It’s impossible to say why “Smiling Friends,” Adult Swim’s manic, pseudo-nihilistic and brightly colored workplace comedy, has gained the following it has. Even the series’ creators are a bit baffled by its popularity. But when you ask Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel why the series works for them, they point to the fact that they’re truly making it for each other.
“I kind of view it as Michael and I screwing around, almost,” Hadel told TheWrap, likening their animated comedy to “Schmucks,” Hadel’s podcast that Cusack has appeared on several times. “It feels like an inside joke that got too big or something. If this all collapses around us, it’ll just be Michael and me … and that’s fine.”
“It would be weirder and more uncomfortable if it was just me. The fact it’s with a friend, with someone else, it’s even cooler because I can be a fan of it, if that makes sense,” Cusack added.
This drive to make each other laugh is seeped into every element of the series, down to how the duo plans episodes. According to Hadel, the pair starts new seasons with general ideas of the characters they want to see together and the character traits they want to explore rather than a strict plan. Something as simple as realizing that Allan and the Boss haven’t had their own story can serve as the starting point for an episode.
“Combining different character dynamics is fun to us and also figuring out who these characters are more,” Hadel said. “We’re not switching gears or totally going into a different thing but just enough where the audience feels satiated by it.”
A great example of that subtle character expansion began in the pilot for “Smiling Friends.” After Allan makes a joke about Charlie’s nose, he sucks on Charlie’s nose in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. Several episodes later in Season 2’s “The Magical Red Jewel (aka Tyler Gets Fired),” Charlie brings up the non-consensual nose-sucking incident, telling Allan that it made him feel uncomfortable and admitting that he’s been avoiding Allan because of it. That throwaway gag becomes an actual source of tension between these two characters that demonstrates Charlie’s firm boundaries and Allan’s habit of misreading situations.
“It kind of indicated [Charlie’s] character for the rest of the season. But it was just a one-off joke from Zach,” Cusack said. “So oftentimes, joking around indicates a lot of that stuff, which is fun.”
That small moment also nods to what makes “Smiling Friends” so distinct. Yes, the wild show is about two friends whose job it is to make random weirdos smile. But the show is as equally likely to explore the grief of two brothers coping with the loss of their mother or the horrors of the universe as it is to dwell on mundane break room conversations. It’s a show defined by extremes but is told in very conversational way, which can make it difficult for the team to cast guest stars.
“Sometimes you have somebody who’s really talented or funny on their own, but maybe their vibe or the way that they deliver stuff won’t click,” Hadel said.
Conner O’Malley, who appears in Season 3’s first episode, didn’t have that problem. O’Malley appears as Silly Samuel, a man with a cuckoo clock for a head, a body made of cheese and a lobster claw for a hand who is desperate to be taken seriously. Silly Samuel went through several iterations before the team realized that the character worked best if this objectively silly character was truly furious over the world’s inability to take him seriously.
“It was a tough role,” Cusack said. “[O’Malley] fit the casting vibe because of his approach at comedy where he can be very aggressive and yelling, but it feels very authentic. And also, in terms of just where he is in his career, it’s like, perfect for ‘Smiling Friends.’ We don’t want to go after the big like, ‘I’ve been on ‘SNL’ for 10 years,’ whatever. He seems like cool in the up-and-coming way.”
“That sounds really pretentious,” Cusack self-consciously added after a moment. “[We look for] people who don’t often get chances in television as much and hopefully they will more in the future.”
Overall, Cusack and Hadel are shocked that their inside joke has had such an impact. “It’s like a weird experiment. It’s very surreal and exciting that you can’t even put words to,” Hadel said.
