In the United States, before the enforcement of the Hays Code, some cartoon shorts contained humor that was aimed at adult audience members rather than children. Following the introduction of the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, independent animation producers attempted to establish an alternative to mainstream animation, as such led to the most successful work is Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat.
Initially, few animation studios in the United States attempted to produce animation for adult audiences, but later examples of animation produced for adults would gain mainstream attention and success. Some of the most prominent animations with these mature/adult themes include Aqua Teen Hunger Force, BoJack Horseman, South Park, Family Guy, Mission Hill, and Archer, along with other adult animated television series, feature films, and animation in other forms which helped the genre expand over the years, beyond animated sitcoms.
Pre-Code animation The earliest cartoon series were based upon popular comic strips, and were directed at family audiences. Most animation produced during the silent film era was not intended to be shown to any specific age group, but occasionally contained humor that was directed at adult audience members. Writer Michael Tisserand argued that all animations were "adult swims in the early days of American animation," with shapes which were hand-drawn, frolicking and not behaving "correctly" before audience members who "reacted with shock". Some scholars, like Jason Mittel, stated that the assumed audience of these early cartoons, particularly Looney Tunes, has alternated from their initial unspecific audience, to children, and back to general audiences. The earliest known instance of censorship in animation occurred when the censorship board of Pennsylvania requested that references to bootlegging be removed from Walt Disney's 1925 short Alice Solves a Puzzle. One of the earliest animated pornographic films was Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure, produced circa 1928, possibly produced for a private party in honor of Winsor McCay. According to Karl F. Cohen's 1998 book, Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America, rumor held that the film was developed in Cuba years after it was completed, because no lab in New York City would process the film.
The Motion Picture Association of America, then known as the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association, was established in 1922 as the result of public objection to adult content in films, and a series of guidelines were established. Until the Hays Code was enforced, many animated shorts featured suggestive content, including sexual innuendo, references to alcohol and drug use, and mild profanity. In the 1920s and 1930s, X-rated cartoons were produced and shown, building upon the "small non-theatrical industry" which had developed "around pornographic films before WWI."
The latter cartoons came at time when the U.S. military began to commission animated films to train recruits. Also see pages 2 and 3 This morphed into the U.S. Army's First Motion Picture Unit, which existed from 1942 to 1945, located at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California. The unit included filmmakers like Frank Capra, Looney Tunes creator Rudolf Ising, animator Frank Thomas, and cartoonist Dr. Seuss. It produced hundreds of animated "training films on a continuous schedule.". Animation was integral in these films, helping pilots fly airplanes, soldiers learn the fine points of military camouflage, or train others how to correctly use hand-held weapons.
In addition, the Betty Boop series was known for its use of jokes that would eventually be considered taboo following the enforcement of the Hays Code, including the use of nudity. This included the short Bamboo Isle, which contains a sequence in which Betty dances the hula topless, wearing only a lei over her breasts and a grass skirt. According to animator Shamus Culhane, Fleischer Studios and Paramount Pictures were shocked by the sequence, but because it was a major sequence, it could not be cut out of the film. Culhane also states that he does not remember any instance in which the film was censored. Betty's hula animation was reused for a cameo appearance with Popeye the Sailor in his self-titled animated debut short of the same name. Following the enforcement of the Hays Code, Betty's clothing was redesigned, and all future shorts portrayed her with a longer dress which did not emphasize her physique and sexuality.
After the Hays Code By 1968, the Hays Office had been eliminated, and the former guidelines were replaced by the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system. The lifting of the Code meant that animated features from other countries could be distributed without censorship, and that censorship would not be required for American productions. Some underground cartoon features from the late 1960s were also aimed at an adult audience, such as Bambi Meets Godzilla (1968), and the anti-war films Escalation (1968), and Mickey Mouse in Vietnam (1969). Escalation in particular is interesting because it was made by Disney animator Ward Kimball, independently from the Disney Studios. Film producer John Magnuson completed an animated short based upon an audio recording of a comedy routine by Lenny Bruce titled Thank You Mask Man (1971), in which The Lone Ranger shocks the residents of the town he saves when he tells them that he wants to have sex with Tonto. The short was made by San Francisco-based company Imagination, Inc. and directed by Jeff Hale, a former member of the National Film Board of Canada. The film was scheduled to premiere on the opening night of Z, as a supplement preceding the main feature, but was not shown. According to a former staff member of the festival, Magnuson ran up the aisle and shouted, "They crucified Lenny when he was alive and now that he is dead they are screwing him again!" The festival's director told Magnuson that the producer of Z did not want any short shown that night. Rumors suggested that the wife of one of the festival's financiers hated Bruce, and threatened to withdraw her husband's money if the short was screened. Thank You Mask Man was later shown in art house screenings, and gained a following, but screenings did not perform well enough financially for Magnuson to profit from the film.
