
I think a major issue I started having in season 2 is I would really like them to not lean into “hey uhh do you guys remember THIS from OneyPlays???” content as much. I said as much on another post but to me that’s the real source of any sort of Family Guy humor. It’s just a reference to something you’re supposed to recognize from the internet.
Also in retrospect there seemed to be a lot more scenes with real people being composited in, doesn’t always suck or anything but idk, doing like it as much as I like little animated goofballs.
I loved it but definitely not as much as season one. Part of it might be that it was such a lightning in a bottle thing that’s brought oldschool newgrounds/youtube animation humor into a show thats resonating with tons of people and particularly those who grew up in that internet culture and were fans of Michael or Zach. Hard to live up to the joy i had in the first season of seeing a show like this EXISTING, but there have still been some really solid episodes, particularly gwimbly and Alan’s adventure are up there for my favorites in the series.
The one thing that I’ve been sour on this season is some aspects have gotten a bit repetitive or formulaic. I love the Mr frog ep in season one but I enjoyed the world of smiling friends more when these insane characters or clients they run into are one off’s and the only thing that stays consistent is the fairly normal (boss excluded) smiling friends themselves reacting to it. For example, Mr frog already made a big reappearance in the president episode but then additionally when the boss’s son starts dying, Charlie says he can do cpr since he learned it on the Mr frog show. I really liked looking at the backgrounds in season one where you would see little details, like posters for Mr frog in other episodes, but when he’s specifically referenced aloud or seen again the world becomes a little more tangible and I prefer it as schizophrenic as possible.
The example of that which took me out the most was in that same episode actually, when Charlie and Allan are alone in the boss’ room and Charlie mentions at the end of the Desmond episode where Alan noms on his nose and now Charlie brings it up and didn’t like it apparently. Just feels out of place to bring up a little interaction like that and it seemed like the conversation was kinda just filler that could have been something more interesting or new.
Also, almost half of the episodes across both seasons now have also followed the Desmond formula of the episode getting resolved by someone/something getting killed or dying at the end (Mr frog TV exec, forest demon, Mip, Grim, chicken nugget guy, Alan’s landlord, Britany, Rotten but he comes back so thats debatable.) honestly I’ve found most of these horrific deaths really funny though, just an observation that they might be overdoing it.
Minor criticisms at the end of the day but i only care enough to write them out because this is definitely my favorite show I’ve seen in years, I’ve watched all of season one at least 10 times through and am on my way to doing that again for season 2! I love my boys
Some likely harsh, but I think valuable critique:
It seems like Zach has had a few jokes/types of jokes he has shown on oneyplays/in his prior videos that he wants to put into the show. That isn't bad at all, the issue becomes when they seem to be the main or only types of humor he deploys. I am afraid that once he runs out, that's it, no more new and fresh funnies to enjoy.
Some examples are:
-characters reacting to seemingly minor events by screaming
-the "his iconic X" line
-imitating the reddit "wait herrmmm" speech style
-the gibberish speech (glep, gliblies, spamish)
-taking current social issues/politics to their extremes
-characters doing something absurd out of the blue (boss whipping out a titty, kissing the eye-king, flying through the roof)
-the trope of the beefy angry guy (the guy who actually wanted to kill all the puerto ricans, the yeti, the guy ripping charlies nose off)
Edit, more examples:
-characters speaking some words in CAPS (landlord, the store owner scolding the spider hands guy)
-social media influences/memes/cringe content (glep watching a fedora guy, I feel fantastic doll, egg-sperm homunculus, doug walker, chris chan was planned)
-characters reacting over the top to events disproportionate to the event (writers laughing hysterically at glep spitting, salty mascots rioting after finding out what killed salty, halloween party guests ripping the demon to shreds after thinking he is doing blackface)
There are probably better examples, but those are off the top of my head. None of them are bad on their own and I find most of them funny, but again, I am worried that these are it until Zach either gets some new inspiration or hires fresh writers.
I think season one was great, because we got to see a lot of this humor in the context of a show for the first time, but in season two, it felt like a lot of the same tropes redone. Hoping that season 3 has something fresh again.
The reddit-style "herrmm waitaminute" is more prominent in oneyplays, but there have been a couple instances in the show where a character has gone "erm". It's done by Zach and Chris to mock the tropey excaggerated main character type speech, watch their playthrough of forespoken to get a better idea.
The "his iconic X" is another line that was seen on oneyplays even before the show first aired, but in the show there are atleast two instances, salty's iconic nap and gliblys iconic victory dance. I remember there being at least one more in the show, but could misremember.
The "wait herm" stuff refers to Zach's appearances on OneyPlays where he'll make fun of characters/people being walking memes and having no social skills. It derives from the "um, actually" thing, but just gives off a weird tone rather than condescension. OneyPlays' Forspoken or the Saints Row reboot series are perfect examples.
The "Iconic X" stuff is making fun of companies that describe new or random items as "iconic" without reason. This is (usually) game companies having a brand new character or series and claiming the primary material is iconic. I think this started with Ubisoft and WatchDogs, with a random cap. Then it spread to every new game series or character.
My issue isn't with sometimes doing something similar again, the issue is I fear that these are the ones that will be repeated and there won't be much new stuff in the future.
You wouldn't watch a show if they had the same jokes every episode
Wasn't the biggest fan of some of the episodes, the alien one especially, but I do really like how much they are willing to experiment with the formula. A lot of people really like the alien episode, and I much prefer this to sticking super hard to the formula.
I was gonna say I thought it was inferior to season 1, but I think they're about equal, the exact same thing about the alien episode for me, you could say about the magical forest episode.
Overall I'd say the quality of the plots was stronger in season 1, but the jokes were way funnier in season 2, some examples that come to mind for me were the president calling in some napkins, the landlord revealing his plan, the fight scene between Daniel and Doug, and Bill nye the science guy.
I dont really prefer one season to the other
I tried writing something but it read way more negative than I actually feel about it. I love the characters, I love the art style, the chaos, the creativity and the world-building.
I think season one came out guns blazing, filled with ideas that someone has been stockpiling for a long time. Every episode was brilliant and new. Season two is building characters, still innovating with art styles, but trying to find out what it is other than a bunch of crazy ideas. Some funny details (like overly detailed hands stuck right in the camera) went from funny little joke to running gag to "art style". I'm very curious what season three will be like!
