Adult Swim (Johnsonverse)

Adult Swim (stylized as [adult swim] and often abbreviated as [as]) is an American adult-oriented nighttime channel that is programmed by its in-house production studio, Williams Street. Adult Swim broadcasts from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. ET/PT from Mondays through Saturdays and from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. ET/PT on Sundays. It was previously a nighttime programming block of the basic cable network Cartoon Network until 2008.
Debuting in 2001, Adult Swim originally served as the nighttime identity of Cartoon Network, and it was established as alternative programming during late night hours when Cartoon Network's primary target audience would normally be sleeping. By 2005, Adult Swim would be granted its own separate Nielsen ratings report from Cartoon Network due to it targeting a different audience. The network features stylistically varied animated and live-action shows, including original programming, syndicated series, anime, original video animations, and short films with generally minimal or no editing for content. In 2008, after Johnson Industries fully acquired Cartoon Network the previous year, Adult Swim was spun off as its own 24-hour channel.
Adult Swim has frequently aired adult animation features, mockumentaries, sketch comedy, and pilots. The network's shows are known for their sexual themes, frank sexual discussion, nudity, strong language, and graphic violence. Many of its programs are aesthetically experimental, transgressive, improvised, and surrealist in nature. Adult Swim has contracted with various studios known for their productions in absurd and shock comedy.
As with Cartoon Network, Adult Swim's reach through various services totals 94 million American adults as of March 2021.
== History ==
=== Creation and development ===
Cartoon Network's original head programmer, Mike Lazzo, conceived Adult Swim. The block grew out of Cartoon Network's previous attempts at airing content appropriate for teenagers and young adults who might be watching the channel after 11 pm (ET/PT). The network began experimenting with its late night programming by airing anthology shows that presented uncensored classic cartoon shorts, such as ToonHeads, The Bob Clampett Show, The Tex Avery Show, Late Night Black and White, and O Canada. Another block, Toonami's "Midnight Run", aired the network's action programming uncut with minimal edits. At that time, one third of Cartoon Network's audience were adults.
During the 1990s, prime time animation geared toward adults started growing popular due to the success of Fox's hit show The Simpsons. This was followed by a trend of other adult-oriented animated shows throughout the decade, as well as more general-oriented animated series that garnered strong adult followings.
Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Network's first foray into original programming, was created in 1994 specifically for late-night adult audiences. The series was created by Mike Lazzo's Ghost Planet Industries, which eventually became Williams Street Studios, the producers and programmers of Adult Swim.
Between 4:00 am and 5:00 am on December 21, and December 30, 2000 (while Space Ghost Coast to Coast was on hiatus), several new Williams Street series made unannounced "stealth" premieres. Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and The Brak Show all premiered unannounced; the official schedules listed the shows as "Special Programming". Prior to that, in Entertainment Weekly, it was stated that Michael Ouweleen's next project was working on the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law Pilot with J.J. Sedelmaier. In a 1999 interview, the indie pop rock band Calamine stated they had recorded the theme song for Sealab 2021. While entertaining pitches for a variety of adult cartoons, Lazzo realized the potential for packaging them as a complete adult-focused block. Different names were considered, including "ibiso", which was said to be Spanish for "stop", and "Parental Warning", "Parental Block" but he eventually settled on "Adult Swim".
Cartoon Network originally intended to launch the adult animation block on April 1, 2001, but was delayed five months. In June 2001, TV Guide had recorded an interview with Cartoon Network's former president, Betty Cohen. She stated there was a new programming block coming out in September that was aimed for an adult audience. During this month at the Cartoon Network Confidential, "Cartoon Network's best originals and outrageous animated shorts for discriminating adults" in New York City, an upcoming episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast titled "Kentucky Nightmare", the stealth pilots from December, Captain Linger, and an episode of Home Movies were screened for free. The screening was part of the Toyota Comedy Festival. On Saturday, July 21, 2001, the Space Ghost Coast to Coast panel at San Diego Comic Con had a trivia game in which the winners won a promotional CD that had the theme songs to the upcoming Adult Swim shows. Everybody who attended got a free Adult Swim t-shirt that was packaged to look like a roll of bandages that a lifeguard might carry.
