Top 5 Eleven Minute adult swim shows
If you’re as big of a comedy fan as I am, you already know that adult swim is one of the great bastions for creativity around today. And even if you aren’t a comedy fan, you likely already know that, as well. In 2012, their shows were especially strong, so I felt that I needed to give them their own list.
One note:
- These are the 11 minute long shows only. One 22 minute adult swim show makes it onto the main list, which you’ll see coming up.
Honorable Mention:
Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole - I admittedly haven’t seen every episode of the second season yet, but the ones I did see were really funny and great. Dino Stamatopoulos is one of my all-time favorite comedy writers, and his previous series Moral Orel is one of my favorite adult swim shows ever, so I feel it’s only right to place his current show on this list, even if I haven’t seen all of the episodes.
05. NTSF:SD:SUV::
The second season of Paul Scheer’s goof on procedurals (such as CSI, NCIS, Hawaii Five-0, etc) NTSF:SD:SUV:: (which stands for National Terrorism Strike Force: San Diego: Sport Utility Vehicle:: ) improved on its very good first season. Highlights include the season premiere, “16 Hop Street,” which has Scheer’s Trent Hauser and June Diane Raphael’s Piper going undercover in a high school, to stop an abductor who is abducting all the popular kids at school (which includes a very funny cameo by Jon Daly, as a Johnny Depp-esque undercover HS cop, who has been at the school since the ‘80s), a Comic-Con episode, and an episode that involves Alphonse (played by Brandon Johnson) going back to his home in Alaska, where he previously worked for NTSF:AK:CANOE::.
The season had many wonderful cameos, from the likes of Bob Odenkirk, Rob Corddry, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza, Michael Gross, Ellie Kemper, Jason Mantzoukas, Rob Huebel, Bill Hader, Ray Liotta, Max Greenfield, Stacy Kiebler, Natasha Leggero, and many others. At the beginning, NTSF started off as a Childrens Hospital spin-off, but now it has found its own voice, and it is every bit as funny as Childrens. I look forward to season 3 next year.
04. The Eric Andre Show
The first season of The Eric Andre Show was a gonzo delight, delivering the type of absurdist thrills that you come to expect from adult swim’s best. The faux-talkshow stars Andre (who co-stars on Don’t Trust The B in Apt. 23. After watching TEAS, you will never look at him on The B the same way again) and amazing stand-up Hannibal Buress as his sidekick. It is a hard show to describe, with a mix of real life celebrities (Tatyana Ali, Rick Fox, Robert Forster, Dolph Lundgren, Sinbad, Ryan Phillippe, etc) and people who don’t resemble the celebrities at all impersonating them (a skinny African American as Russell Brand, a guy in a wig as Reese Witherspoon, etc). The series also features Jackass/Tom Green Show esque man on the street bits.... and well. I can’t really describe it. Instead, let me share two clips from the show, that should give you an idea of what the show is like:
Opera singer Lisa Stanley sings opera, as Killer Mike adlibs various ridiculous lines, such as “WE SINGIN’ OPERA, HO!”
Actress and model Kristanna Loken performs absurd stand-up comedy.
The show will have a New Years Eve special on December 31st, and while it hasn’t been officially confirmed, a season 2 will very likely happen. The Eric Andre Show is the reason why adult swim exists, and why it should stick around for many years to come.
03. Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule
Season 2 of Tim & Eric’s Check it Out! With Dr. Steve Brule was another triumph for adult swim’s favourite sons. John C. Reilly’s performance as Brule remains fascinating and incredibly funny all these years later, and I could watch him do it for hours. The way he adds r’s to words, such as “broats” and “BRINGO!” is so funny and so specific. If you haven’t seen the show before,
watch this clip from an episode from this season, that kinda gives you an idea of Reilly’s amazingly committed performance. The season finale, titled “Life,” was fantastic,
and could have served as a series finale if need be, but Tim & Eric have strongly hinted that a season 3 is in the works, so I am very happy about that. This is an Academy Award Nominated actor, who has acted in movies by Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Paul Thomas Anderson, and he’s taking time out of his schedule to star in an adult swim TV show. That’s why John C. Reilly is one of the very best actors around today.