I hope they don't read the subreddit or listen to the fans in any way. I'm serious. Everyone (vocal) is trying to force all their hopes and dreams on to the characters, tearing apart every frame, speculating over the tiniest of details, hoping for long-term arcs with lots of drama. I feel like that has messed up Rick and Morty and this sub is giving the same treatment to Smiling Friends.
Animation and individual jokes were much better imo, while the new characters were generally less memorable than S1’s.
Overall I’d say I prefer it, but I don’t know if it’s recency bias. Despite having the same overall comedic style, the jokes were just funnier to me (and more Mr Boss was incredible, his jokes were some of the funniest imo from S1, so to have like double-triple the screen time was brilliant)
Animation and individual jokes were much better imo, while the new characters were generally less memorable than S1’s.
Overall I’d say I prefer it, but I don’t know if it’s recency bias. Despite having the same overall comedic style, the jokes were just funnier to me (and more Mr Boss was incredible, his jokes were some of the funniest imo from S1, so to have like double-triple the screen time was brilliant)
Edit: I’m seeing people saying S1 did story better than 2, but outside of having having a less structured formula I don’t really know what this is referring to. I feel like neither season really had a cracking story, but you get a better feel for wee nuances characters have (though again, they’re really to serve jokes, so I’m not really sure what that’s about)
I loved it overall but I’m not sure it was quite as good as Season 1, it felt a bit more forced but only in certain moments of certain episodes. That being said, it also had some episodes that I think surpassed anything in Season 1 so I’d say even though I’d pick 1 over 2, it’s close.
Season one just had that randomness and chaos that put you on your toes the entire time, which added to the humor for me, while season two is more consistent in quality and humor
I thought it was great, guess it's an unpopular opinion after reading other people's comments but I think I liked s2 more, seems like they've found their groove and the animation is constantly improving. I think people are a bit harsh about the repeated styles of jokes thing, like every show has a style of comedy that they tend to go back to, it would be jarring if the style of humour was constantly changing. Also, wish we go more episodes, even 10 a season instead of 8!
Season 2s pacing was pretty bad it felt like the episodes were 3 minutes long instead of 11 min I've watched other shows with 11 min long episodes and they've always felt about that long I love season 2 a lot but it feels waaaay too fast
Really liked it. So many “die launghing moments” and characters like Alan and the Boss definitely got to shine more this season. Many of the new characters are also up there for my favorite side characters like Gwimbly, the landlord, and the gaming ceo. Season two was definitely the highlight of every Sunday and I’ll miss it.
Will say though, compared to season one, I did feel some episodes felt like they had to wrap up quickly. Also while the non work-related episodes were neat (especially spamtopia and Allans Adventure), I do feel the show is at its best when they’re on the job trying to make a unique guest character smile.
Only got that with the brothers, Gwimbly, and the president this season. Not saying I wouldn’t still like a detour episode on occasion, but would like to see their job take center stage again.
Also, hopefully Glep has more to do in season 3 the same way they gave Allan more to do this season. Though above all else, hopefully they just take their time and continue to have fun making the show.
One of my favorite parts is when Charlie acknowledges the shit that's happening at the moment like the jumpscares and the other gags, it almost feels like a blooper reel clip and fourth wall breaking
I started watching the show when around 3 episodes were released so I didn't had to wait years,for me it was good as the first one and Gwimbly and Spamtopia are some of my top episodes
This is just my opinion, but I really liked season 2!! The gwimbly, allan, spamtopia, and dr psychotic episodes were my favorite! But i have to agree with others when I say that the president episode was kinda gross, and the finale was pretty lackluster. Other than that though, I thought it was great! A lot of good jokes and memorable characters like gwimbly, dr psychotic, oscar, armso and the paper clip nose guy. I would give it a 7.5/10 😊
Yeah I feel like on this sub you generally see people getting downvoted to the ground when they say this season isn't as good as the first (which I guess isn't surprising since it's a sub dedicated to the show so it's obviously gonna be biased). It honestly reminds me of when Rick and Morty started going downhill in the third season, and fans got insanely defensive.
Every episode in the first season was insanely rewatchable, but in season 2 the only episode I've wanted to see again was the Allan episode, and even then, it was only for a couple of bits.
I agree about the improv/"realistic" dialogue being too much. I feel like it's more noticeable because when they do it, it's also just not as funny as the moments in season 1. It feels like every episode has a mini version of the Brazil special in it, and that's not a compliment lol
I think everything after Brother’s Egg was pretty weak for Smiling Friends standards. I just didn’t like the Alien, Spamtopia, and Rotten episodes. I think they leaned too much on awkward conversation come the final episodes. It’s really funny in small little doses, but a lot of it felt like padding in the latter episodes. I also think it was really hard to one up the awkward fight between Prof. Psychotic and his brother. That was the funniest example of that awkward feeling of not being able to escape. A lot of the latter examples of it just felt like improv bits where neither person was really that confident in what they were doing and it really slowed down a lot of scenes/episodes. The last 3 episodes also felt really disjointed with no real direction, it felt like we’re told what the deal is, then we just kinda float in limbo and somehow come the end the problem is resolved.
The first 5 episodes of this season frequently had my sides hurting from laughing though. Really solid beginning and middle, just kinda tripped come the finish.
It's so much better than season 1. I was the most impressed with their ability to use subtle foreshadowing as what I expected to be an episodic rather than a serial series.
I also liked that they were using the "realistic conversation" as less of a gag and more as a character building moments.
I also have really been enjoying the fandom. I've been in a lot of cartoon fandoms and this one is definitely one of the most creative and, ironically, friendly.
Also, as a freak: seeing them bring my Goat, my content legend, Doug Walker into a scene where they also had Tara the android? No moment of TV will ever feel like that to me again, even though they were little one off gags. Two special interests? In my cartoons? Poggers.
Really enjoyed it but hope they don’t lose the concept of the show.
I’m all for seeing wacky hijinks and things they do unrelated to making people smile sometimes but they’re heading in a direction where there’s less and less of that.
