Best Animated Shows for Adults
From Springfield to the multiverse, adult animation has produced some of TV's sharpest satire and darkest comedy — vote up the shows that actually earned their cult status.
What counts: Ranked by a mix of cultural impact, critical acclaim, longevity, and comedic/dramatic influence on the genre; all season counts, ratings, and streaming homes are approximate and subject to change as shows continue or move platforms.
▲ Rising
A sci-fi bender of nihilism and heart, it turned 'Wubba Lubba Dub Dub' and interdimensional cable into a cultural phenomenon almost overnight. Its Emmy-winning peak seasons proved adult animation could be as structurally ambitious as prestige live-action drama.
Premiere Year: 2013Seasons: 7 seasonsTotal Episodes: 71 episodesIMDb Rating: 9.1/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 9/10
added by IJRin 6 rankings
103▲ Rising
What started as a goofy 'talking horse in Hollywoo' premise became one of the most devastating portraits of depression and addiction ever animated, culminating in the gut-punch of 'Free Churro.' It proved a cartoon could make you cry harder than most dramas.
Premiere Year: 2014Seasons: 6 seasonsTotal Episodes: 77 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.7/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: —Cultural Impact: 9/10
added by IJRin 8 rankings
63▲ Rising
Thirty-five-plus seasons in, it's less a show than a permanent fixture of American culture, having predicted everything from Disney buying Fox to actual news events. Its early-to-mid 90s run is still cited as the high-water mark of TV comedy writing, even if later seasons get roa
Premiere Year: 1989Seasons: 35 seasonsTotal Episodes: 780 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.7/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 10/10
added by IJRin 12 rankings
47▲ Rising
Trey Parker and Matt Stone turned construction-paper crudeness into the fastest, angriest satire machine on television, famously writing and airing episodes about breaking news within a week. Its willingness to torch every sacred cow equally is why it's survived over 25 years wit
Premiere Year: 1997Seasons: 26 seasonsTotal Episodes: 325 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.7/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 9.5/10
added by IJRin 7 rankings
43A spy-parody that reinvented itself nearly every season while staying razor-sharp, Archer turned Sterling Archer's narcissism and H. Jon Benjamin's delivery into a masterclass in adult comedic voice acting. Its early ISIS-era seasons are still quoted relentlessly.
Premiere Year: 2009Seasons: 14 seasonsTotal Episodes: 151 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.6/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: —Cultural Impact: 7.5/10
added by IJR
10Seth MacFarlane's cutaway-gag machine became a ratings juggernaut and a lightning rod for controversy, riding the Griffins through two decades of pop-culture non-sequiturs. Love it or hate it, it defined a whole style of 2000s adult animation.
Premiere Year: 1999Seasons: 22 seasonsTotal Episodes: 420 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.1/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 8.5/10
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Nick Kroll and company turned the horror of puberty into raunchy, surprisingly empathetic comedy via literal Hormone Monsters, making adolescent shame funnier and more bearable than it had any right to be. It became Netflix's flagship adult animated hit.
Premiere Year: 2017Seasons: 7 seasonsTotal Episodes: 90 episodesIMDb Rating: 7.9/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: —Cultural Impact: 6.5/10
added by IJR
0DC's foul-mouthed, gleefully violent take on Harley and Poison Ivy's romance reinvented superhero animation for adults, balancing genuine emotional arcs with chainsaw-wielding chaos. It's become the rare comic-book cartoon critics and fans agree is genuinely great.
Premiere Year: 2019Seasons: 4 seasonsTotal Episodes: 50 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.5/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 6.5/10
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Robert Kirkman's ultra-violent deconstruction of the Superman archetype landed like a sledgehammer with its Omni-Man twist, proving adult animation could do brutal, R-rated superhero drama as well as any live-action franchise. Its brutal fight scenes became instant internet legen
Premiere Year: 2021Seasons: 2 seasonsTotal Episodes: 16 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.7/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 7/10
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0The deadpan queen of MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head spinoff universe gave a generation of misfits their patron saint of sarcasm, skewering high school social politics with total apathy as its superpower. It's aged into a defining artifact of 90s alt-teen culture.