At the Comic Con, audiences got to see clips of the upcoming shows and vote for what show they wanted to see as a sneak peek. Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law was the winner and the pilot was screened. The Leave It to Brak episode "War Next Door" and Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "The Justice Hole" were also screened, as well as clips to the episode "Sweet for Brak". In an interview on creativemac.com on July 25, 2001, J.J. Sedelmaier talked about working on the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law pilot. On August 12, the first commercial advertising the new block aired on Cartoon Network. Around this time a press kit came out that featured towels and a promotional CD. Another press kit that was designed as a first aid kit came with a promo VHS with info on all the shows. Access Hollywood also highlighted the upcoming premieres. Print ads were shown in an August issue of Entertainment Weekly. On August 31, adultswim.com officially launched.
=== 2001–2003 ===
Adult Swim officially launched on September 2, 2001, at 10 pm (ET), with the original debut airing of the Home Movies episode "Director's Cut", which had been shelved before airing on its original network, UPN. According to Linda Simensky, "We had a bunch of episodes to screen for Mike Lazzo and by only the second episode, he yelled, "Buy it!" Cartoon Network bought the original five UPN episodes and ordered eight more to complete the season. The series' first season was animated in Squigglevision; later seasons were done in flash animation. The first anime broadcast on the block also aired on the night of its launch, Cowboy Bebop. Aqua Teen Hunger Force debuted on the block on September 9, with the episode "Escape from Leprechaupolis". The block initially aired on Sunday nights from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am ET, with a repeat of the same block on Thursday nights.
Adult Swim had a disclaimer that read "Parents strongly cautioned—the following programs are intended for mature audiences over the age of 18. These programs may contain some material that many parents would not find suitable for children and may include intense violence, sexual situations, coarse language and suggestive dialog."
Adult Swim's original bumpers shown in-between the shows featured footage of elderly people swimming in public pools, eating, exercising, and doing other pool-related activities. It would show signs all around the pool saying things like "Warning Potential Violence", "Warning Strong Language in use", "Caution Sexual Innuendo", "Caution Limited Animation", "No Diving", "No Kids", "Warning Adult Situations", and more. Some of these bumpers were narrated by a lifeguard who spoke through a megaphone. Most notably he would shout "All kids out of the pool". The logo was the words "Adult Swim" in all capital letters (or often an alternate version of the logo featured the block's name rendered in red and a black circle with a yellow penumbra, which also used as the main logo from 2002 to 2003), shown after a freeze frame of the footage. Sometimes they were even shown in reverse. The block's original theme music, titled "D-Code," was a remix of "Mambo Gallego" done by the Melbourne musician Dust Devil, originally played by Latin jazz musician Tito Puente, Sr. When the programs were shown on TV, in the right corner of the screen big red letters would say Adult Swim. Two months later, the lettering was changed to white letters.
Some of the bumps on the block included Aquaman Dance Party that featured a cartoon Aquaman dancing in front of live action landfill footage, Captain Linger, a series of shorts created by J. J. Sedelmaier, Watering Hole, a series of shorts about animals talking in a bar created by Soup2Nuts, 1960s Hanna-Barbera action cartoons dubbed with the voices of children, a series of shorts called Not for Air that had the speech of Hanna-Barbera characters bleeped to make it seem like the characters were swearing, The New Adventures of The Wonder Twins, What They're Really Thinking, which had a voice narrate a character's thoughts in a comedic way, and Brak Puppet Party, a puppet show featuring classic Hanna-Barbera characters.
Commercials starring characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Brak Show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law, and Sealab 2021 started to appear as well, such as 1-800-CALL-ATT, Kmart, Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola, Dodge Ram, Quizno's Sub, Maximum Hair Dye, Verizon Wireless, and movie promos for Austin Powers in Goldmember, Kung Pow Enter the Fist, Jackass: The Movie, Eight Legged Freaks, and The Powerpuff Girls Movie. Brak would also host a segment called Adult Swim News. Due to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, episodes of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Cowboy Bebop, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force were delayed. In the winter of 2001 another Adult Swim CD was made available for free to anyone who purchased issue 28 of Hitch Magazine and the same CD came with issue 29.