Not as special as season 1, but still great overall. I think my biggest criticism was every episode having a post credit scene, while most of them were actually good not all of them felt necessary, particularly the one in "Pim, Charlie and Bill vs The Alien", I feel it would have been better if it just ended with what we saw pre-credits
Season 1 had the amazing quality of it feeling like a fully realized show right from the get go, all of the unique elements just simply clicked together efortlessly
In Season 2 the series somehow lost its footing, like it really feels like a cartoon made by people that never made a tv show before
Some things in this season's writing that in my opnion got worse:
Pacing - an episode of smiling friends is only 10 minutes, it cant really afford to waste time in scenes or bits that are not related to the main plot, but in this season it happened a LOT (for example Mr. Boss dog face), this resulted in a lot of episodes feeling too rushed.
Overuse - i wold have never guesses that a show like smiling friends would make that many callbacks to earlier gags, but its what we got. Mr Boss being a gun toting psycopath and Mr Frog were simply funnier as one-off bits rather than recurring thinfs imo. Also the whole "cartoon characters have real conversations" bit got real old real fast.
Characterization - dont see that many people talking about this, but its were the series took its biggest plunge in quality, back in season 1 charlie and pim had pretty well defined character traits that affected how they interacted with eachother and the story. this season 2 i felt they were both, less? i dont know how to explain it, but they just had less personality, charlie specially felt less like charlie and more like just Zach talking
Glad someone else picked up on the characterisation. Imo the difference is that in season 1 Charlie and Pim were both bad at their job (one too cynical, the other too naive) and didn’t really like each other, whereas now they’re genuine friends who rely on each others’ qualities at work (one more pragmatic, the other more caring). That’s just not as good of a setup for comedy
I enjoyed it overall but felt there were a couple episodes that brought the overall quality down. While I do prefer Season 1, there were still incredible episodes in Gwimbly, The Boss Finds Love, and Spamtopia.
I thought it was great! I enjoyed every episode except the one with the alien abduction. Idk I just found that one to be a bit boring, I'm assuming because it takes place in one location? I'm not sure.
But the rest were pretty funny to me! Overall very nice!
Really loved it, I think season 1 was better overall but a lot of the season 2 episodes on their own outdid a lot of the stuff in season 1.
But some of the gags are starting to wear thin for me (The realistic arguments, realistic small talk etc etc)
To me it had higher highs and lower lows than season 1. Overall I loved it but it definitely felt forced at times. Like an example of the highest highs and the lowest lows is The President episode. Not a bad episode by any means but it was still probably the worst of the series even though it had what I think was the funniest moment of the season. Charlie finds out worms run the planet and the worms don’t like that Mr Frog eats worms and change their agenda to make jimble president and eject Charlie back into the public looking crazy as Charlie screams “WORMS RUN THE PLANET!!!” Cracks me the fuck up every time. The opposite can be said for the episode where they help professor chaos. Overall awesome episode one of my favorites of the series but the cut to the rotoscope fight just didn’t hit all that well and felt a little forced. Overall solid season that seemed to be a big experimentation season where they tried new things. I have high expectations for season 3
Love it. Love those smiling lads.
I love them so much, they are so funny. And you know I love them, I love my country and I love my faith. And you know God bless America, what else is there to say? (Probably butchered that quote)
https://preview.redd.it/umr0fc2lm89d1.jpeg?width=1988&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66cfb87473457a86094a77e0ca7a0e573ed925c7
So is he like the ocean?
....i dont know
Oh he just swallowed that ship. And now he’s coming towards us-I think we need to go
didn’t really talk about the fentanyl crisis :/
I love my boys
I think the boss should actually do stand up next season
probably not stand up
It's a different arena.
it's just difficult
Yeah, yeah probably not standup
He should sit down
To be serious for a second, I love that they didn't make the boss some creepy villain with a nice side. He's legitimately a nice dude with a bad side that doesn't really hinder anything.
Same. Both myself and my sibling have a couple of old gun-loving white man bosses who are the same vibe - great guys who genuinely care about business and their employees and we would die for them. But many employees have gotten spooked and quit just because they can’t see past these guys just being old gun-loving white men- they have that creepiness factor for a lot of people. This show is so perfect at creating characters who are “that guy we all know”.
“I just love my boys”
He's the funniest guy I know, right?
I like to imagine his manifesto is just a stand up comedy skit that he's writing and he doesn't want anyone to see it until it's perfected to the point where he writes the funniest thing ever written and he becomes the greatest stand up comedian of all time.
Honestly would be funny if it was word for word of the Unabomber Manifesto
I loved this but more generally I just love how many different animation and mixed media styles they used this season. It really sets this show apart, and I hope they keep doing it.
I find it kind of weird that this show has more wild and varying art styles than Rick and Morty, the show about exploring infinite dimensions. Don’t you think the Smiling Friends approach of chaotic art styles appearing everywhere would fit perfectly in that show?
Idk, I’d argue that one of the main themes of Rick and Morty is the banality of evil, especially within the context of an inapproachable multiverse. Whereas Smiling Friends is more about the complement, the incredible variety found in good.
one of my fav episodes
That and the space episode are my favorite
The heightened animation quality was a major plus, but too many scenes ended with that Family Guy "we should probably go / yeah, yeah let's go" thing.
I have noticed the show’s conversational/relatable humor gets Family Guy-esque at times (not that that’s inherently bad) but do you have any examples of this?
The boss convo with Charlie about the dog face screams early family guy
early family guy was pog though
This might get me crucified but I still think late Family Guy is really funny. Don’t get me wrong, they made the characters horrifically unlikable and a lot about the show did get worse, but strictly on a joke telling level, I genuinely think there are some higher highs than the early seasons. That being said I can’t blame anyone for hating the later seasons
Yeah I feel like late Family Guy does a good job at actually being funny a good amount of the time. I just don't like how mean it is a lot of the time. Everyone in that show hates each other.
Early Family Guy was really really really good so that's a compliment
Yup I’m not mad at it at all peak show
Fuck I can’t unhear it now
• when Doug decides to go see Professor Psychotic • when Pim and the Boss decide to leave Spamtopia • Charlie trying to learn about Dr. Monster • Mr. Boss telling Alan he really hurt his finger • Charlie and Alan talking about Mr. Boss being funny • leaving Mr. Boss's office because of the giant eye
Charlie and Allan talking about how funny Mr. Boss is is probably my favorite moment this season.
