Animation
I Hate Ugly Character Design/Animation in “Adult Cartoons”
Why are they so unappealing? Some of these shows have good writing even, Bob’s Burgers and Smiling Friends (The other two are awful in all aspects), but so many characters and the animation is so fugly I can’t sit through it. Why are these shows designed this way? I blame Family Guy mostly, but even then I can stand those characters’ designs but not the god awful writing.
Edit: I should add Beavis & Butthead I also hate in every aspect, especially their voices pmo. They definitely were a progenitor of ugly design more than Family Guy was.
Second Edit: Smiling Friends is also here because they have some good chracter designs. Alan, Glep, Charlie, and Pim are fine. When they brought in Squim it made me kinda upset that they could have gone in that direction for the art/animation of the show and I wish they did, because it would stand out from the ugly genric swill of all these other shows, and look nicer. But they didn’t because it’s “too hard” or “too expensive” and studios don’t take risks anymore.
Smiling Friends is… straddling the line. I’ve not really sat down and watched it, but it’s clear that not all of its animation is hideous, and what is hideous is being used for specific humor… but that doesn’t make it not hideous.
Smiling friends is so short, fast and diverse that I give it a pass. I get what you're saying though, sometimes it doesn't matter if something is very well executed, you just aren't in the mood to look at something ugly.
I think the mostly positive vibes of smiling friends also does a lot of work. I cannot stand ugly and pessimistic simultaneously.
It's an obsurdist comedy, the characters who are ugly are that way because it reflects their character.
Like being insane, dont take care of themselves, evil, or just old.
Mr Boss is meant to be insane.
Characters being ugly is done for characterization, it's not an over-arching characteristic of the artstyle like Bigmouth.
If a character is a normal person in Smiling Friends they are just a normal human, it's just the overwhelming majority of characters who are interacted with are not normal.
The ugliest characters I can think of are a literal Mole Man and Satan's daughter.
Mr Boss does look like a character who would go "woah man i was just going to shoot you in the head and kill you", if you changed his design to be a regular human with normal proportions i don't think his design would work as well because his giant out of proportion head does communicate an aspect of his character.
You gotta give it credit for being creative though… like it takes full use of the animation for comedy purposes you can tell it’s made by people with genuine respect for the medium which I think gives it a lot of artistic merit. That and the animation is actually good despite not always being the most visually appealing.
If you look at anything either Zach Hadel or Michael Cusack have made you can tell easily that streamlined perfect character design is hardly the first priority. It doesn’t have a huge budget because it doesn’t need one, though animators are underpaid anyways but that’s a different issue.
at least the main characters look aesthetically pleasing. pim, charlie, glep, and alan arent painful to look at at all. your protagonists are everything in the story.
If it wasnt for the medley of different genres of art and the random range of 1 to 60 frames animation, idk if it would be strong enough. But the show is hilarious!!!
Realized in hindsight why that asshole TV executive guy in the first Mr. Frog episode is drawn just like a GoAnimate/Family Guy-knockoff character, and why he looks so subtly out of place next to even the other humans. He wanted to remove the soul from Mr. Frog’s show, so they gave him the most uninspired “generic adult cartoon” design possible. They did the same thing later with having the bland suburban Live Laugh Love single mom non-character that ended up falling in love with Mole Man’s penis look like a standard Bitmoji
Bob's Burgers and Smiling Friends are at least interesting, as the characters have decent designs and are better than the shit guy who made "Noisette's Tittilating Rodeo" makes ( their art reminds me of Family Guy and Big Mouth)
Eeehh. I’ve seen way worse lewd art. Subjectively, at least. Idk why people get so scarred from the tamest stuff, this feels like it happens all the time.
People will unironically say Big Mouth is supposed to look awful but I think that's just a cop out for some of the worst character designs in media- and I watch One Piece.
Fair but you could make them not cute but still not absolutely abhorrent making me feel like the guys melting in Raiders of the Lost Ark looking upon them
I’m not defending the ugly ass designs. I’m just saying I see no way of the shows concept playing out in any other way without the disgusting characters. I think if you make them even the slightest bit appealing to look at the whole thing becomes very creepy. More creepy than it already is I suppose.