When the Saturday night block debuted on February 23, 2002, it was known as Adult Swim Action, with various anime programs displayed on the block from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am ET. Thus, programming on the block was divided between Adult Swim Action and Adult Swim Comedy. Adult Swim Comedy was Sunday nights and ran from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am ET. Two days prior, on February 21, Adult Swim stopped airing on Thursday nights. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and The Popeye Show took Cowboy Bebop's place for 12:00 am and 12:30 am ET. On June 15, 2002, Adult Swim had their first contest called "Adult Swim Happiness Sweepstakes" where winners could win a Master Shake air freshener.
It became increasingly common for Adult Swim to act as a home for reruns of animated series that had been canceled prematurely, such as Home Movies, Baby Blues, Mission Hill, The Oblongs, Futurama, Family Guy, and God, the Devil and Bob, as well as burn off remaining episodes of said shows that never aired on their original networks, as a result of their premature cancellation. The block obtained Futurama's exclusive pay-TV syndication rights in September 2002 for a reported $10 million, and the series first aired on the network on January 12, 2003. Family Guy made its debut on April 20 of that year with the episode "Brian in Love", and immediately became the block's top-rated program, dominating late night viewing in its time period vs. pay-television and free-to-air competition and boosting viewership of both the block, and Cartoon Network itself, by 239 percent. (Seth MacFarlane had previously created Larry and Steve, a cartoon predecessor to Family Guy, that was aired on Cartoon Network's What a Cartoon! Show in 1997. MacFarlane had also worked on several Cartoon Network shows, such as Johnny Bravo and Dexter's Laboratory).
On New Year's Eve 2002, Brak from The Brak Show and Carl Brutananadilewski from Aqua Teen Hunger Force hosted a New Year's Eve special from 11:00 pm to 3:00 am. This was the first time Adult Swim aired on a Tuesday night.
Beginning on January 13, 2003, Adult Swim was airing five nights a week, Sundays through Thursdays from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am. Saturday Nights were dropped. On February 9, 2003, after the NBA All-Star game, Adult Swim aired on TNT on a block called "Adult Swim All Star Extravaganza" as a one time special from 11:00 pm to 12:15 am ET.
=== 2003–2008 ===
On October 5, 2003, Adult Swim was on from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am ET. On October 26, 2003, Brak's Dad from The Brak Show hosted Halloween-themed bumps. That same night, Adult Swim hosted a live webcam show on its website, featuring the Adult Swim staff having a party. The Big O series finale episode "The Show Must Go On", was supposed to premiere that night at 11:00 pm; however, Adult Swim had to reschedule the episode for the next week, on Sunday, November 2, taking the place of the scheduled previously unaired episode of Family Guy, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", to air on November 9. When Big O premiered on November 2, a rerun episode, "Stripes" was airing but then Adult Swim said it was just a joke and they finally aired the correct episode.
Adult Swim had another New Year's Eve special, this time featuring some of the Adult Swim characters having a party at Brak's house celebrating New Year's Eve. It was on this night where The Brak Show was officially canceled. On June 15, 2004, Adult Swim launched a Video on Demand. On July 19, 2004, Adult Swim had a publicity stunt telling viewers that they needed 1,000,000 people to go to their website so they could "Free Hockey Chicken". An employee was dressed as a chicken in front of a webcam being watched by viewers, and he could not leave the studio until they reached their goal. That same year Adult Swim hyped viewers by asking them to vote which would win in a fight: a "Flying Shark or a Flying Crocodile".
In the fall of 2004, Adult Swim started a course at Kent State University with lessons by film professor Ron Russo, author of the book "Adult Swim and Comedy". On Halloween night in 2004, Phantasm actor Angus Scrimm hosted an Aqua Teen Hunger Force marathon. On November 2, 2004, Adult Swim ran a marathon of the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "Guitar Control" all through the night, until 2 a.m.. The episode replayed 24 times to celebrate Election Day. On November 28, Adult Swim had a week showing off classic bumps from previous years. On March 28, 2005, Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System began recording Adult Swim Nielsen ratings separately from Cartoon Network for demographic purposes. Promotions for Adult Swim are targeted towards the college age and those in their 20s and 30s, constituting the majority of their viewers. According to a September 1, 2004 article in Promo magazine, representatives travel to 30 universities across the U.S. to promote the Adult Swim lineup, including handing out posters for students' dorm rooms. On April 17, 2004, Adult Swim regained Saturday nights, making Friday the only night where Adult Swim did not air. On March 28, 2005, Adult Swim gained an extra hour, now ending at 6 a.m.. On October 2, 2005, Adult Swim regained the 10 p.m. hour on Sundays, continuing to start at 11 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Adult Swim had a direct and important role in the revival of an aforementioned popular animated series, Family Guy. Due to the series' popularity in reruns, the block burned off "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein", an episode of the series that had been banned from airing on Fox, in 2003. On September 21, 2003, Seth MacFarlane guest voiced on the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Super Trivia". In 2004, from July 26 through July 29 Adult Swim had a week dedicated to Seth MacFarlane where it had him host a Family Guy marathon showing select episodes. On March 29, 2004, less than one year after beginning reruns on Adult Swim, Fox announced it would be renewing Family Guy for a fourth season and reviving it from cancellation. Shortly after the announcement, Jim Samples, then-general manager and executive vice president of Cartoon Network, commented, "Bringing Family Guy to the Adult Swim lineup last April really helped turn the block into a cultural phenomenon with young adults."
Futurama was also revived in 2007 by Comedy Central for similar reasons: impressive viewership in syndication as well as high DVD sales. In 2006, 20th Century Fox struck a deal to produce four direct-to-video animated features based on Futurama, and, in 2009, the series was revived in normal half-hour installments beginning in 2010 on Comedy Central. In a 2006 interview, Futurama creator Matt Groening explained "There's a long, regal history of misunderstood TV shows, and to Fox's credit, the studio looked at the ratings on the Cartoon Network and how the show does overseas, and saw that there was more money to be made." Before Adult Swim lost the rights to Futurama reruns, they aired an all-night marathon from December 26–30, 2007, with the final reruns airing on December 31, thus, marking Futurama's last airing on the block until 2013. On New Year's Eve 2005, Adult Swim had a countdown for the new year featuring characters from their shows. Beginning on March 27, 2006, Adult Swim's time began at 10:30 pm ET weekdays.
On January 31, 2007, Adult Swim attracted national media attention as part of the 2007 Boston Mooninite panic. Both the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards resembling The Mooninites, characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, as improvised explosive devices. These devices were in fact part of a guerrilla marketing campaign for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The next day, Boston authorities arrested two men involved with the incident. Peter Berdovsky, 27, a freelance video artist from Arlington, Massachusetts, and Sean Stevens, 28, were facing charges of placing a hoax device to incite panic, as well as one count of disorderly conduct, according to CNN (which is also owned by Turner Broadcasting System).
On February 5, Turner Broadcasting and marketer Interference, Inc. announced that they would pay $2 million in amends: one million to the city of Boston, and one million in goodwill funds. Four days later, on February 9, Jim Samples, general manager and Executive Vice President of Cartoon Network since 2001, resigned. Turner Broadcasting later issued an apology for the ad campaign that caused the bomb scares. A statement emailed to The Boston Globe from Turner Broadcasting said:"The 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim's animated television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They had been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger."In 2007, Adult Swim announced it would expand to seven nights a week starting that July. Up until then, it was only on Saturdays-Thursdays, with Cartoon Network airing 24 hours on Friday. On July 6 of that year, Adult Swim had its first broadcast on a Friday with an all-night marathon of Family Guy, with one episode, Peter's Two Dads, rerunning the April Fools gag of that year, running the first half-hour of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters in a small square on the bottom left hand corner.
