The best joke in Smiling Friends Season 2 almost used a completely different game for the PlayStation 2. Smiling Friends returned to Adult Swim with Season 2 of the animated series earlier this Summer, and with it the franchise blew up to a whole new level of popularity. Season 2 of the series seemed to be even more of a success with Adult Swim than the first season, and many of its jokes instantly went viral as soon as each episode aired. But there’s one joke in particular that took on a whole new life with fans because of how random it seemed.
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In Smiling Friends Season 2 Episode 3, “A Allan Adventure,” Allan’s landlord wants to invite him over to hangout and play Burnout Revenge for the PS2. It’s such a specific line (repeated a few times in the episode), and such a specific video game title that fans were drawn to it immediately. Speaking with ComicBook during the San Diego Comic-Con 2024 weekend, Smiling Friends creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel revealed that it was almost a different game entirely, Shadow of the Colossus.
Why Burnout Revenge for the PS2?
“That was actually originally Shadow of the Colossus,” Hadel first responded when asked why Burnout Revenge was chosen as the landlord’s game. “[Michael] made the call for Burnout.” To which Cusack then explained, “I don’t know why because I remember when my friend got a PS2, the first game I played was Burnout one or two, I think. And that blew my mind from going from PSOne to that. So like I felt like I was on weed and Diet Dr. Meep.”
“But originally that was Shadow of the Colossus for PS2 for a long time,” Hadel elaborated. “And [Michael] made the call, and said it’s not really a co-op game. So the joke was originally ‘Alan, I want you to come over and watch me play Shadow of the Colossus.’ But we were like, ‘It’s probably better if it’s engaging.’ So that was the call, really.”
If you wanted to see the episode in particular along with the rest of Smiling Friends’ first two seasons, you can now find all of its episodes streaming exclusively with Max. Smiling Friends Season 3 has also been announced to be in the works, but there has yet to be any word on when the new season will be making its debut.