Premiere Year: 1997Seasons: 5 seasonsTotal Episodes: 65 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.2/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: —Cultural Impact: 7.5/10
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Originally a Family Guy sibling show, it carved out its own weirder, more surreal identity once Roger the alien took over as breakout star, outliving expectations to become a Cold War-satire cult favorite in its own right. Two decades in, it's quietly one of the longest-running s
Premiere Year: 2005Seasons: 20 seasonsTotal Episodes: 350 episodesIMDb Rating: 7.4/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 6.5/10
added by IJR
0A dense, richly serialized parody of Jonny Quest-style adventure cartoons, it built one of animation's most devoted cult followings through sheer density of jokes and lore. Its abrupt cancellation after a movie wrap-up still stings fans who consider it criminally underrated.
Premiere Year: 2003Seasons: 7 seasonsTotal Episodes: 88 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.5/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: —Cultural Impact: 6.5/10
added by IJRThe Venture Bros.
0Mike Judge's dumbest-guys-in-the-room duo became a 90s cultural lightning rod, blamed by moralists for everything while quietly delivering some of the era's sharpest anti-comedy about media consumption itself. Its 2022 revival proved the giggling idiots still had bite.
Premiere Year: 1993Seasons: 8 seasonsTotal Episodes: 290 episodesIMDb Rating: 7/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 7/10
added by IJR
0From Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, this alien-family sitcom leans into gleeful body horror and pop-culture absurdity while sneaking in a surprisingly touching backyard-wall subplot. It carved its own space distinct from its more famous sibling show.
Premiere Year: 2020Seasons: 5 seasonsTotal Episodes: 55 episodesIMDb Rating: 7.8/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 5.5/10
added by IJRSolar Opposites
0
Adult Swim's death-metal band Dethklok satirized rock excess and celebrity worship through absurdly gory sketches and genuinely great original music, becoming a cult favorite for metalheads and comedy nerds alike. Its blend of animation and real concert tours was genuinely unprec
Premiere Year: 2006Seasons: 4 seasonsTotal Episodes: 63 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.2/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: —Cultural Impact: 5.5/10
added by IJRMetalocalypse
0▼ Falling
Matt Groening's other show smuggled genuinely moving sci-fi storytelling — see 'Jurassic Bark' — inside Planet Express delivery-boy antics, and got cancelled and revived more times than almost any series in TV history. Its 2023 Hulu revival proved fans never stopped caring.
Premiere Year: 1999Seasons: 11 seasonsTotal Episodes: 170 episodesIMDb Rating: 8.5/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 8.5/10
added by IJRin 2 rankings
-3▼ Falling
Mike Judge's low-key, deeply humane look at Texas suburban life proved adult animation didn't need shock value to be great — just sincere character work and dry, propane-fueled humor. Its recent Hulu revival shows how much affection fans still hold for Arlen.
Premiere Year: 1997Seasons: 13 seasonsTotal Episodes: 259 episodesIMDb Rating: 7.8/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: —Cultural Impact: 7/10
added by IJR
-44▼ Falling
The Belcher family's absurd puns and burger-of-the-day gags mask one of the warmest, most consistently funny sitcoms of any format, animated or not. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program and quietly became the genre's most beloved comfort watch.
Premiere Year: 2011Seasons: 14 seasonsTotal Episodes: 280 episodesIMDb Rating: 8/10Streaming Home: Still Airing: ✓Cultural Impact: 8/10
added by IJRin 2 rankings
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Comments (9)
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The rewatch value of the top pick settles this for me.
The writing in season one alone earns the top three spot.
Awards never tell the story; the crowd has this one right.
Recency bias is real — the classics belong higher.
I came here to argue and left agreeing with the order. Rare.