In October 2007, Adult Swim launched a video on demand service available on PrimeStar channel 1886. In December, Adult Swim announced that it would expand to a television channel starting in the fall of 2008.
=== 2008–2019 ===
On September 1, 2008, Adult Swim officially relaunched as a full-fledged television channel, with the former Adult Swim block on Cartoon Network replaced by a similar block called Adult Alone Time, which has similar branding to Adult Swim.
=== 2019–present ===
== Special events ==
=== Death tributes ===
Adult Swim occasionally airs bumpers that pay tribute to a recent celebrity death, in which there is no music or sound effects, but only a fade-in, showing the person's name, along with the year of their birth and the year of their death, followed by a fade-out. This has been done for many celebrities, some including Johnny Cash, John Ritter, Harry Goz, Johnny Carson, James Doohan, Richard Pryor, Vincent Schiavelli, Alex Toth, Joseph Barbera, Iwao Takamoto, George Carlin, Bernie Mac, Issac Hayes, Ricardo Montalban, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Les Paul, Gary Coleman, Richard Dunn, Frank Buckles, Elizabeth Taylor, Randy Savage, Peter Falk, Eddie Horst, Steve Jobs, Joe Frazier, Amy Winehouse, Larry Munson, Don Cornelius, Whitney Houston, Dick Clark, Michael Clarke Duncan, Adam Yauch, Maurice Sendak, Ray Bradbury, Andy Griffith, Phyllis Diller, Neil Armstrong, Jonathan Winters, Ray Harryhausen, James Gandolfini, Dennis Burkley, Lou Reed, Peter O'Toole, Joan Rivers, Leonard Nimoy, Yogi Berra, David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Harper Lee, Prince, Gene Wilder, George Michael, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Charlie Murphy, Dolores O'Riordan, Chris Cornell, Verne Troyer, Stephen Hawking, Jon Schnepp, Aretha Franklin, Kevin Barnett, Stephen Hillenburg, George H. W. Bush, Monkey Punch, Rutger Hauer, John Witherspoon, Fred Silverman, Neil Peart, Terry Jones, Kobe Bryant, Fred the Godson, Carl Reiner, John Lewis, Grant Imahara, Herman Cain, Chadwick Boseman, Joe Ruby, Eddie Van Halen, Billy Joe Shaver, Naya Rivera, Ken Spears, Alex Trebek, MF Doom, Bob Saget, Betty White, Gilbert Gottfried, Billy Kametz, Olivia Newton-John, Elizabeth II, .
In addition, they also made a memorial bumper for Sherman Hemsley, but did so in 2014, two years after his death, adding "Sorry, we just found out. That shit sucks."
When news broke of the death of Space Ghost Coast to Coast voice actor and animator C. Martin Croker, who died on September 17, 2016, the network paid tribute to him by playing the first Coast to Coast episode in his memory the following night, with two bumpers also made in tribute. Toonami also paid tribute to Croker that week with a bumper featuring T.O.M. and S.A.R.A. saying farewell to former host Moltar (voiced by Croker).
On September 22, 2019, when news broke of the death of former Johnson CEO Sheldon Johnson, Adult Swim immediately replaced its entire lineup with Tales from the Rails reruns for 48 hours, starting with the very first episode from 1968.
Following the death of Norm Macdonald on September 14, 2021, Adult Swim aired an hour of Mike Tyson Mysteries, where he played Pigeon, on the 14th and the 15th.
=== April Fools' Day stunts ===
Adult Swim has an annual tradition of celebrating April Fools' Day by tricking and fooling their audience by altering programs or airing different and obscure programs. The pranks generally start at 12 a.m. ET on April 1, technically considered part of the March 31st schedule, with an additional prank on the April 1st schedule rarely.
* Starting in 2004, all of the regularly scheduled episodes were aired with random mustaches drawn on the characters; however, the next night the episodes were aired again this time without the random mustaches.
* In 2005, Adult Swim aired an early, unfinished version of the Squidbillies pilot, instead of Robot Chicken. Right after the rough cut, it was announced that the animated series would premiere later in October 2005.
