Adult Swim has built up an audience over the years, thanks to great animated late night programming and a cheeky marketing attitude. That attitude was extremely apparent this week, when the network created a petition that would force Adult Swim to sign the petition to bring the former series Metalocalypse back. Even funnier? If you want to sign the petition to get the other petition signed, Adult Swim is forcing fans to fax in their submissions… and they are live streaming it.
Here’s what’s happening. Metalocalypse was cancelled way back in 2013, and series creator Brendon Small has been trying to get one more set of episodes on the air ever since then. In fact, there’s an entire website focused on bringing the show back called Metalocalypse Now. In addition, fans of Metalocalypse have had a Change.org petition up on the website for months. The petition directly states that it will be up until it has 100,000 signatures, and right now it’s rolling at a solid 93,101. While the petition was up, fans were on social media and other places demanding more episodes, as well. Small even produced a social media post last week that indicated new episodes might be getting off of the ground.
Sounds appealing, right? Except that Adult Swim is now telling fans to fax in 125 words on why Metalocalypse should come back, noting that even if there are enough people signing the petition to force Adult Swim to sign the original petition, it will in no way force Adult Swim to bring back Metalocalypse. It will likely amuse the hell out of all of Adult Swim’s employees, however. As riveting as watching a mostly motionless fax machine is, if that is an activity that is right up your alley, do head here.
We live in a day and age when a lot of series are getting revived, so putting together a new version of Metalocalypse wouldn’t be totally out of the question, especially since the show still had plots to wrap up. The last time we got new Metalocalypse was in 2013, when Adult Swim released Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem, which is currently streaming over at Hulu Plus. Were this any other network, this complicated scheme would almost certainly end in new episodes. Why the hell would a group of executives get the hopes of fans up, only to say a revival isn't happening?
This isn't any other network, though. Adult Swim has long prided itself on doing whatever the hell it wants. So, there is a distinct possibility this is all just one Adult Swim giant middle finger directed at Adult Swim. Or it could be an epic grassroots marketing campaign that ends in the network bringing the show back. No one knows, and that's what is so incredibly amusing.
