The best animated shows for grown-ups from South Park to The Simpsons

You can’t start anywhere else but with “The Simpsons,” mankind’s greatest achievement. While many of you reading this grew up on the show, it’s always been aimed for adults (without being so raunchy as to be acceptable for some kids). The show mines the frustrations of adult life, but also has delivered all sorts of brilliant jokes both relatable and absurd. Not only is “The Simpsons” great for adults, but the show is old enough to run for president, much less vote.

Matt Groening’s follow-up to “The Simpsons” doesn’t have the same legacy, but it’s by no means a lesser light. “Futurama” is a sci-fi comedy that begins with a 20th-century doofus being frozen and awaking on the eve of the year 3000. While the show has had multiple rebirths, the original FOX run of “Futurama” remains the best example of the quality of the show.

“Beavis and Butt-Head” bridged a gap for MTV, bringing scripted comedy and music videos together in one place. While the sophomoric humor of the show made it a hit with teenagers, it certainly had an adult fan base and was not “family friendly.” That’s also true of the recent reboot, which is entirely for an adult audience.

“Daria” spun off of “Beavis and Butt-Head,” and we find it to be a better show. The stupidity of “Beavis and Butt-Head” is often a ton of fun, but sometimes lowbrow is also low quality. “Daria” is a smarter show with fleshed-out characters and even some emotional depth. Plus, while the animation is by no means lush, “Daria” looks better than the original run of “Beavis and Butt-Head” as well.

Before they were all sitcom and film superstars, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, and Bill Lawrence joined forces for “Clone High.” The show, a parody of teen soaps, featured the clones of many famous historical figures as moody teenagers (definitely none of them proved controversial). “Clone High” was canceled after one season on MTV but proved such a cult hit it was brought back and revamped on HBO Max in 2023. The show actually managed to live up to the standard of the original season, though it was canceled after two seasons on the streaming service.

How could we talk about animation for adults and not include some Adult Swim shows? For many years, the one of those shows that proved the most popular was “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” It exemplified the absurdist “stoner” comedy the programming block excelled at. The titular group were pseudo-superheroes that also happened to be anthropomorphic fast food items. Well, presuming the wad of meat that was Meatwad came from a fast food place.

Adult Swim also made a lot of hay by taking old Hanna-Barbera characters and recontextualizing them into silly shows. Birdman was a forgotten superhero, but then he became Harvey Birdman, an attorney who represents the likes of the Scooby Gang and Yakky Doodle throughout the show. “Harvey Birdman” is our choice for the best of this style of Adult Swim show, and it even earned a spinoff in “Birdgirl.”

There are some massively popular and successful adult animation shows that, frankly, we don’t share the same enthusiasm for. “Rick and Morty” and “Family Guy” are two such examples. We also aren’t as high on “South Park” as its many fervent fans, though that simply means we don’t think it is one of the very best animated shows for adults. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t carved out a space on this list. Its cultural legacy is also worth acknowledging. “South Park” is just a stone’s throw away from “The Simpsons” on that front.

In a way, it makes sense that Mike Judge was involved in both “King of the Hill” and “Beavis and Butt-Head.” Both shows tell low-stakes stories and have slice-of-life feels to them. On the other hand, the tone and sense of humor of these two shows don’t feel of the same mind at all. “King of the Hill” is subtle, especially for a cartoon. It’s also quite good and ran for over a decade for a reason.

“Subtle” is not a word one would use to describe “Archer.” Hilarious? Sure. Ridiculous? You bet. Not subtle, though, because the spy spoof is loud, frenetic, and raunchy as hell. Actually, you can’t just call it a spy spoof either, because “Archer” moved in and out of that realm from time to time, including a season when they become drug runners.

We could call the Belchers the heirs apparent to the Simpsons, aside from the fact “The Simpsons” is still on and thus running concurrently with “Bob’s Burgers.” Both popular FOX sitcoms focus on a loving yet dysfunctional family. “Bob’s Burgers” also is able to focus on the burger spot that the Belchers run, giving the show, and the family a different dynamic from “The Simpsons.”