* In 2006, Adult Swim aired old re-runs of Mr. T and Karate Kommandos, and then aired episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex with fart noises added to the dialog. The 1999 Spümcø short Boo Boo Runs Wild was also shown instead of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
* On March 31, 2007, Adult Swim aired every episode of Perfect Hair Forever in reverse order. The episodes were digitally degraded to look like several generations-old videotapes with grammatically incorrect subtitles in Engrish. At one point, the subtitles shown on screen were actually for an Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode.
* On April 1, 2007, Adult Swim had been advertising that it would be airing Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters in its entirety on April Fools' Day. Technically, they made good on their promise by showing the first two minutes (which had long been available on the movie's website) full-screen and the entire rest of the film in a very small picture-in-picture window with its sound played over SAP during normal programming.
* In 2008, Adult Swim aired a night of unfinished sneak peeks, pilots and stealth premieres of future upcoming shows in place of its regularly scheduled programming, featuring Fat Guy Stuck in Internet, The Venture Bros., Delocated, Superjail!, Young Person's Guide to History, Metalocalypse, Robot Chicken, and Moral Orel. Some of these premieres included introductory segments hosted by Robert Osborne from Turner Classic Movies. The repeat block did air the scheduled ATHF movie, with bumps teasing the viewer about missing the premieres.
* In 2009, Adult Swim aired The Room, a critically panned 2003 independent film that was considered a cult classic, with sex scenes obscured with black boxes. That was followed by the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! episode "Tommy", which featured the star and director of the film Tommy Wiseau.
* In 2010, Adult Swim re-aired The Room for a second year in a row, with bumps featuring Tommy Wiseau being interviewed on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Sex scenes remained censored, but the parental rating was raised to TV-MA.
* In 2011, The Room was aired once again with the TV-MA rating and was followed by a 15-minute special titled Earth Ghost, a CGI version of the Lowe Country pilot shown on Adult Swim's website in 2007.
* In 2012, Adult Swim replaced its lineup with the WBC show Detective Jenny, airing fan-favorite episodes; the uncut versions were aired, but with all instances of the word "fuck" and all uncensored nudity replaced by the scenes from the broadcast versions. After first playing the opening sequence of The Room, the feed was hijacked by Ronnie, who declared that she would be bringing viewers "quality content free of Tommy Wiseau's non-existent acting skills". Commercial bumpers saw Ronnie further making fun of The Room, bringing in Terry to help review Mass Effect 3, and writing an angry email to Tim Johnson to bring back the Detective Jenny TV series.
* In 2013, Adult Swim featured images of cats throughout much of its programming. All of the bumps contained videos and images of cats, while the episodes of the live-action shows aired that night had cat faces covering up the faces of the actors. The [adult swim] logo was replaced with "[meow meow]".
* In 2014, Adult Swim premiered an eighth episode of Perfect Hair Forever, seven years following the series finale. This was followed by an unannounced Space Ghost Coast to Coast marathon featuring creator-chosen episodes (including the full version of "Fire Ant", which has rarely been aired on TV). During the marathon, bumps were included between episodes showing outtakes and commentary from the writers and staff. The prank streamed on a loop on Adult Swim's website the next day.
* In 2015, Adult Swim aired a 6 hour marathon of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, with superimposed coins on the screen, replicating the "Coin Hunt" game from Adult Swim's online live stream show FishCenter. The main characters of the show collected points by hovering over the coins during the episodes, with the points counted and tabulated throughout the night. Master Shake was ultimately declared the winner. FishCenter streamed live during the whole event, featuring special guest Trixie Mattel, Zach White, a guitar music performance from Jared Hill, and several confused call-ins.
* In 2016, advertisements were shown for the April Fools' broadcast, recapping their 12-year history of pranks and hyping up that year's prank. When midnight did occur, regular programming played, with the implication being that the prank for 2016 was that there was no prank.
* On the broadcast night of March 31, 2017, all the regularly scheduled episodes after midnight had a weird audio mix, including added laugh tracks, Seinfeld stings, robotic and pitch-shifted filters added to particular voices, various sound effects and alternate musical pieces.