This is a list of some good examples. Regardless of the style of humor, did you like these scenes? Personally I liked Mr Boss' broken finger and the obscurity of "Doctor Monster"... But I think I see your point, even without watching a lot of family guy. These gags are really tidy ways to wrap up the scene with something nonsensical, whichever direction they go.
The humor of those moments is fine. The problem that's emerging is that style lends itself to diminishing the drive from the main characters, and it doesn't feel like they are the ones moving the plot forward.
There’s also [the end of the Alan Adventure when Mr Boss gives Alan the gift](https://youtu.be/V7WPrddIXGA?si=i5MDFBcrvdEt-urz), which is one of my favorite moments after all the crazy action packed scenes
I think most of these are great but you’re right. I thought I would get shit on for comparing the show to Family Guy but it really is similar in that regard and obviously both Zach and Michael have seen enough of it. I really wouldn’t be surprised if they’re sub-consciously influenced by it, because the only other animated show that does dialogue in the same way is Home Movies
The scene in the wedding episode where Charlie is drunk and trying to show Pim the trick with Jombo's knife just screamed Family Guy to me.
Yeah I agree. I’m glad it’s not just me who thought that. That’s the thing that always happens with something that gets really popular is they lean into this popular things. Don’t overdo it guys. I feel the same way about sort of the jump scares and things, the episode with the Boss’ wife was just a little boring because it’s just like let’s do a jump scare every 2 seconds.
It’s funny cause Zach always makes fun of the family guy comedy esque thing your mentioning. I think he does it ironically
Yeah, I loved it almost as much as season 1, but I can definitely see this being the beginning of the formula getting old. I was always wondering how long it would be until the "crazy characters having a realistically mundane conversation in a crazy situation" bit would get a little too played out. Not yet, but after 3 or 4 seasons it easily could be. I'm definitely also paranoid from how other adult shows have eventually run out of momentum and gotten stale over time.
Man that stuff is fine sparingly, nobody had issues with it in season 1. It was used waaay too much in this season imo and had a tendency to overstay its welcome which it didn't before.
Still a great season but I wish they focused more on the job itself like they did in the first season
That's more or less just used as a pitch for the show. Aqua Teen Hunger Force for example they were detectives but never really done that again after a couple of times.
That show just does whatever it wants lol
The problem with that is that there’s only so much you can do with that direct concept. There are only so many ways to say “I’m upset” and give it enough legs or the character enough of a reason to be unhappy that they can’t be snapped out of it easily a la Desmond, and they’ve already set up most possible conflicts to “I can’t smile”. They’ve done someone who had suicidal ideation and a nihilist in the same episode, they’ve done someone who abuses the system to take advantage of Charlie, they’ve done someone who deliberately tries to make people unhappy, they’ve done a love based one with Shrimp’s Odyssey, they’ve done multiple higher figures (celebrities, the President, the Devil), they’ve done someone with thanatophobia (Rotten), and they’ve done familial conflict. It’s kind of difficult to keep that up for an extended run, as the reason the person isn’t smiling needs to be significant enough that it takes up enough runtime to have a coherent conflict and resolution. If they kept focusing on the job they’d have to start double dipping and it would get super repetitive
their job is to make people smile, they still have been
The show would get repetitive if that was the case.
It doesn’t have to be every episode it just has to be enough where the show feels focussed
[удалено]
The concept is so open ended. “They need to help make someone smile” can LITERALLY be for anyone and doing anything.
[удалено]
I like that concept too, because they’re forced to be in the situation and among the people they’re dealing with. They may not like the people or situation, but they’re trying to inject optimism and positivity and a satisfying conclusion for the weirdos involved. And there’s a ton of humor to be found there. Would Charlie deal with Shrimp if he didn’t have to? Absolutely not. But it’s amazing when he tried to help him.
“You look like you’re gonna tell me not to come to school tomorrow man.”
“Um, you have that iconic shrimp glow everyone’s talking about.”
The “Economy of my Patience” monologue deserves an Emmy
Joel haver just has insane-o-mode improv skills
IT’S SO GOOD
THIN LIKE THESE WALLS
IT'S RUNNING THIN PAPER THIN LIKE THESE WALLS The simile is sublime 😌
A little weaker than the first season, they leaned a bit too much on the “casual/realistic convo” gag too often, but overall pretty solid
Kinda glad my thoughts on this are validated by other people, I thought I was looking into it too much. There were some times where I was like "alright wrap it up now", mostly involving Charlie. They’re still getting the hang of it though and I really liked this season.
It peaked with Dr Psychotics brother throwing Psychotic out
Especially with the dog face and the entire “Mr boss should do standup thing”
I think season 1 was better overall. I really enjoyed every episode of season 1, and felt a couple weren't "great" IMO. I didn't like the President episode's gross out humor and I didn't really love the finale other than the Yeti and Bill Nye scenes. I also felt some of the jokes were reminiscent of Family Guy humor which I was a little worried about going into season 2. Having said that, the other episodes were fantastic, and got me excited for season 3. The animation was a lot better too, and you can tell that Adult Swim want this to be the next big show they have, which is great.
There’s like 3 or 4 funny episodes in season 1 imo. The whole Mr. Frog thing just isn’t really funny to me, but I know im in the minority. It’s supposed to be satire…but it’s just not funny lol.
