Adult Swim Sets Smiling Friends Season 3, Debuts Haha You Clowns

Adult Swim will return its cult animated comedy Smiling Friends for a third season on Sunday, October 5 at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT, followed by the premiere of new series Haha, You Clowns on October 19 at 11:45 p.m. ET/PT. New episodes of both quarterhour adult animated shows will be available to stream the following day on HBO Max, the network said.

Season three of Smiling Friends, created by Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel, reunites Pim, Charlie, Flint and the rest of the gang as they resume their mission to spread happiness. A season synopsis from Adult Swim teases surreal set pieces, including Mr. Frog sprinting directly at the camera, the team collecting spirit gems and an "epic showdown" with an ancient witch. The series has already been renewed through a fourth and fifth season after a two-season pickup that Cusack and Hadel have said gives them room to expand beyond the show's usual formula.

Cusack and Hadel have described the renewal as creative freedom to explore secondary characters and the town the series inhabits, rather than repeating the core premise of the smiling friends helping a depressed character each episode. Speaking at the Annecy International Animation Festival...