Aeon Flux, which aired from 1991 to 1995, was an American avant-garde science fiction animated television series that aired on MTV. Liana Satenstein called it "cutting edge, bizarrely sexy, and certainly not for daytime television," which has a cult-following, while Peter Chung, the director of the animated show, stated he was inspired by the "very naked images of the late Helmut Newton." Some argued that dramatic series such as Aeon Flux and Invasion America are less common, and still rarely successful.
Space Ghost: Coast to Coast ran on Cartoon Network from 1994 to 2001, then on Adult Swim from 2001 to 2004, and on GameTap from 2006 to 2008. The first two seasons of this adult animated parody talk show were presented as a serious talk show with subdued jokes, while the later seasons relied more on surrealism, non-sequitur, and tabloid. Reportedly the first original series fully produced by Cartoon Network, it had two spinoff series in the form of Cartoon Planet and The Brak Show, while inspiring series such as Sealab 2021; Aqua Teen Hunger Force; Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law; Perfect Hair Forever; and The Eric Andre Show.
Many of the adult animated series on broadcast television have featured LGBTQ characters. Fox's The Simpsons has included gay characters, some of which were one-offs, an on-and-off-again gay couple, and lesbian characters. Additionally, gay characters appeared in Family Guy, King of the Hill Duncanville, have done the same. Additionally, bisexual characters appeared in Sit Down, Shut Up, which aired from April to November 2009, while gay characters headlined the short-lived show, Allen Gregory. The FOX adult animated sitcom, The Great North, which began airing in January 2021, included gay characters, as did the late 2006 series Freak Show, Brickleberry, which aired from 2012 to 2015, featured lesbian characters while South Park included gay and lesbian characters, as did Drawn Together.
Some depictions of LGBTQ people were criticized, like those in Family Guy and Bob's Burgers, as stereotypical, when it came to trans people In the case of Bob's Burgers, in June 2020, series creator Loren Bouchard committed to recasting a trans female sex worker character so she is voiced by a Black actor rather than a White male actor, currently David Herman. LGBTQ characters also headlined the series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, which aired on Logo TV from 2007 to 2009, including gay and lesbian couples as characters. and gay characters appeared in Chozen. Lesbian characters also appeared in The Goode Family,
Programming blocks
There are various programming blocks for broadcast television which cater to adult animation. This includes Adult Swim, a programming block on Cartoon Network, which was founded in 2001, with a schedule which includes original programs such as Rick and Morty and The Venture Bros., as well as more "experimental" shows such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies. Some said that the programming block was inspired by shows like Beavis and Butt-Head and Aeon Flux." Other animation blocs include FXX's Animation Domination High-Def, Syfy's TZGZ which includes various animated series and Fox's Animation Domination.
In the Adult Swim programming block, many of the animated series have featured LGBTQ characters. This includes gay characters in Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Mission Hill Braceface and Clone High. Also The Venture Bros. and Moral Orel featured lesbian and bisexual characters. In addition the series The Oblongs featured a trans character while Archer included gay, and bisexual characters. bro'Town included a protagonist who is fa'afafine, a Samoan concept for a third gender person, and Superjail! included a gay couple. The Boondocks featured gay characters, as did Rick and Morty. Rick and Morty also confirmed other characters as queer in the show's fifth season. In addition, Final Space, which aired on Adult Swim and HBO Max, included bisexual, genderless, and lesbian characters. Magical Girl Friendship Squad: Origins and Magical Girl Friendship Squad, on SYFY's TZGZ bloc, included queer characters.
Streaming services
Some critics have argued that the streaming platforms are in a "war" with one another, during which adult animation is growing, as the genre changes, demand increases, and companies participate in production of these series. Companies such as Paramount Global, Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV+, Paramount+, Max, Disney+, and Crunchyroll have worked to expand their adult animation slates and offerings, There were even panels hosted on the topic, noting the companies producing adult animations. This competition has led some to argue that the adult animation field is in a "golden age" and that there is a post-pandemic boom.
In the 2020s, HBO Max, Hulu, Comedy Central, and Disney+, competed to grow the number of adult animations on their streaming services in order to grow their subscriber bases. This included the launch of a hub within the Disney+ streaming service, Star, for television and film content intended for an adult audience, the creation of a channel known as Comedy Central Animation for Pluto TV, ramping up "adult animation programming" on Paramount+, and HBO Max expanding their "adult animation slate" beyond South Park to gain exclusive streaming rights of various series.