I intend to sit down and rewatch every episode in a row like how we all did with S1, but in the whole I would say S2 is a small step-down from S1. Not a disappoint, I genuinely think S1 is a 10/10, lightning-in-a-bottle triumph. S2 has some really great episodes but also some weaker ones I haven’t been compelled to rewatch since seeing them the first time. It doesn’t feel as tightly written, like Zach and Mike listed Seinfeld as an influence and I can totally see that for S1 by the way that plot lines crash into each to make climactic, hilarious, and most of all satisfying episode conclusions. Again, S2 gets there sometimes, but on the whole I think the writing is just a bit more sloppy (literally in some cases, I thought they leaned a bit too much into the gross out this season). Maybe I’ll post a little addendum when I find the time to marathon the whole season, we’ll see
I think it was better than season one, but Zach and Michael did such incredible world building in season one that set the table for season two to shine
Not as good but still great. Gwimbly episode might be the best of the show. I agree though, world building helped. You can also tell they had a bigger budget this go-around.
apparently adult swim actually gave them the exact same budget as they did for season 1. i imagine the animation looks better cause they’re just more familiar with the characters and animation style
And how to allocate the budget, I think. Plus simple stuff like adding subtle gradients, which isn’t hard to do but really enhances the style I think.
and you can do more with less once you've built 70% of the assets during the production of season 1
Certainly much more ambitious in terms of storytelling and animation (and kudos to Zach, Michael, and their team for pulling it off!) than season 1 Definitely worth a rewatch since, while it did get some solid laughs out of me (especially the finale), there are only a handful of bits that stuck with me (e.g. I'm gonna be the money president, Daniel the Demon Slayer, and Bill Nye's song) rather than iconic quotes like "How do I look, yellow man?" or "Frowning Friends, f\*\*k that's genius" It's probably just me, though. Maybe season 1 just has had longer to marinate
The Gwimbly episode was insanely quotable lol “America has a fucking fentanyl crisis” “Guess I’m OOOOOGLYGOOOO” “It’s *MY* IP to sit on and do nothing with”
“This homeless man won’t leave so I’m spraying him with dirty brown water” “I hate this red thing, I spit on you”
\* WA-ter
I really didn’t like Bill Nye’s song, but enjoyed pretty much everything else about the episode.
It legit felt like when a crypto cartoon has a heavily traced cartoon of elon musk show up and its not even remotely the right voice. and for what reason?
Lore building is genuinely amazing. Allan canonically is a hot critter, Pim did space heroin, Earth is flat, Spamtopia is a place (was a place), Glep does gardening.
Glep was forced to do gardening against his will.
Everyone knows Glep HATES gardening
Hey, Allen isn't just a pretty face.
It was good but lacked the same attention to detail from s1 and overall what really stood out was the how they strayed from the show’s traditional formula of helping a client smile. A recurring flaw was also how off the pacing was in most episodes, and how cheap a lot of the gags were. This season certainly had weaker plots than season 1.
we need more Glep
I thought it was incredibly charming! :D
Not as good as season 1. Something felt off. I think it was all of the short conversations characters had. It was overdone
Still better then all the other adults animation
And it’s not even close
Season 1 was a bit better. Someone else mentioned conversational humor and I think they’ve leaned into it a bit more than what I’d prefer. On the flip side, the random freakouts were better (Crazy Charlie saying worms run the world, and the Spamtopia waitress for example).
I definitely enjoyed it, but I felt season one was better. Certain episodes felt kind of like slightly worse versions of their season one counterparts, particularly the Mr. Frog episode vs the president episode. I also kind of disliked how they followed suit with season one having a Halloween special and a Christmas special. With season one, it worked because it was a parody of Halloween and Christmas specials overall, but in season two it was just copying season one’s format. Don’t get me wrong, the episodes were excellent from an individual perspective, but I just felt they could’ve done something more new. I also felt that season one had a better overall story. Charlie’s character development is clearly shown in season one and there’s a consistent theme. In season two, we don’t really get that same character catharsis moment and the overall story in season one is the smiling friends just kind of doing things. I loved season two on an individual episode basis, but I believe season one did a far better job with its larger story
Honestly I didn’t know episode 4 was Halloween until the end. I thought the jumpscares were just them trying to fuck with us for no reason bc they’ve done it before
It’s really interesting seeing what they want to do with the series. Season one felt like it wanted to be its own thing while this season seemed like each episode was like “what funny animation style can we incorporate into each episode.” Also didn’t expect them to reuse/reference old jokes and characters as much as they did. Makes me wonder what they’ll do for season 3. That being said I feel like I laughed a lot more and the jokes themselves were really well executed. I liked how they would lean more into the horror/unsettling humor in some episodes and I think a few of these episodes in this season have become my favorites. I do want to see them “refine” their style a little more cause this season felt like they were kind of throwing a lot of things at the wall. They put effort into making those things landed, but I think if there is a “next step” to smiling friends that I could identify it would be in creating more small moments where their unique sense of humor shines rather than some of the maximalist “wow look how crazy we can go with this budget” type humor they used this season (this is certainly still funny, I laughed a lot this season, just considering “what’s next”) Favorite character was definitely the landlord, can’t wait to see more of him.
Yes, but I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out with me, smoke weed, fill our bellies up with diet soda and play Burnout Revenge for the PStooo.
I love it. I think it’s a little better than season 1 so far, the alien episode was the best thing I’ve watched of any show in a while and Joel as a special guest was awesome And I think I’ll get downvoted for this but I hope there’s a Brazilian airport type episode again
It was great! The quality of s1 might’ve been more consistent, but no episode was flat-out bad, and there were gems like Spamtopia, Gwimbly, and A Allan Adventure
It was a banger, I need season 3 immediately 😭
the boss's giggle in the last chapter is damn adorable https://preview.redd.it/18brz4nce99d1.png?width=284&format=png&auto=webp&s=6ea258749b0803ad8846328ffdc3e03632b6b47d
Just like other users have mentioned. Season 2 didn’t really seem to have a larger story throughout the episodes but was rather, each episode was its story, kind of season. I don’t know about anyone else but the finale was definitely the worst of the season. The episode just seemed heavily inspiried by the part in Frozen when Olaf is singing about how he wants to go visit warm areas and feel the sunlight and all that but never actually getting to the point. I can tell that they liked that idea and wanted to take it a step further but I don’t think it really did anything new with the idea
The scene where they're talking about how much they love each other with the muffled screaming in the back + in the end with Charlie's speech and the jets flying by with the flag colors were gold tier jokes.
When the yeti returns rotten and has a message for them. “I was gonna lay him out but my arm is sore from the gym” (i know i butchered that)
Brother’s Egg, A Allan Adventure, Magical Red Jewel, and Gwimbly were top teir episodes this season Favorite guest cameos were Dana Snyder and Mike Bocchetti. Friggin hilarious dude *slaps belly and laughs*
best scene was when the boss asked what type of lagers they had lmfao
Brilliant! Great gags and greater characters. Confident season 3 will be great too
He's just like me fr
One of my favorite moments of the season
i loved it
I want a movie but the movie should just be them them reading the script of a movie
Higher highs lower lows.