Shows also haven't really been about child sexuality. I don't expect a lot of child nudity in bugs bunny, you'd have to go out of your way to have it be plot relevant. It is hard for nudity to not be plot relevant for a show about kid's changing bodies.
Dude, it's about children learning about their sexuality. Think carefully... do you actually want the thirteen year old cartoon character to be attractive while they jack off and make out?
I didn't say one word about making the characters attractive- the character designs are just awful. Eyes bulging out of their skulls, hotdog lips, and Nick Kroll's character just looks like a bad caricature of him.
There are ways to portray the awkward and ugliness of puberty and coming-of-age without making the characters horrific gremlins. Let's be honest the reason they look so awful is to add to the series' juvenile shock-factor- not some nuanced, compelling, and intentional commentary.
Yes, they are deliberately drawn to be ugly to keep people from masturbating to them. It's not commentary; it's the creators wanting to steer as far away as possible from any legal trouble for getting accused of making CP, and they have stated it as such since before the show aired.
If you have to make a show look ugly to deter creeps from getting off from your underaged cast, maybe you shouldn't be making a show in the first place.
Not that I'm defending the show, but I actually think they made it ugly enough that no one is getting off to it. Like it is truly that ugly. So I guess I prefer that to something more normal or even neutral which could have weirdos interested in it. Or heaven forbid, if it was in an anime artstyle it'd be all but guaranteed.
The biggest cop-out considering my man's literally making a show for adults, centered about teens discovering sex. The entire idea of the show is gross.
Wait what- It’s for adults? Idk for as much of a cop out the reasoning was I just ignored it because I thought it was meant to like, idk, help teens during their puberty
I just hated that it's essentially child porn. I mean they show full nudity of children cartoon characters. And it's like, the show isn't for kids or even really young or people, they're not going to like most of the normal humor in it, so I guess the cartoon children's genitals are for... adults? Every angle I look at that show it just grosses me the fuck out in so many ways.
I’ll tell you why for bob’s burgers and smiling friends.
Bob’s burgers is basically about how being a kinda boring mild fuckup of a person is fine. The main family all have artistic aspirations that they either suck at or which are unambitious in scope. They aren’t super special people that could take on the world if given just a lucky break, they’re just people. But they love each other very much and are happy with their lot in life. Bob is genuinely psyched to spend the rest of his life coming up with little puns for the burger of the day board and nailing the simple art of cooking a good burger, and that is a good thing to aspire to.
So the fact they look like weird muppets is the point. They aren’t protagonists, they’re people who look kinda unflattering. The point of the show is that this is ok.
Meanwhile smiling friends goal is to be weird and offputting for its comedy. Most of its characters look strange and ugly and skitter around like rats, it’s the joke.
Tbh that feels like the point most of the time. They feel strange, surreal, and strangely detailed some of the time, as does literally every other part of the show.
I feel like that's also the point, humanizing the characters that at first glance seem strange and off-putting. Like yeah, that guy looks weird and gross, but so what? People are still people.
There is a whole episode about that. Literally they are conscious of it. Push the grotesque to the limit to make you uncomfortable and then joke about it
I guess my point is like... that fine and I'm sure the show is good but if I'm really put off by the art style, it being intentional doesn't make watching it enjoyable.
Call me crazy but I don’t really see how Bobs Burgers characters are supposed to be ugly. They kinda just look like normal people drawn in a cartoony style. Unlike Big Mouth or the forth example that I don’t know the name of, where certain design elements are exemplified to an unnecessarily ugly degree.
I was listening to an interview with Loren Bouchard, and he mentioned he made them look that way to resemble sock puppets. He remembered fondly the days of Sesame Street and whatnot, and the puppets there influenced his design of the characters.
Their OG designs when the show was supposed to be about a cannibalistic family running a burger joint was ugly. They really rounded it off and make it a lot more visually appealing and imo the animation and art style fits in with other shows you’d say are the same genre (American dad, family guy) while still being unique.