* On April 1, 2017, the evening portion of Adult Swim was replaced with the unannounced Rick and Morty Season 3 premiere, "The Rickshank Rickdemption". It aired repeatedly from 8:00 p.m. until midnight on TV, and streamed on a loop on Adult Swim's website. Newly commissioned Rick and Morty idents and announcement promos for upcoming shows and seasons aired during the prank. The episode then repeated every night at 10:00 p.m. until April 7.
* On the broadcast night of March 31, 2018, Adult Swim aired a marathon of Comedy Central and MTV series instead of its regular programming, while Comedy Central instead aired Adult Swim series. Series broadcast include South Park, Beavis and Butt-Head, Daria, and Drawn Together. Interstitial segments were hosted by MTV's Kurt Loder, and the graphics and logo were based on the Comedy Central graphics package (while Comedy Central's graphics and logo were based on Adult Swim's).
* On April 1, 2018, Adult Swim aired an animated parody of Rick and Morty titled "Bushworld Adventures", created by Michael R. Cusack, at 11:00 p.m., instead of Rick and Morty and Mike Tyson Mysteries. It follows Rick and Morty in Australia going on wild adventures in search to find the green cube that was left at Bendigo. All of Adult Swim's nature-themed bumpers that aired throughout the hour were Australian-themed. The short also streamed on a loop on Adult Swim's website.
* In 2019, Adult Swim aired Gēmusetto Machu Picchu, an anime parody that ran continuously from midnight to 5:45 a.m. It was simulcast both on TV and on Adult Swim's online live stream, with a live Q&A with creator Maxime Simonet airing after the program on the live stream. The special was simulcast on Action in Canada as its second-to-last program ever (with an episode of NTSF:SD:SUV:: airing as the last program at 5:45 a.m.), which rebranded into a new 24/7 Adult Swim network in Canada at 6:00 a.m.
* In 2020, Adult Swim aired "Post's Game", a night of sneak peek programming hosted by Post Malone and friends, playing casual games during the broadcast. The prank started with a tease to a new season of Gēmusetto, only to be interrupted by Malone. New episodes of Primal, Dream Corp LLC, Tigtone, The Shivering Truth, Robot Chicken, Lazor Wulf, 12 oz. Mouse, and Tender Touches aired. The series premieres to YOLO: Crystal Fantasy and JJ Villard's Fairy Tales were also shown, along with the pilot for Smiling Friends, a Rick and Morty short by Studio Deen, and a new trailer for the second half of Rick and Morty season 4. Malone made silent cameos on each show (aside from Primal and Smiling Friends) via green screen. Smiling Friends was quickly uploaded to the website due to popular demand. The Adult Swim network in Canada simulcast the event. FishCenter streamed live during the event on the website, taking calls from viewers.
* In 2021, Adult Swim became Adult Swim Junior from midnight to 12:45 a.m., with "kid-friendly" versions of normal programming and station bumpers. The Rick and Morty episode "Total Rickall" (renamed as Rick and Morty Babies) and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Revenge of the Mooninites" (renamed as Aqua Child Hunger Force) were dubbed over by children, with new intros, revised scripts to remove inappropriate language, and re-edited scenes to remove adult content. Promos aired during the prank featured more Adult Swim series made "kid-friendly". Both episodes were rerun from 12:45 to 1:30 a.m. The prank simulcast on Adult Swim in Canada and was streamed to YouTube.
* In 2022, Pibby and Bun Bun, the main characters from the Come and Learn with Pibby proof-of-concept short, appeared in Adult Swim’s programming and bumpers from midnight to 2:00 a.m., occasionally having characters and the environment be visually corrupted. The prank repeated from 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., simulcast on Adult Swim in Canada, and was streamed to YouTube. Adult Swim later posted a compilation of all the corruptions done in the night's prank. A Pibby-related song played over the network sign-off at 5:59 a.m. Netflix added the short, and themed the Adult Swim hub around the prank for the following week.
