Smiling Friends: Here's How the Puppets Episode Compares to the Original

Smiling Friends will be fully returning to Adult Swim with Season 2 next month, and Adult Swim has shared a fun video comparing the recent April Fools' Day stunt with the original episodes! Smiling Friends Season 2 technically had its premiere with Adult Swim earlier this month as part of the network's annual April Fools' Day prank. It was announced the week before that Smiling Friends would be airing something new, but the April Fools' Day premiere had fans wondering what this actually will be given Adult Swim's history of subverting expectations for the pranking holiday in the prior years. 

Smiling Friends' return to Adult Swim turned out to be three whole episodes of the first season completely remade with puppets. They were the same episodes beat for beat, but had three different distinct kinds of puppet styles revealed throughout the evening. This fun new puppet take on Smiling Friends eventually led to the sneaky premiere of Season 2's first episode, but Adult Swim is still having fun with these puppets by showing off a fun comparison between the puppet episode and the original "Mr. Frog" series premiere. Check it out below: 

What Is Smiling Friends Season 2 Release Date?

Smiling Friends might have sneakily premiered the first episode of Season 2 with Adult Swim after the puppet episodes during the April Fools' Day event, but it won't be too much longer before fans get to see the rest of the season. Smiling Friends Season 2 will be premiering on Sunday, May 12th at midnight with new episodes then being available to stream with Max the day after their initial premiere. It's time to catch up with everything that happened in the first time around before the new season hits. 

If you wanted to check out the first season of Smiling Friends for yourself, you can find the first season (and "Go to Brazil" special) now streaming with Max and available on Blu-ray. Adult Swim teases what to expect from the new season as such, "In season two of 'SMILING FRIENDS,' Pim, Charlie, Zongo, Allan and Glep continue their mission to bring happiness to the world, whether it's a washed-up retro video game character, a troubled marriage, or even the president of the United States."

What did you think of Smiling Friends' puppet episodes? Would you want to see more? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on X (formerly known as Twitter)!