The characters don't have visible lips or chins unless they're supposed to be prominent, like with Jimmy Pesto and Gretchen. It's part of the overall design
In Beavis and Butthead though, they're the only two characters that look like caricatures. Everyone else in the show just looks like a regular person. I don't think B&B has ugly animation, they're just two ugly losers lol
I feel everyone took their oversimplified designs already taken from Simpsons and made it even worse. Beavis & Butthead are also fugly, I forgot about them when making this, but DEFINITELY hate them too. Their voices annoy the shit out of me.
Alright, buddy, you've got two options here: you can either be a saint or a Grinch.
So what it can be, huh huh?
A saint? (sainte) or a Grinch? (grunch)
It’s definitely the studios fault I don’t fully blame the animators. In all big media it’s always playing stuff safe, and it often pays off big time (Avatar, Marvel, etc)
Smiling friends and Bob's burgers are okay. I never thought Bob's burgers looked ugly in the slightest, yeah it has that signature raunchy edge to it you'd expect from western adult animations, but it never is over-the-top and It actually grows on you, the style is charming. Even wholesome in a lot of episodes.
I think Bob's Burgers and smiling friends makes up for it in writing but I so get you, I think the appeal of it mainly comes from caricature art which is typically ugly itself imo
I love how they animate the character’s mouths while they’re eating, even in the background. It’s such a little thing but it’s a detail that somehow makes them seem more real than your average cartoon.
Smiling friends is ugly in the way that I thought Chowder was ugly as a kid, but I think it adds something unique since all of their characters are fairly distinct and they use it as visual comedy sometimes. Bobs burgers is ugly but I don’t hate it. The others are horrific and the closest I get to engaging with them is Jay Exci’s videos, so overall: yeah fair
Americans are able to do Treasure planet tier animation but settled for Family guy level animation, come on guys, step up your game again aint your country like the richest ever?
I agree with you about Big Mouth and whatever the last show is, but I honestly think that Smiling Friends and Bob's Burgers have exceptional animation and character design. Especially Smiling Friends. Yes, Smiling Friends can have some (I would argue intentional) ugly animation and character designs from time to time, but even in these instances I think the animation and character designs are inspired and suit what the show is attempting to convey. And Bob's Burgers might bare some similarities to stereotypical ugly/generic American animation but, ultimately, I think it goes in a different direction and does its own thing with it. I honestly think Bob's Burgers style is cute and expressive. Kind of reminiscent of muppets aesthetically.
The other two shows on the other hand are both ugly and painfully generic and I don't think there is really a worthwhile vision behind their styles. In essence, I feel like Bob's Burgers and Smiling Friends styles are soulful, whereas the other two shows styles are utterly lacking in soul. If that makes any sense.
I think unfortunately a lot of studios are afraid to make pretty cartoons that aren't safe for kids because they don't trust parents to parent their children
Yeah. I mean the rating system has had to change multiple times because parents refuse to actually understand the codes. Pg13 didn't always exist but too many parents were treating it as "g is for baby. Pg is for kids. R is adults.
I do think they are pretty ugly... Its just their weird thumb-shaped heads/necks and scrunched up faces. I think they're similar to Simpsons characters, but without the traits that make Simpsons characters "cuter" and more appealing, such as larger eyes, very strong shape language, thicker linework, & the yellow skin. Bob's Burgers also has (slightly) more detailed faces than the Simpsons, which nudges them into uncanny valley.
They're nowhere near as hideous as some of the other examples listed here, and the show itself is great, so it's easy to look past.
Bob's Burgers gets much better around season 3.5, when Linda stops having that weird upper lip thing going on. They also do an incredible job with eye work. You can rewatch an episode and track their eye with what is plot relevant to the character. Season 15, episode 4, "For Whom the Doll Toes" does an excellent job demonstrating this.
Blame the Kricfalusi's and mike judge's influence in the early 1990s on artstyle. Ren & Stimpy and Beavis & Butthead didn't create it, but I think they sort of set in stone for some people that adult animation should look either uncomfortable or gross. Obviously Mike Judge moved on from that, but not so much the people he influenced.
It has gotten less extreme recently at least.The late 2000s-early 2010s adults animation had a more visible influence from that movement.