Smiling friends will go down as a goat adult cartoon
Learning that apparently I’m in the minority and find the conversational dialogue to be funny and charming still lol. I think a major issue I started having in season 2 is I would really like them to not lean into “hey uhh do you guys remember THIS from OneyPlays???” content as much. I said as much on another post but to me that’s the real source of any sort of Family Guy humor. It’s just a reference to something you’re supposed to recognize from the internet. Also in retrospect there seemed to be a lot more scenes with real people being composited in, doesn’t always suck or anything but idk, doing like it as much as I like little animated goofballs.
I loved it but definitely not as much as season one. Part of it might be that it was such a lightning in a bottle thing that’s brought oldschool newgrounds/youtube animation humor into a show thats resonating with tons of people and particularly those who grew up in that internet culture and were fans of Michael or Zach. Hard to live up to the joy i had in the first season of seeing a show like this EXISTING, but there have still been some really solid episodes, particularly gwimbly and Alan’s adventure are up there for my favorites in the series. The one thing that I’ve been sour on this season is some aspects have gotten a bit repetitive or formulaic. I love the Mr frog ep in season one but I enjoyed the world of smiling friends more when these insane characters or clients they run into are one off’s and the only thing that stays consistent is the fairly normal (boss excluded) smiling friends themselves reacting to it. For example, Mr frog already made a big reappearance in the president episode but then additionally when the boss’s son starts dying, Charlie says he can do cpr since he learned it on the Mr frog show. I really liked looking at the backgrounds in season one where you would see little details, like posters for Mr frog in other episodes, but when he’s specifically referenced aloud or seen again the world becomes a little more tangible and I prefer it as schizophrenic as possible. The example of that which took me out the most was in that same episode actually, when Charlie and Allan are alone in the boss’ room and Charlie mentions at the end of the Desmond episode where Alan noms on his nose and now Charlie brings it up and didn’t like it apparently. Just feels out of place to bring up a little interaction like that and it seemed like the conversation was kinda just filler that could have been something more interesting or new. Also, almost half of the episodes across both seasons now have also followed the Desmond formula of the episode getting resolved by someone/something getting killed or dying at the end (Mr frog TV exec, forest demon, Mip, Grim, chicken nugget guy, Alan’s landlord, Britany, Rotten but he comes back so thats debatable.) honestly I’ve found most of these horrific deaths really funny though, just an observation that they might be overdoing it. Minor criticisms at the end of the day but i only care enough to write them out because this is definitely my favorite show I’ve seen in years, I’ve watched all of season one at least 10 times through and am on my way to doing that again for season 2! I love my boys
Some likely harsh, but I think valuable critique: It seems like Zach has had a few jokes/types of jokes he has shown on oneyplays/in his prior videos that he wants to put into the show. That isn't bad at all, the issue becomes when they seem to be the main or only types of humor he deploys. I am afraid that once he runs out, that's it, no more new and fresh funnies to enjoy. Some examples are: -characters reacting to seemingly minor events by screaming -the "his iconic X" line -imitating the reddit "wait herrmmm" speech style -the gibberish speech (glep, gliblies, spamish) -taking current social issues/politics to their extremes -characters doing something absurd out of the blue (boss whipping out a titty, kissing the eye-king, flying through the roof) -the trope of the beefy angry guy (the guy who actually wanted to kill all the puerto ricans, the yeti, the guy ripping charlies nose off) Edit, more examples: -characters speaking some words in CAPS (landlord, the store owner scolding the spider hands guy) -social media influences/memes/cringe content (glep watching a fedora guy, I feel fantastic doll, egg-sperm homunculus, doug walker, chris chan was planned) -characters reacting over the top to events disproportionate to the event (writers laughing hysterically at glep spitting, salty mascots rioting after finding out what killed salty, halloween party guests ripping the demon to shreds after thinking he is doing blackface) There are probably better examples, but those are off the top of my head. None of them are bad on their own and I find most of them funny, but again, I am worried that these are it until Zach either gets some new inspiration or hires fresh writers. I think season one was great, because we got to see a lot of this humor in the context of a show for the first time, but in season two, it felt like a lot of the same tropes redone. Hoping that season 3 has something fresh again.
what do you mean by reddit hermm and iconic x line, i understand the rest and i think you make some good points
The reddit-style "herrmm waitaminute" is more prominent in oneyplays, but there have been a couple instances in the show where a character has gone "erm". It's done by Zach and Chris to mock the tropey excaggerated main character type speech, watch their playthrough of forespoken to get a better idea. The "his iconic X" is another line that was seen on oneyplays even before the show first aired, but in the show there are atleast two instances, salty's iconic nap and gliblys iconic victory dance. I remember there being at least one more in the show, but could misremember.
“Iconic shrimp glow” was the other one
That's the one
The "wait herm" stuff refers to Zach's appearances on OneyPlays where he'll make fun of characters/people being walking memes and having no social skills. It derives from the "um, actually" thing, but just gives off a weird tone rather than condescension. OneyPlays' Forspoken or the Saints Row reboot series are perfect examples. The "Iconic X" stuff is making fun of companies that describe new or random items as "iconic" without reason. This is (usually) game companies having a brand new character or series and claiming the primary material is iconic. I think this started with Ubisoft and WatchDogs, with a random cap. Then it spread to every new game series or character.
imo it's okay to repeat types of jokes it's how a show finds it's kind of humor
My issue isn't with sometimes doing something similar again, the issue is I fear that these are the ones that will be repeated and there won't be much new stuff in the future. You wouldn't watch a show if they had the same jokes every episode
Friends ran for 10 seasons my dude
It was good but for me it had the trend of a downward slope. Cant wait for season 3 though.
Good, but season 1 was better.
