Adult Swim's Funniest New Animated Series Just Got A Shockingly Confident Renewal Order

Adult Swim launched some pretty fantastic new original series this year, like the absurdist Afrofuturist "Oh My God... Yes! A Series of Extremely Relatable Circumstances," and the Spanish-language stop motion marvel "Women Wearing Shoulder Pads," but Joe Cappa's "HAHA, You Clowns" is operating on another level. With unsettling and disproportionate character designs, a voice cast consisting predominantly of Cappa himself, and a relentlessly wholesome approach to comedy, "HAHA, You Clowns" is unlike any other adult animation sitcom currently on the air.

I was fortunate enough to have the chance to speak with Cappa about the show and learn just how hands-off Adult Swim was during the series' production, and learn how he managed to keep the Midwestern sensibilities of his characters in a show that would be viewed by audiences across the globe. I've said before that Adult Swim is the last bastion we have of envelope-pushing, fearless television, and "HAHA, You Clowns" is proof positive of that.

I cannot imagine a show as weird-looking or as saccharine as the world Cappa has created for The Campbell Boys (Preson, Tristan, and Duncan) and their Dad, Tom (all voiced by Cappa), existing anywhere other than Adult Swim, even if they have plenty of competition these days from networks and streamers. A show like "HAHA, You Clowns" requires faith from higher-ups that a creator like Cappa knows exactly what he's doing, and Adult Swim has continuously proven to be one of the best places for that to happen.

Cappa clearly did a bang-up job raising these boys, because ahead of the series' season 1 finale, Adult Swim has announced that they've renewed the hit comedy show for two additional seasons.

The doting Campbell Boys and their tenderhearted widower father will return for seasons 2 and 3, with plenty of new problems to talk through and expressions of healthy masculinity to model for the audience. "It's amazing that Joe and the team made something as radically heartfelt and strangely uncanny as 'Haha, You Clowns,'" said Michael Ouweleen, president of Adult Swim, in a press announcement. "But what's even more amazing is that – in this cynical, uncertain time – all of you showed up for this new show, championed for it on social media, and grew it week over week so we could greenlight not one, but two more seasons. In the words of the show: 'You are strong! You are loved!'"

Cappa told me during our interview that he could write stories for these characters forever, and I'm thrilled that he's getting that chance. "I'm so grateful to the fans of the show who gave 'Haha, You Clowns' a chance and spread the word," said Cappa in the announcement. "I'm incredibly thrilled I get to hang out at the Campbell household for a little longer." I, too, am grateful, because it now gives me even more motivation to force every person I know in real life (and anyone reading this here) to watch it. "HAHA, You Clowns" is one of the most delightfully unhinged cartoons airing right now. There are no cutaway gags, no topical fluff, just each episode zeroing in on some obscure character flaw or mundane problem and distorting itself to find a perfectly distilled restorative resolution.

"HAHA, You Clowns" had its start as part of the Adult Swim SMALLS series before expanding into a full-season order. The season finale airs this Sunday at 11:45 p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim.