After The Simpsons Parodied Smiling Friends, I Love How The Adult Swim Series Just Returned The Favor

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When it comes to pop culture, The Simpsons is widely considered the king of references and crossovers – think about the episode they did with Family Guy, or when Futurama characters visited Springfield, or even the ITthemed Halloween special. They’ve also cleverly borrowed from shows like Rick and Morty in their opening sequences. So it’s great to see other shows acknowledge The Simpsons* and pay tribute in return.

Over the weekend, Adult Swim’s popular comedy Smiling Friends included a playful tribute to The Simpsons, the longest-running scripted show on TV. This seemed to be a direct response to The Simpsons having previously acknowledged Smiling Friends with a knowing reference. Here’s a look at how the shows have been referencing each other.

How The Simpsons First Paid Tribute To Smiling Friends

The season finale of The Simpsons, titled “Estranger Things,” is now streaming on Disney+. The episode focuses on a disagreement between Bart and Lisa – they promised to watch Itchy & Scratchy together regularly, but stopped keeping that promise. This leads them to start watching other silly TV shows, and in one scene, Marge catches Bart watching “Screaming Friends” on his tablet. You can watch it now!

Marge represents any parent who’s ever been baffled by what their kids watch online, like on YouTube. Shows such as “Screaming Friends” might seem like random nonsense at first glance. However, Bart perfectly sums it up, acknowledging the chaos while also highlighting a certain appeal.

Obviously, the jokes are great, but what I love is the storytelling.

Bart

Do you remember when The Simpsons first started as a short segment on The Tracy Ullman Show and people worried it was wild and inappropriate? (If you weren’t around then, it might be hard to imagine!) Compared to later seasons, those early episodes now seem pretty simple and calm. It makes me wonder how people back in 1989 would have reacted to a show like Smiling Friends…

How Smiling Friends Returned The Favor

The third season of Smiling Friends premiered earlier this year, and the show will finish airing by December. However, the creators quickly produced Episode 306, “Squirm Returns,” as a thank you to fans.

If you missed the episode, it starts with Pim seeing a parody on TV that hilariously exaggerates the family. The character based on Lisa has a strangely shaped head like a starfish and is holding a sign protesting fascism, which is a relevant touch. The version of Marge has a big, purple beehive hairstyle instead of her usual blue one, and she’s not wearing shoes. “Blart” is completely naked except for socks and glasses. And the character resembling Homer appears to be falling apart, with limbs that don’t quite connect.

Overall, the show feels like what you’d get if The Simpsons started airing on Adult Swim today. However, the only joke it makes is pretty harsh, and it almost comes across as criticism of how The Simpsons handles current events.

  • MARGE: Blart! What the devil are you doing on that confounded computer tablet device?
  • BART: Hawk tuah, man!

Seeing the character “Blart” using a tablet clearly shows this clip is a reaction to the joke at the end of the latest Simpsons episode. Since that episode aired only six months ago, it’s impressive how quickly Smiling Friends‘ animators were able to create this response – they must be both efficient and reliable. The simple animation style likely helped them work faster. (That constantly moving mouth on Marge, even when she wasn’t talking, still makes me laugh!)

You can watch The Simpsons on Fox on Sunday nights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, though the show might be delayed if there’s an NFL game. Smiling Friends airs later that same night on Adult Swim at 11:30 p.m. Eastern, and is also available to stream on HBO Max starting the next day.

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2025-11-17 21:16