After “The Simpsons” took off, writers from the show were sought after for their own ideas. The first of those was “The Critic,” which led to a polarizing crossover episode. Matt Groening wasn’t a fan of that, but we are a fan of the actual show, which features a lot of movie parodies but also a lot of funny character stuff. It, in fact, does not stink.

There have been numerous “Star Trek” shows. In fact, there was even an animated “Star Trek” show back in the day. “Lower Decks” was a different beast, though. This animated “Star Trek” offering was a full-on comedy, and also more ribald than your usual “Star Trek” program. “Lower Decks” ran for a few seasons and gave fans of the franchise and also those usually not into the sci-fi stuff a fun show to enjoy.

Stop-motion animation is usually time-consuming and expensive. What if you just used a bunch of old toys and didn’t care about rigorous animation, though? Then, you could do a show like “Robot Chicken.” It wasn’t for the animation heads, but the pop culture lovers. The sketch show would mine movies and television, and while like all sketch shows it didn’t bat 1.000, it was quite good in its best moments.

Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein ran the seventh and eighth seasons of “The Simpsons” before getting to create “Mission Hill.” It’s about the most turn-of-the-millennium show possible, but mostly in good ways. The show only lasted one season but has been categorized in the “brilliant but canceled” realm. There’s a reason why Oakley and Weinstein are able to tour the country talking about the show and screening it for audiences.

Animation is often used to do things that can’t be done easily (or at all) in real life. It’s also often used for broad characterization and zany performances. What if an animated show was…none of that? Then you’d have the delightful “Dr. Katz.” Animated with “Squigglevision,” the show was an opportunity for Jonathan Katz, a lowkey comedian, to assay the role of a therapist. Basically, the show was a vehicle for standups playing themselves to do their bits, and to improvise, but it worked.

Had “American Dad!” just stayed what it was at first, it likely wouldn’t have made this list. After all, “Family Guy” didn’t, and at first “American Dad!” didn’t have enough of its own voice to feel like anything but another vessel for “Family Guy” humor. Then, the show got wild with it. “American Dad!” became meta, absurdist, and strange in fascinating ways. The boldness of that paid off, and it makes later seasons of “American Dad!” interesting to watch.

“The Venture Bros.” is the inverse of “American Dad!” since it was a really good show early on but ran out of steam. An erratic release schedule may have played a role in that. For a few seasons, though, the Adult Swim show was a funny riff on adventure shows, superheroes, and a litany of ‘80s pop culture references. Plus, unlike most Adult Swim shows, it was actually animated with care and detail.

“Home Movies” is more friendly to a family audience than many shows on this list. It’s less raunchy, even if the tone and sense of humor still skews toward adults. The show's first season aired on UPN, but it then moved to Adult Swim where it was able to take off as a cult favorite. It was also co-created by Loren Bouchard, who created “Bob’s Burgers,” and he mined “Home Movies” to find his voice actor for Bob in H. Jon Benjamin. Sure, Benjamin is a go-to voiceover artist, but it still all comes together.

Remember when Nick at Nite had original programming? Hell, remember Nick at Nite? “Glenn Martin, DDS” is notable for being an original animated show made for Nick at Nite. The show focused on the titular dentist and his family on a road trip and was stop-motion animated. While it aired on Nick at Nite, one of the co-creators was one of the creators of “Celebrity Deathmatch,” which gives you a better sense of its tone.

Yes, basically everybody reading this grew up with “The Flintstones” airing in reruns in programming blocks aimed at kids. As such, you may not think of it as a show for adults. That was the intention back in the day, though. “The Flintstones” essentially broke ground in being a television cartoon that considered adults when it came to an audience. It was a primetime animated show, essentially unheard of at the time. “The Flintstones” was a riff on sitcoms like “The Honeymooners” and Fred and Barney hocked cigarettes. This was a show for adults, and it was majorly influential in that sense.

We end with another bit of adult animation with a ton of influence. All the Adult Swim shows we’ve mentioned? They owe something to “Space Ghost Coast to Coast.” This was the first attempt to take an old Hanna-Barbera character and recontextualize them. It was an absurdist quasi-talk show that offered up something new to audiences. The modern TV landscape, especially in the animation space, owes a ton to “Space Ghost.”