Bringing a rainbow-coloured, ADHD-appeasing slap in the face to cartoon programming, Smiling Friends has been the talk of the town since it first debuted on Adult Swim. Combining a very unique sense of humour with co-creators Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack's voice work honed by years of the YouTube grind, it has quickly captured a large audience, but even as more fans pile on the show, Hadel and Cusack's mantra remains the same.
"I'd be a fucking liar [if I said I didn't listen to fans]," Hadel told Variety in a recent interview. "Both Michael and I come from YouTube, so I grew up putting my stuff out there raw...I have a method where I read as much as I possibly can for 48 hours about an episode until I've seen basically every take someone can have. But we've never, ever, ever gone into a writers room and gone like, 'Well, the fans said this, so we should do this.'"
"We're kind of stubborn in a way where we're like, 'No, we know what's good with our show.' But if you read a comment now and again and it cuts deep, it's usually something that you subconsciously agree with. So it is good to read for feedback. But oftentimes we'll read something and be like, 'No.'"
It's clear from both comments that the creators have no intention of just adhering to what the fans want. Hadel even said he'd be fine with the show ending at a point where he loved it but the fans didn't. "I really could see the show ending with us loving it and people hating it. I'm not saying that will happen, but I'm just saying that would be fine with me. That's funny to me. That's better than doing fan service. We'll do whatever we find funny," he said.
As Smiling Friends Season 4 and 5 have been confirmed, and Season 3 is currently airing, we doubt we'll see the show come to an end anytime soon.
