Why was ATHF so good?

Stiff, recycled animation, annoying characters and stupid plot lines

and yet it still…fucking…WORKS!

It's the Adult Swim way: NGAF

TONIGHT

YOU

It was funny for the most part, and I think the characters were more likable than annoying. In my opinion, none of that matters if it's funny.

It was just funny. That's all you need to make a show entertaining.

It was funny when they could go without shoving gratuitous violence and gore in for no good reason

I thought that too when it was airing, but looking back I can see where it helps calibrate the tone. Shock value isn't especially funny but it keeps you from building the kind of audience that pulls the show down a shitty direction over time

They had characters you could relate too in real life. Their simplified persona meant anyone could poke out and say "oh that's totally Jim from work". Plus, while other shows focus on the success of their characters this show focused on the exact opposite. The characters in ATHF are ultimate failures. The villains are awful at being villains, and the good guys are literally lazy assholes. Yet at the end of the day the main cast is surrounded by friends and familiar faces which is, in a way, an obscure sense of reassurance for the audience.

The humor, although low-brow, deals with familiar situations just exploded to a comical degree. Take Viral Marketing for example, everyone's had that job they took because they were desperate.

All-in-all, ATHF remains in my top 5 humorous shows, standing alongside Sifl and Olly, Ren and Stimpy, and Wonder Showzen.

eat shit

the MC Pee Pants episodes are hilarious.

Meatwad is likable. Shake is a lovable asshole. Carl is a lovable sleazy asshole. Frylock's kind of a boring straight man, but he's fine, and a necessary part of the show, I guess.

Wasn't it mostly imrov?

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This came out at the end of my edgy phase, so I hated it just because everybody else liked it. Worth a second look?

It just works

An easy solution to this episode would have been to grind up Meatwad into tiny pieces to the point of just being particles, and then trapping him in a Jar.

Shake is far too stupid to think of such a simple solution to his problem.

All the better, I always liked the Fry-man. Shake is just a weight dragging down the rest of the show.

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Except it doesn't. Just look at R&M. What actually stops that is having some fucking temperance.

R&M is safe, that's exactly its problem. It doesn't actually cross any lines that would make an average viewer (within its demographics) uncomfortable, but the fact that it sort of comes close pulls in the reddit crowd.

Aqua Teen had really fun dialogue and absurd storylines that just hit this sweet spot of goofy surrealism that's hard to achieve. Most importantly Aqua Teen never tried to have any deeper meaning, it never took itself too seriously like so many other animations do.

It felt like a show made in a 90's wiggers basement. And I love it for that.

I'd really like to see the creative process for this show back in the day.

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Oog lives the way I feel.

I can stop if you want me to.

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Super Trivia was season 2? I thought it was much later. I don't know why.

What crawled up your butt?

Here you go, S1-11, DVD RIP. Not sure if it has the extras, as I'm too lazy to open the torrent to check the files.
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:5f18b0a50da6c6154e180b4e16bb46368530a7f7

Also, for the sake of completion, as I don't think this is on the DVD extras, here's ATHF on Space Ghost Coast to Coast:
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:dc0924948da2ce92b4a4609b283158a0611e9396

That Jinkies girl.

Not the same user but thanks for the link.

It wasn't even that edgy during the first 3-4 seasons, I don't know what happened after that, it got the family guy curse, where we need to throw blood and guts in to make things interesting