Ever since its launch nearly a quarter century ago, Adult Swim has given audiences some of the best animated TV shows of all time including all kinds of random, nonsensical, and hilarious short-form shows like Smalls. This anthology series has long provided creators and animators with a platform for some of the most original cartoons on TV like Ha Ha You Clowns, one of my favorite shows going right now. And so, when I heard that the show was getting picked up for a full series, I wasn’t all that surprised for one main reason.
When I first read the June 2024 Variety report that Ha Ha You Clowns was one of the new Adult Swim series on the way, I jumped out of my seat in excitement knowing that we’d soon see more of a show that could best be described as Home Improvement if Jill Taylor died and Tim was left to raise their three strong boys alone. But more importantly, I was excited because we’ll soon get more of the show’s secret weapon: creator and animator Joe Cappa.
Who Is Joe Cappa And Why He’s The Show’s Secret Weapon
On the surface, Ha Ha You Clowns looks and feels like a strange fever dream or acid trip parodying one of the best TV sitcoms of all time, but like Joe Cappa’s other creations, this cartoon is so much more than that. It’s funny, yes, but it’s also, at times, profoundly emotional, endearing, and earnest.
Each Ha Ha You Clowns segment featured on Smalls is no longer than a couple of minutes but manages to work in oddball comedy, themes like brotherhood, family, and grief, and some sappy sitcom music that finds the balance between homage and parody masterfully. This is true when Dad surprises Preston, Tristan, and Duncan with a cruise, when they have a movie night, or even when referencing The Three Amigos in a Costco-like store.
I’ve long been a fan of Cappa’s work outside of Ha Ha You Clowns, including spot-on parodies of the Scooby Doo gang, shorts about Jesus helping a guy overcome his anger about subtitles when impressing a girl, and a high school romance blossoming from dinosaur fan fiction. Though admittingly silly, these shorts all show Cappa’s mastery of human emotion and how small moments can turn into profound events.
This is also true for Cappa’s 2021 Sundance horror short film, Ghost Dogs, which follows a newly adopted dog as it confronts the ghosts of its new family’s previous pups in a comedic, frightening, and poignant way. And now with Ha Ha You Clowns getting a series order and giving Cappa more time to shine, I can’t wait to see how he continues to explore those concepts on Adult Swim.
Honestly, I'm so excited to see what the future holds for Ha Ha You Clowns and Joe Cappa in general, as I think he's one of the great yet underrecognized animators of our time. And while I’m not entirely sure when Ha Ha You Clowns will make its full series debut, or if it will be on the 2024 TV schedule, I do plan on revisiting where it got started on Smalls and other Adult Swim shows with my Max subscription in the meantime.