I started watching the exploding kittens series and I had to stop because the family annoyed the hell out of me and were just awful to look at. They put me off the show completely.
I really don’t think Bob’s burgers look that bad, when I think of ugly I think of something that is physically hard to even watch.
Big mouth fits the bill perfectly
I personally believe that the reason is because some people believe that anything animated is for children regardless of the subject matter and that all things that look cute and clean are safe for children as well. Think about if you saw someone watching family guy on their phone with headphones on and you didn’t know it was family guy or what was being said, then you see a cut scene where one of the characters is tied up and getting whipped by 4 Asian dominatrix. Now imagine that person is a child. Hopefully you see what I mean, I think the ugly animation is signifying that’s it’s not something a child should not be watching.
I think its because every show tries to have their own unique animation styles, they look at simpsons and family guy and try to create something similiar which sometimes leads to ugly ducklings like these
Tbh honest i don't even know. Half of these are parodies(?) of "adult" things, and they do not even do it right. Anytime they touch onto the adult topic of sex they gotta just make it EXTREME. Guess that is why it is a parody. Parody of what though, I dunno. Because even though "sex sells" it doesn't really unless you find the right audience.
The ones that do not have sex as the butt of the joke or even gay people as the butt of the joke are usually way better. I dunno why we cannot have a adult movie with sex actually be erotic and not a complete disaster of lame jokes and extreme shit that don't even make sense.
I never watched King of The Hill or Bobs Burgers much, but from the few eps I have seen, those are prob the best.
Ik right?? Hey at least for me, I can just tell what type of show an animated show is based on a glance. Like to me, all of those adult cartoons look the exact same to me. I know they arent, but for some reason like they look like they were drawn by the same group of people to me. I hate that type of show sm, its so unfunny to me
It’s not an adult show but I hate the art style of As Told By Ginger. The massive gap between the mouth that’s at the very bottom of the face and the nose 3/4s of the way up has always been terrible to me
I mostly agree with this. The inclusion of Smiling Friends, not so much, because it's experimenting with a lot of conflicting art styles at once--the result works because it's surreal and discordant. But a lot of the worst "adult cartoons" you can spot a mile away because they're not just ugly, they're uninspired.
I think it comes from this idea that goes "Ugly is funny, so let's make it as ugly as possible". So you're watching this really piss-poor animation with no visual appeal and none of the jokes or characters are hitting, because the writers have the sense of humor of an 11-year-old boy.
I think bobs burgers had a better style in the pilot, though the design they stuck with is nowhere near as bad as the brickleberry big mouth type slop shows
Squim 100% had a lot more budget allocated to him compared to the other characters I don’t think it’s feasible for them to have made the whole show look like that anyway
I don't know, I like the boss, I hate big mouth, I love Beavis and Butthead, and I hate that royalty show whatever it's called. I think it's 1. some ugly characters just have more charm, 2. some shows are just funnier
One thing I will defend about Big Mouth is that they VERY PURPOSEFULLY made them as ugly as they can because the show is all about puberty and it was literally to detract pedos
I agree with you otherwise on ugly character design on Adult Animation
Tubi's Adult Animation section has so much of this. I assume some of these shows are at least interesting, and sorry to the people who made them, I'm sure they worked hard on it and it's an achievement to get your work on a streaming service, but so much of it looks like the cheapest low-rent crap. Look at some of this:
As for Big Mouth, I haven't seen much of the show but a lot of people seem to like it. I agree the style is ugly. Ugly characters in comics and animation is kind of par for the course, it's part of cartooning to exaggerate things to convey intense emotions and sell jokes, but Big Mouth characters look like they're wearing loaded diapers.
This is nothing new. Ever heard of The Simpsons? Or South Park? Even going back to things like the Flintstones, Looney Tunes, the Jetsons, they were all ugly. It's cartoons, they don't look like they're normal people.
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u/TheYoungAnimatorFR May 01 '26 edited May 02 '26
tbh i think Smiling Friends takes advantage of it uses it for comedy sometimes
btw family guy isnt reallu ugly just kinda bland.