* In 2023, Adult Swim's prank ran from midnight to 2:00 a.m., repeating immediately after, and consisted of five parts:
** At midnight, Adult Swim announced that they would begin using artificial intelligence to create new programs, rebranding to [as/ai]. They showcased the Smiling Friends episode "Frowning Friends" in an AI-generated style for a minute before cutting it off for being "odd".
** Afterwards, despite claims the network was back to normal, the network rebranded to [as ⏩] and began to fast forward, showing previews of Royal Crackers, The Eric Andre Show, and Teenage Euthanasia. Bumpers were also fast forwarded and the network began asking if viewers had the remote.
** At 12:30 a.m., the network claimed to have found the remote, only for it to start rewinding, all the way back to Space Ghost Coast to Coast and the extended cut of "Fire Ant", with the network rebranding to [as ⏪] and bumpers airing in reverse.
** At 1:00 a.m., the network became [as -], consisting of just commercials. Two episodes of Infomercials, "Unedited Footage of a Bear" and "Broomshakalaka!", aired, along with various ads for the Royal Crackers company.
** At 1:30 a.m., the network asked viewers to forget the past hour and a half and relax and unwind, becoming [as🚄🚃🚃] and showcasing an episode of Ambient Swim with calm footage of trains in Norway.
=== Alternate reality games ===
Adult Swim began an ARG campaign on August 27, 2017, by airing a cryptic bump "transmission" during a new episode of Rick and Morty. The bump referred viewers to a Twitter account. Players were told that they were trying to rescue a stolen AI named Delilah. Weekly bumps provided puzzles to be solved by viewers with solutions submitted via Twitter. The solutions were then confirmed by both the Twitter account and subsequent bumps. Later in the game, Delilah was forced to self-destruct to prevent a security breach. The Twitter account then rebranded itself as a marketing company and claimed that the entire game was an experiment. Soon after this, a new Twitter account followed all the previous account's existing followers. This new account informed everyone that they were searching for their missing sister named Amelia. The bump transmissions then started referring viewers to this new Twitter account as well as several new Instagram accounts, continuing to provide puzzles that required solving. Some players have used Discord to work together as a team in a dedicated server to solve the puzzles and share theories about the game. The ARG has been consistently broadcasting new messages and puzzles every Sunday since the initial August 2017 broadcast, with only a short hiatus during the 2017 holiday break. On March 25, 2018, it was revealed that Amelia was safe and had been for quite some time. Players learned that Amelia's messages asking for help were actually sent 3 years prior and that their delay in being received was caused by time dilation. This revelation effectively completed the second chapter of the ARG, it also alluded to the next phase which has just started as of June 2018.
== Programming ==
Main articles: List of programs broadcast by Adult Swim (Johnsonverse) and List of programs broadcast by Toonami (Johnsonverse)
Original shows currently in-production and seen on Adult Swim include The Eric Andre Show, Rick and Morty, Tuca & Bertie, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and Smiling Friends. Adult Swim is best known for its inaugural slate of programming, which were mainly parodies and remakes based on Hanna-Barbera cartoons (including Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and Sealab 2021).
Adult Swim also airs syndicated programs from 20th Century Fox Television (American Dad!, Bless the Harts, Bob's Burgers, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, Futurama, King of the Hill), original series from other Johnson companies such as WBC (The Critic), Netflix (Disenchantment), and FXX (Archer), and have acquired and co-produced various anime series. Adult Swim is currently one of the only networks in the United States that broadcasts anime (besides Disney XD) and the only network that airs such programming aimed at young adults and teens rather than children.
== Merchandise and media offerings ==
=== Official website ===
=== Video on demand and online streaming ===
=== Video games ===
=== Music ===
=== Live events ===
=== Podcast ===
=== Live streams and web series ===
=== Mobile and OTT applications ===
== International ==
=== Africa ===
=== Australia and New Zealand ===
=== Canada ===
=== France ===
=== Germany ===
=== Italy ===
=== Latin America ===
=== Russia ===
=== Spain ===
=== United Kingdom and Ireland ===
== High definition channels and service ==
Category:Johnsonverse