02. Eagleheart
Season 2 of Eagleheart was a big improvement over season 1, and I loved season 1! It is just that the creators (Michael Koman, Andrew Weinberg, Jason Woliner) and cast (Chris Elliott, Maria Thayer, Brett Gelman) really nailed it in season 2. While season 1 had some remnants of a Walker Texas Ranger-esque parody (which the creators were never really interested in doing), season 2 went into full-blown absurdism, and recalled Elliott’s landmark FOX series Get a Life at points. While, the main characters are U.S. Marshalls, the plot of an episode could take them all over the map. One of my favourite episodes of season 2 was titled “Little Dude,” in which Maria Thayer’s Susie goes undercover to catch a judge-killing hermaphrodite. Going undercover entails her taking testosterone (which she also wants to does to feel a part of the Marshall’s office boys club, as she feels left out of the guys’ discussions). It is a spectacular performance from Thayer, and one of the funniest and weirdest performances I saw in 2012. The season had some great guest-stars, including Conan O’Brien as himself (who is a producer on Eagleheart), Ben Stiller as Silly Sammy, an old kids show host, who steals organs, Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris, as a member of a blues band, and others.
While shows like Eric Andre and Steve Brule are more free-for-alls, and not about plotting, Eagleheart blows me away in how much plot they can throw in 11 minutes of television. You get so many twists and turns in every minute, while still including wonderful jokes and hilarious moments. It has been ordered for season 3, and I cannot wait. Season 2 delivered some of the biggest laughs, and most inspired comedy writing I saw in 2012, and I urge everyone to check it out.
01. Childrens Hospital
Quote:
David Letterman: Rob Corddry, the creator and one of the stars of the Emmy award winning – how did that happen? For the love of god, how did that happen?
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Letterman said that during Corddry’s last appearance on the show (October 10, 2012), and he echoes what many feel. That was not said as a negative (if you watch the entire interview, Letterman spends about 50-65% of it gushing about how much he loves the show, which is further proof in why Letterman is the best around), but in a “How did something so singular and so weird win an award from the establishment???”
For the first couple of episodes of this season, I thought Childrens was having an off-year. There were laughs, and good moments, but I was beginning to think that the show had lost it, and that NTSF was the better show. And then the episode titled “Chief’s Origin” aired, an episode detailing the origin story of Megan Mullally’s character, which included Mullally playing the roles of both of her parents, and had her character drinking “Parkinson’s Juice,” and the show reached new heights. Nearly every episode after that one was one high after another.
- The Rob Huebel-scripted “The Return of the Young Billionaire,” which includes Pink Panther-esque animated opening titles.
- “British Hospital,” the original UK version of Childrens Hospital, which was written by Peep Show’s Sam Bain, and the entire cast replaced with British actors. You have to watch this one at least twice to get all the amazing nuances that they nailed.
- “A Year in the Life,” a David Wain written/directed tour-de-force, which charts one year in the life of the hospital, which includes some amazing tracking shots, and incredible callbacks that play throughout the episode. This was probably my favourite of the season, and coupled with Wain's Wanderlust, he directed and wrote two of the best things I saw this year.
- “Attention Staff,” which finally reveals the identity of the mysterious Michael Cera-voiced PA announcer. It includes a return appearance by the founder of the hospital Arthur Childrens (played by the great Jon Hamm), and an appearance by Cera himself, though not in a way that you would expect.
- “Childrens Lawspital,” a Jason Mantzoukas-written episode. This is an amazing Law & Order riff, that includes series-best work from Erinn Hayes, whose character snorts more and more cocaine throughout, while her performance gets crazier and crazier.
And i’m leaving off the final two episodes, which involve the death of a starring character from the cast in a really hilarious fashion! And the season also included an AMAZING running gag, which involved the characters having a different “tomato, tomahto” exchange in every single episode of the season. That lead up to the Newsreaders finale, in which they go inside the “Childrens Hospital writers room,” where on a whiteboard it is written “MORE TOMATO/TOMAHTO JOKES.” Thirteen episodes of build-up, one episode of sweet, sweet payoff!
This show is an incredible source of David Wain-style humor every week, and I hope it lasts for many more seasons. If they can reach these insanely original highs in season 4, then there’s nothing at all stopping it from continuing to be one of the most original shows on all of television today.
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NEXT UP: The official start of the TV list! A top 35 list! It'll be a lot of fun, or else you can ask for your money back.
I know this is a very niche-y list, detailing five shows on a niche-y network, so it probably won't get a lot of comments, which is OK with me. The main TV list will have more recognizable shows for you to comment on, I think.
As always, thank you for the comments!