50 free Adult Swim trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Adult Swim trivia questions with answers. Adult Swim started as a late-night experiment on Cartoon Network in September 2001, with a lifeguard yelling 'all kids out of the pool' between shows built from recycled Hanna-Barbera footage. A quarter-century later it has launched Rick and Morty, revived Family Guy and Toonami, terrified Boston with LED Mooninites and made April Fools' Day a national holiday for insomniacs. This Adult Swim trivia quiz covers the block's origins, the Williams Street shows from Space Ghost Coast to Coast to Smiling Friends, the anime, the bumps and the pranks. The 50 questions run from easy for anyone who watched in college to hard for people who remember stealth premieres at 4 a.m., so it suits a solo run or a TV round at trivia night. Every answer is checked against the documented history of the block and its shows.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Adult Swim's original pool bumpers, what did the lifeguard shout through a megaphone?
All kids out of the pool
The logo appeared over freeze-frames of the pool footage; the theme was a remix of a Tito Puente mambo.
Q 02On what date did Adult Swim officially launch?
September 2, 2001
The launch was delayed five months from an original April Fools' Day target; the first show was a shelved episode of Home Movies.
Q 03Which head programmer conceived Adult Swim?
Mike Lazzo
He rejected the names 'Parental Warning' and 'Parental Block' before landing on the swimming-pool reference.
Q 04What does the name 'Adult Swim' refer to?
Pool hours reserved for adults only
The original bumps showed elderly swimmers at public pools while a megaphone-wielding lifeguard yelled 'all kids out of the pool'.
Q 05What was Williams Street, the studio that programs Adult Swim, originally called?
Ghost Planet Industries
Mike Lazzo and Keith Crofford ran the in-house studio for most of its existence, both retiring in December 2019.
Q 06Which 1994 talk-show parody was Williams Street's first series?
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
It reused Hanna-Barbera animation and moved to Adult Swim on the block's launch night in 2001.
Q 07Which show opened Adult Swim on launch night with an episode that its original network, UPN, had shelved?
Home Movies
Lazzo yelled 'Buy it!' after two episodes; season one was animated in Squigglevision.
Q 08Which anime was the first broadcast on Adult Swim, on the night it launched?
Cowboy Bebop
The Saturday anime block that followed in 2002 was branded Adult Swim Action.
Q 09Aqua Teen Hunger Force follows three anthropomorphic fast-food items. Which three?
Master Shake, Meatwad and Frylock
Their human neighbour Carl provides most of the friction; every episode was written and directed by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro.
Q 10How did Sealab 2021, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Harvey Birdman first reach the air in December 2000?
As unannounced 4 a.m. 'stealth' premieres
Schedules listed them only as 'Special Programming' while Space Ghost was on hiatus.
Q 11Sealab 2021 recycled animation from a 1970s environmental cartoon by which studio?
Hanna-Barbera
Adam Reed and Matt Thompson, later of Archer, created it; the original was Sealab 2020.
Q 12Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law was a spin-off of which Adult Swim show?
Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Its co-creator Michael Ouweleen became president of Adult Swim in 2020.
Q 13Which Fox sitcom about the Griffins of Quahog did Adult Swim reruns help revive in 2004?
Family Guy
Fox announced the revival less than a year after the block began airing it, and it stayed on Adult Swim for 18 years.
Q 21Which 2007 sketch series brought Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim's anti-humour to the block?
Awesome Show, Great Job!
Regular guests included Zach Galifianakis, John C. Reilly, Bob Odenkirk and Tommy Wiseau.
Q 22Which cult 2003 film did Adult Swim air, sex scenes blacked out, as a 2009 April Fools' prank?
The Room
It was followed by a Tim and Eric episode starring the film's director, Tommy Wiseau.
Q 23Which defunct anime block did Adult Swim revive as a 2012 April Fools' stunt, then permanently?
Toonami
It is hosted by the robot TOM, voiced by Steve Blum, and now runs Saturday nights.
Q 14Robot Chicken, co-created by Seth Green, is animated using what?
Stop-motion with toys
The twelve-minute sketch show has won six Emmys and did a Star Wars special voiced by George Lucas himself.
Q 15Which Adult Swim series about the Cuylers, hillbilly 'mud squids' in Georgia, ran for 13 seasons?
Squidbillies
An unfinished pilot aired as the 2005 April Fools' prank instead of Robot Chicken.
Q 16Metalocalypse centres on which fictional death metal band?
Dethklok
By the end of season two the band ranks as the seventh-largest economy on Earth; creator Brendon Small wrote and played the music.
Q 17Which Adult Swim series, created by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, ran seven seasons over fifteen years?
The Venture Bros.
It was cancelled in 2020 and wrapped up with the film Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart.
Q 18The Boondocks, based on Aaron McGruder's comic strip, follows the Freemans in which fictional suburb?
Woodcrest
The fourth and final season was made without McGruder's involvement.
Q 19On January 31, 2007, Boston police mistook LED signs of which Aqua Teen characters for bombs?
The Mooninites
Turner paid $2 million in amends and Cartoon Network's general manager Jim Samples resigned.
Q 20How much did Turner Broadcasting and its marketing firm agree to pay after the Boston Mooninite panic?
$2 million
Half went to the city and half to goodwill funds; the signs were promoting the Aqua Teen movie.
Q 24Which comedian co-hosted The Eric Andre Show for its first 42 episodes?
Hannibal Buress
He was replaced by 'Blannibal', played by James Hazley, for five episodes.
Q 25Who created Rick and Morty?
Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon
They met at Harmon's Channel 101 short-film festival; Adult Swim cut ties with Roiland in 2023.
Q 26Which two actors took over the voices of Rick and Morty from season seven?
Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden
Producers promised 'soundalikes' with no other changes to the characters.
Q 27How did Adult Swim premiere Rick and Morty's third season on April 1, 2017?
By airing the episode unannounced on a loop all evening
'The Rickshank Rickdemption' ran from 8 p.m. to midnight and led McDonald's to bring back Szechuan sauce.
Q 28Which McDonald's item returned in 2018 because of a Rick and Morty joke?
Szechuan sauce
Rick's obsession with the Mulan tie-in dip in the season 3 premiere sparked the demand.
Q 29By the end of 2025, how many Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Animated Program had Rick and Morty won?
Two
It won in 2018 and 2020 from three nominations, and has two Annie Awards too.
Q 30Too Many Cooks, the viral 2014 short, first aired at what time in Adult Swim's Infomercials block?
4:00 a.m.
Casper Kelly's parody of sitcom credits mutates through a slasher film and sci-fi; it was re-run at midnight for a week after going viral.