# Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688 "2009-01-10T17:43:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/21 "2009-01-10T21:32:39Z")
I personally can’t stand KOTH, but if it’s a choice between that or any of that drek Tim & Eric put out, Mike Judge wins every time. ---
**Author:** ![Properties\_of\_Iron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7cd45c/32.png) [@Properties\_of\_Iron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Properties_of_Iron)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/22 "2009-01-10T21:55:59Z")
Hey man, it’s still better than Superjail! ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/23 "2009-01-10T22:05:19Z")
OK, back up here a minute. King of the Hill is hilarious. But no, it’s not a gag show. It doesn’t leave you keling over. It is, however, vastly funnier than any actual sitcom show is or could ever be. KotH is incredibly funny precisely because of just how “ordinary” it seems. Sure, a lot of slightly od stuff happens to Hank Hill - but everything could happen to him, or to you. The show is an extremely detailed look at character. Everyone on it has flaws, but are not freaks or monsters. They’re ordinary, every-day, run-of-the-mill absolutely incredible and fantastic people living their lives. And the kinds of things they do seem crazy in the abstract, but if you look close you probably will see some close parallels (for good or for ill) to your own life. The show is not conservative, nor liberal. The main cast is mostly is conservative-ish, but not everyone around them is. Much of the show is about people using politics, even good ideas, as excuses for their own ease or comfort or bad behavior. But the show is not about laughing at the stupid liberals/elites. Sometimes, they’re right, sometimes, they’re wrong, but their rightness and wrongness is not really part of the show. Ultimately, the show is really mostly about character and manners, if you can believe it. Hank Hill isn’t a perfect man, but he does try to be a good one. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/24 "2009-01-10T22:05:40Z")
Adult Swim has been catering to the late night stoner crowd a bit too much for quite some time now. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/25 "2009-01-10T22:11:38Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’m not a huge KotH fan, but I didn’t think it was particularly conservative. I thought that the irony of the show was that Hank Hill was very conservative, but had to deal with all this “liberal” stuff like his son being sort of artsy and unathletic, the upper middle class Asian family moving in next door and whatnot. Yeah, I agree. Plus, it’s not like they’re laughing at Hank, either, exactly. He comes off looking silly sometimes when certain things just don’t figure into his more conservative world view, but he’s definitely very sympathetic. And as **smiling bandit** smilingly points out, they’re really all like that. Adult Swim grates on me, too, a little. Those cutesy white on black titles and their need to seem all bizarre gets old, but some of the shows are good. I’d watch it again if they had King of the Hill. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/26 "2009-01-10T22:30:04Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’m not a huge KotH fan, but I didn’t think it was particularly conservative. I thought that the irony of the show was that Hank Hill was very conservative, but had to deal with all this “liberal” stuff like his son being sort of artsy and unathletic, the upper middle class Asian family moving in next door and whatnot. I’d never thought of it as “conservative” either, despite the fact that it focuses on a conservative patriarch and is, in most respects, a pretty affectionate treatment. Possibly because I know Mike Judge’s other work and it wouldn’t occur to me that the satirist responsible for “Beavis and Butthead,” _Office Space_, and _Idiocracy_ would seek to give the show a conservative slant. I used to find KotH somewhat boring too, particularly when viewed alongside increasingly slapstick episodes of “The Simpsons” or “South Park,” but over time it grew on me. The humor is topical without being trite, and the interaction between Hank, his family, neighbors and co-workers is generally believable. It’s rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but it rarely goes for the cheap laugh. It lampoons political beliefs and social customs, but in an even-handed way (like “South Park” at its best). I think I’d like Hank Hill, although we probably wouldn’t agree on anything. Mainly I’ve just come to find the show a comfort. I’m probably just getting old. (Then again, I liked “Assy McGee,” so you probably shouldn’t listen to anything I say anyway.) Having just noticed that this thread is in the Pit and not CS, I’ll add that I hated the character of Hank’s father Cotton, was thrilled they killed him off [/SPOILERS] and would gladly take a shit on his grave when Peggy finished dancing on it. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/27 "2009-01-10T22:41:45Z")
> [@Alienhand](#): > > It’s a sit-com that doesn’t use being animated for anything, but gets on my nerves and I’m not alone. It does, though. It doesn’t use the animation to defy the laws of physics or anything like that, but being animated opens up the show’s “world”, and lets it have scenes in places that it would be too difficult or expensive to shoot live action. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/28 "2009-01-10T22:58:39Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > It does, though. It doesn’t use the animation to defy the laws of physics or anything like that, but being animated opens up the show’s “world”, and lets it have scenes in places that it would be too difficult or expensive to shoot live action. Like…what?:dubious: Because there isn’t anything on that show that couldn’t be shot on a set made from painted cardboard. Now, for CN goodness, check out _Total Drama Island_. A nice satire of reality TV. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/29 "2009-01-10T23:09:48Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Like…what?:dubious: > > Because there isn’t anything on that show that couldn’t be shot on a set made from painted cardboard. > > Now, for CN goodness, check out _Total Drama Island_. A nice satire of reality TV. Well, some of the sight gags aren’t exactly complicated, but probably easier. There’s a scene where Dale’s talking about how he suspects that aliens impregnated Nancy and we see his version of what happened (in the living room, John Redcorn sleeps on the couch while Nancy sleeps in the bedroom and the alien spaceship zaps her). I don’t know, it just seems like it would be a super obvious joke if we were in live action but since we’re in animation, it seems more subtle since most other animated shows tend to go for more jokey stuff. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/30 "2009-01-10T23:39:29Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Like…what?:dubious: > > Because there isn’t anything on that show that couldn’t be shot on a set made from painted cardboard. There’s the scene where Peggy, Bill, and Boomhaur sink Randy Travis’ trailer in a lake, with Randy Travis in it. Or the episode where Peggy took her class on a field trip to Mexico and inadvertently kidnapped a local girl. Or the episode where they went to Peggy’s family ranch in Montana, and had to do a cattle drive through town because Henry Winkler wouldn’t let them drive the cattle over his land. Or the episode where Peggy, Dale, and Nancy try to make Nancy relevant for her job again by going into the middle of a forest fire so they can report on it, which leads to them being rescued by helicopter after Nancy has a complete breakdown (“I WANNA LIVE!”). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/31 "2009-01-10T23:48:37Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > There’s the scene where Peggy, Bill, and Boomhaur sink Randy Travis’ trailer in a lake, with Randy Travis in it. Or the episode where Peggy took her class on a field trip to Mexico and inadvertently kidnapped a local girl. Or the episode where they went to Peggy’s family ranch in Montana, and had to do a cattle drive through town because Henry Winkler wouldn’t let them drive the cattle over his land. Or the episode where Peggy, Dale, and Nancy try to make Nancy relevant for her job again by going into the middle of a forest fire so they can report on it, which leads to them being rescued by helicopter after Nancy has a complete breakdown (“I WANNA LIVE!”). You could do much of that with stock footage & cut scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/32 "2009-01-10T23:58:35Z")
I like KOTH. I think it has heart and truthfulness (which is not necessarily the same as realism). I don’t find it especially politcal either, although it does, to some extent, comment on right/left political divisions, it satirizes extremes on both sides, from weenie liberal social workers and school counsellors on one end of the spectrum to…well, Dale on the other. It doesn’t really demonize either side, though. It might not be the greatest show ever, but I’d much rather watch reruns of KOTH than watch that show about the talking ass that solves crimes. Anyway, AS isn’t taking anything else away to make room for KOTH. It’s just starting an hour earlier. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/33 "2009-01-11T00:00:15Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > You could do much of that with stock footage & cut scenes. You said you could do the whole show with painted cardboard sets. I pointed out that they do things that require more than painted cardboard sets. But I guess Mike Judge still has a great deal to answer for–I mean, who the fuck does that motherfucker think he is, making an animated series that isn’t wacky like The Simpsons, right? ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/34 "2009-01-11T00:21:34Z")
> [@Properties\_of\_Iron](#): > > Hey man, it’s still better than Superjail! Oh my goodness, that show is awful. A couple nights ago I saw Superjail following a hilarious 15 minutes of Robot Chicken, and I almost gouged out my eyeballs and filled my ears with epoxy glue. So, so bad. OP, I’m kind of with you in that I think KOTH is generally boring and not funny. Although Adult Swim has done and will do worse, the thing I don’t like about adding it to the lineup is A) it’s not original and B) imho it’s not very good either (as opposed to say FAmily Guy.) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/35 "2009-01-11T00:32:29Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > You said you could do the whole show with painted cardboard sets. I pointed out that they do things that require more than painted cardboard sets. But I guess Mike Judge still has a great deal to answer for–I mean, who the fuck does that motherfucker think he is, making an animated series that isn’t wacky like The Simpsons, right? I’m not a Simpsons fan. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/36 "2009-01-11T00:41:09Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > Come on, Cisco! Everyone knows that if a show is animated it’s supposed to be funny, right? Word. That’s why I just sit there with a poleaxed expression on my face when I watch _Star Wars: Clone Wars_. I don’t get ANY of the humor. ---
**Author:** ![Influential\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Influential\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Influential_Panda)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/37 "2009-01-11T00:58:52Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > I’m not a Simpsons fan. Oh, you didn’t tell us you were born without a soul. False alarm, guys. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/38 "2009-01-11T01:04:51Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’m not a huge KotH fan, but I didn’t think it was particularly conservative. I thought that the irony of the show was that Hank Hill was very conservative, but had to deal with all this “liberal” stuff like his son being sort of artsy and unathletic, the upper middle class Asian family moving in next door and whatnot. Indeed. The show’s not about life in Texas - it’s more like a “normal” guy in crazy whacky lib’rul California. Anyway, the characters are too consistently annoying for my tastes. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/39 "2009-01-11T01:10:31Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Because there isn’t anything on that show that couldn’t be shot on a set made from painted cardboard. > [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > You could do much of that with stock footage & cut scenes. So, which is it? Painted cardboard? Or stock footage w/cut scenes? ---
**Author:** ![TheVioletCreep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb8c5e/32.png) [@TheVioletCreep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheVioletCreep)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688/40 "2009-01-11T01:40:48Z")
The only gems AS has anymore are The PJs, Home Movies, Clerks (every what, four thousand years), everything else is a bit too overrated (can’t speak for the anime, I never got into it, although Shin Chan is sort of cute.) Aqua Teen Hunger Force gets tired, it’s funny for a minute or two maybe, but beyond that, you might well sand your teeth to the nerve then take up an aluminum habit. Space Ghost was priceless, so was Brak, but things like that are never left alone, had it been on Fox for a bit however, then we’d have what we want. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cartoon-network-s-adult-swim/480688.md?page=3)