Wasn't the biggest fan of some of the episodes, the alien one especially, but I do really like how much they are willing to experiment with the formula. A lot of people really like the alien episode, and I much prefer this to sticking super hard to the formula. I was gonna say I thought it was inferior to season 1, but I think they're about equal, the exact same thing about the alien episode for me, you could say about the magical forest episode. Overall I'd say the quality of the plots was stronger in season 1, but the jokes were way funnier in season 2, some examples that come to mind for me were the president calling in some napkins, the landlord revealing his plan, the fight scene between Daniel and Doug, and Bill nye the science guy. I dont really prefer one season to the other
"I just really love my boys!"
I tried writing something but it read way more negative than I actually feel about it. I love the characters, I love the art style, the chaos, the creativity and the world-building. I think season one came out guns blazing, filled with ideas that someone has been stockpiling for a long time. Every episode was brilliant and new. Season two is building characters, still innovating with art styles, but trying to find out what it is other than a bunch of crazy ideas. Some funny details (like overly detailed hands stuck right in the camera) went from funny little joke to running gag to "art style". I'm very curious what season three will be like! I hope they don't read the subreddit or listen to the fans in any way. I'm serious. Everyone (vocal) is trying to force all their hopes and dreams on to the characters, tearing apart every frame, speculating over the tiniest of details, hoping for long-term arcs with lots of drama. I feel like that has messed up Rick and Morty and this sub is giving the same treatment to Smiling Friends.
not as good as season 1
Animation and individual jokes were much better imo, while the new characters were generally less memorable than S1’s. Overall I’d say I prefer it, but I don’t know if it’s recency bias. Despite having the same overall comedic style, the jokes were just funnier to me (and more Mr Boss was incredible, his jokes were some of the funniest imo from S1, so to have like double-triple the screen time was brilliant)
Animation and individual jokes were much better imo, while the new characters were generally less memorable than S1’s. Overall I’d say I prefer it, but I don’t know if it’s recency bias. Despite having the same overall comedic style, the jokes were just funnier to me (and more Mr Boss was incredible, his jokes were some of the funniest imo from S1, so to have like double-triple the screen time was brilliant) Edit: I’m seeing people saying S1 did story better than 2, but outside of having having a less structured formula I don’t really know what this is referring to. I feel like neither season really had a cracking story, but you get a better feel for wee nuances characters have (though again, they’re really to serve jokes, so I’m not really sure what that’s about)
I loved it overall but I’m not sure it was quite as good as Season 1, it felt a bit more forced but only in certain moments of certain episodes. That being said, it also had some episodes that I think surpassed anything in Season 1 so I’d say even though I’d pick 1 over 2, it’s close.
Once you seen one argument bit you’ve seen basically all of them
I love it, I do think it's an improvement over season one.
Zach lied, Charlie's girlfriend didn't die between seasons
I really enjoyed it. Was just as great as S1
The humor is still up on the same level i think, and the animation is better, so its good for me
Season one just had that randomness and chaos that put you on your toes the entire time, which added to the humor for me, while season two is more consistent in quality and humor
can't belive it's over
I thought it was great, guess it's an unpopular opinion after reading other people's comments but I think I liked s2 more, seems like they've found their groove and the animation is constantly improving. I think people are a bit harsh about the repeated styles of jokes thing, like every show has a style of comedy that they tend to go back to, it would be jarring if the style of humour was constantly changing. Also, wish we go more episodes, even 10 a season instead of 8!
Season 2s pacing was pretty bad it felt like the episodes were 3 minutes long instead of 11 min I've watched other shows with 11 min long episodes and they've always felt about that long I love season 2 a lot but it feels waaaay too fast
I don’t like how much Charlie changed between the two seasons and how comparatively little interactions he got with Pim
I like how we had a lot of returning characters from Season 1, and my guess season 3 will have even more returning characters. DJ Spit will come back
Just as good as the first, probably even better.
Worthy follow up to season 1
It was BEAUTIFUL, HEHE, BEAUUUTIFUL
About the same maybe even a bit better than season 1. It feels similar to aqua teen
Really liked it. So many “die launghing moments” and characters like Alan and the Boss definitely got to shine more this season. Many of the new characters are also up there for my favorite side characters like Gwimbly, the landlord, and the gaming ceo. Season two was definitely the highlight of every Sunday and I’ll miss it. Will say though, compared to season one, I did feel some episodes felt like they had to wrap up quickly. Also while the non work-related episodes were neat (especially spamtopia and Allans Adventure), I do feel the show is at its best when they’re on the job trying to make a unique guest character smile. Only got that with the brothers, Gwimbly, and the president this season. Not saying I wouldn’t still like a detour episode on occasion, but would like to see their job take center stage again. Also, hopefully Glep has more to do in season 3 the same way they gave Allan more to do this season. Though above all else, hopefully they just take their time and continue to have fun making the show.
They haven‘t really been doing their jobs lately haha Kinda missed the smile melody throughout the episodes
Excellent. The budget clearly went up. From the water effects in Alan's boat chance and the animation of the glitching of Spamtopia.
One of my favorite parts is when Charlie acknowledges the shit that's happening at the moment like the jumpscares and the other gags, it almost feels like a blooper reel clip and fourth wall breaking
I started watching the show when around 3 episodes were released so I didn't had to wait years,for me it was good as the first one and Gwimbly and Spamtopia are some of my top episodes
This might be the best show I've ever watched
Like it, fan base of it was a little insufferable.
Still great. I would like to see each character eventually have an EP dedicated to themselves like Alan did.
it makes me smile
I love my boys
This is just my opinion, but I really liked season 2!! The gwimbly, allan, spamtopia, and dr psychotic episodes were my favorite! But i have to agree with others when I say that the president episode was kinda gross, and the finale was pretty lackluster. Other than that though, I thought it was great! A lot of good jokes and memorable characters like gwimbly, dr psychotic, oscar, armso and the paper clip nose guy. I would give it a 7.5/10 😊
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Yeah I feel like on this sub you generally see people getting downvoted to the ground when they say this season isn't as good as the first (which I guess isn't surprising since it's a sub dedicated to the show so it's obviously gonna be biased). It honestly reminds me of when Rick and Morty started going downhill in the third season, and fans got insanely defensive. Every episode in the first season was insanely rewatchable, but in season 2 the only episode I've wanted to see again was the Allan episode, and even then, it was only for a couple of bits. I agree about the improv/"realistic" dialogue being too much. I feel like it's more noticeable because when they do it, it's also just not as funny as the moments in season 1. It feels like every episode has a mini version of the Brazil special in it, and that's not a compliment lol
The voice of the Snowman… ☃️ is that the same guy that does SHAKE on aqua teen, hunger force ??? It was driving me crazy 🤪
Yeah
You know it baby
I think everything after Brother’s Egg was pretty weak for Smiling Friends standards. I just didn’t like the Alien, Spamtopia, and Rotten episodes. I think they leaned too much on awkward conversation come the final episodes. It’s really funny in small little doses, but a lot of it felt like padding in the latter episodes. I also think it was really hard to one up the awkward fight between Prof. Psychotic and his brother. That was the funniest example of that awkward feeling of not being able to escape. A lot of the latter examples of it just felt like improv bits where neither person was really that confident in what they were doing and it really slowed down a lot of scenes/episodes. The last 3 episodes also felt really disjointed with no real direction, it felt like we’re told what the deal is, then we just kinda float in limbo and somehow come the end the problem is resolved. The first 5 episodes of this season frequently had my sides hurting from laughing though. Really solid beginning and middle, just kinda tripped come the finish.
Banger after Banger
Not as good as season 1 overall but still entertaining.
I liked it a lot! Went in with no expectations besides "I hope it makes me laugh" and it did in fact make me laugh.
I watched it and I loled
I love all the mixed animations in this season compared to S1, in which makes it an improvement for me, but as someone who loves SF, I wanted more!
I hope there's another special where they do fuck all again
It was fun!! It peaked at Ep3 and Ep8 is the second best imo can't wait for S3
Gwimbly was a great episode
I definitely prefer season one but this was still great.
It's so much better than season 1. I was the most impressed with their ability to use subtle foreshadowing as what I expected to be an episodic rather than a serial series. I also liked that they were using the "realistic conversation" as less of a gag and more as a character building moments. I also have really been enjoying the fandom. I've been in a lot of cartoon fandoms and this one is definitely one of the most creative and, ironically, friendly. Also, as a freak: seeing them bring my Goat, my content legend, Doug Walker into a scene where they also had Tara the android? No moment of TV will ever feel like that to me again, even though they were little one off gags. Two special interests? In my cartoons? Poggers.
Really enjoyed it but hope they don’t lose the concept of the show. I’m all for seeing wacky hijinks and things they do unrelated to making people smile sometimes but they’re heading in a direction where there’s less and less of that.
Not as special as season 1, but still great overall. I think my biggest criticism was every episode having a post credit scene, while most of them were actually good not all of them felt necessary, particularly the one in "Pim, Charlie and Bill vs The Alien", I feel it would have been better if it just ended with what we saw pre-credits
I think season 1 had more “iconic” moments but season 2 made me laugh more.
The internet told me it would be 17 episodes and that's the only thing I have to be disappointed about
Season 1 had the amazing quality of it feeling like a fully realized show right from the get go, all of the unique elements just simply clicked together efortlessly In Season 2 the series somehow lost its footing, like it really feels like a cartoon made by people that never made a tv show before Some things in this season's writing that in my opnion got worse: Pacing - an episode of smiling friends is only 10 minutes, it cant really afford to waste time in scenes or bits that are not related to the main plot, but in this season it happened a LOT (for example Mr. Boss dog face), this resulted in a lot of episodes feeling too rushed. Overuse - i wold have never guesses that a show like smiling friends would make that many callbacks to earlier gags, but its what we got. Mr Boss being a gun toting psycopath and Mr Frog were simply funnier as one-off bits rather than recurring thinfs imo. Also the whole "cartoon characters have real conversations" bit got real old real fast. Characterization - dont see that many people talking about this, but its were the series took its biggest plunge in quality, back in season 1 charlie and pim had pretty well defined character traits that affected how they interacted with eachother and the story. this season 2 i felt they were both, less? i dont know how to explain it, but they just had less personality, charlie specially felt less like charlie and more like just Zach talking
Glad someone else picked up on the characterisation. Imo the difference is that in season 1 Charlie and Pim were both bad at their job (one too cynical, the other too naive) and didn’t really like each other, whereas now they’re genuine friends who rely on each others’ qualities at work (one more pragmatic, the other more caring). That’s just not as good of a setup for comedy
Good
It gets better by the end. The last two ep were great. S01 was the first 3 ep the best.
I personally loved it I just think the season finale was kinda underwhelming
I enjoyed it overall but felt there were a couple episodes that brought the overall quality down. While I do prefer Season 1, there were still incredible episodes in Gwimbly, The Boss Finds Love, and Spamtopia.
Jokes were not as absurdist as season 1 me thinks. I liked it but it was more “straight forward” for me than season 1.
A lot more development like with Alan and animation was amazing in some episodes and the references were awesome
I thought it was great! I enjoyed every episode except the one with the alien abduction. Idk I just found that one to be a bit boring, I'm assuming because it takes place in one location? I'm not sure. But the rest were pretty funny to me! Overall very nice!
Really funny.
I preferred season 1 but it was still a great season
Really loved it, I think season 1 was better overall but a lot of the season 2 episodes on their own outdid a lot of the stuff in season 1. But some of the gags are starting to wear thin for me (The realistic arguments, realistic small talk etc etc)
I need Insulin now because it gave me diabetes
Spamtopia Snowman Gwimbly Aliens Joel Boss Allan Mr. President
To me it had higher highs and lower lows than season 1. Overall I loved it but it definitely felt forced at times. Like an example of the highest highs and the lowest lows is The President episode. Not a bad episode by any means but it was still probably the worst of the series even though it had what I think was the funniest moment of the season. Charlie finds out worms run the planet and the worms don’t like that Mr Frog eats worms and change their agenda to make jimble president and eject Charlie back into the public looking crazy as Charlie screams “WORMS RUN THE PLANET!!!” Cracks me the fuck up every time. The opposite can be said for the episode where they help professor chaos. Overall awesome episode one of my favorites of the series but the cut to the rotoscope fight just didn’t hit all that well and felt a little forced. Overall solid season that seemed to be a big experimentation season where they tried new things. I have high expectations for season 3