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43 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 43 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 43 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
'All kids out of the pool': the early bumpers used grainy footage of elderly swimmers at public pools, with the logo dropping in over freeze-frames.
Q 02On what date did Adult Swim officially launch?
September 2, 2001
Adult Swim launched on September 2, 2001, a Sunday night on Cartoon Network, nine days before the September 11 attacks.
Q 03Which head programmer conceived Adult Swim?
Mike Lazzo
Mike Lazzo, Cartoon Network's head of programming, conceived the block and ran its Williams Street studio until he retired in 2019.
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
Ghost Planet Industries was renamed Williams Street after the Atlanta street where the studio is based.
Q 06Which show opened Adult Swim on launch night with an episode that its original network, UPN, had shelved?
Home Movies
Home Movies, Brendon Small's show about a kid filmmaker, opened the block; UPN had dropped it after five episodes in 1999, and its first season used Squigglevision.
Q 07Which anime was the first broadcast on Adult Swim, on the night it launched?
Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop aired on the block's first night in 2001; the space-western anime went on to become a fixture of the block for years.
Q 08Aqua 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 09How did Sealab 2021, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Harvey Birdman first reach the air in December 2000?
As unannounced 4 a.m. 'stealth' premieres
They were 'stealth' premieres, slipped unannounced into Cartoon Network's 4 a.m. slot in December 2000, nine months before the block launched.
Q 10Sealab 2021 recycled animation from a 1970s environmental cartoon by which studio?
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera made the original Sealab 2020 in 1972; Adam Reed and Matt Thompson, later of Archer, redubbed its footage with new dialogue.
Q 11Which actor voices the title character in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law?
Gary Cole
Gary Cole, Office Space's Bill Lumbergh, voices Harvey Birdman, the 1960s superhero turned bumbling attorney.
Q 12Which cancelled Fox sitcom did strong Adult Swim rerun ratings help revive in 2004?
Family Guy
Family Guy's Adult Swim reruns drew such strong ratings that Fox ordered new episodes, which began airing in May 2005.
Q 13Robot 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 21Which cult 2003 film did Adult Swim air, sex scenes blacked out, as a 2009 April Fools' prank?
The Room
The Room, Tommy Wiseau's notoriously inept 2003 drama, aired on April 1, 2009, with its sex scenes cut.
Q 22Which defunct anime block did Adult Swim revive as a 2012 April Fools' stunt, then permanently?
Toonami
Toonami returned on April 1, 2012, as a prank, then came back for good that May, hosted by the robot TOM, voiced by Steve Blum.
Q 23Which comedian co-hosted The Eric Andre Show for its first four seasons?
Hannibal Buress
Hannibal Buress was Eric Andre's deadpan co-host from the 2012 debut; he stepped back in season 5 and was briefly replaced by a lookalike, 'Blannibal'.
Q 14Which Adult Swim series about the Cuyler family of north Georgia ran for 13 seasons?
Squidbillies
Squidbillies ran from 2005 to 2021 over 13 seasons; Unknown Hinson voiced patriarch Early Cuyler for most of the run.
Q 15Metalocalypse centres on which fictional death metal band?
Dethklok
Dethklok is so popular that the show calls it the world's seventh-largest economy; creator Brendon Small wrote and played the band's music.
Q 16Which Adult Swim series, created by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, ran seven seasons over fifteen years?
The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros. ran from 2003 to 2018, was cancelled in 2020, and wrapped up with the 2023 film Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart.
Q 17The Boondocks, based on Aaron McGruder's comic strip, follows the Freemans in which fictional suburb?
Woodcrest
Woodcrest is the white suburb where Huey and Riley Freeman move in with their grandfather; the fourth and final season was made without McGruder.
Q 18On January 31, 2007, Boston police mistook LED signs of which Aqua Teen characters for bombs?
The Mooninites
The Mooninites, Ignignokt and Err, were on LED placards promoting the Aqua Teen movie; Cartoon Network general manager Jim Samples resigned over the scare.
Q 19How much did Turner Broadcasting and its marketing firm agree to pay after the Boston Mooninite panic?
$2 million
$2 million: Turner and marketing firm Interference Inc. paid $1 million toward the emergency response and $1 million in goodwill funds.
Q 20Which 2007 sketch series brought Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim's anti-humour to the block?
Awesome Show, Great Job!
Awesome Show, Great Job! ran five seasons from 2007 to 2010; regular guests included Zach Galifianakis, John C. Reilly and Bob Odenkirk.
Q 24Who 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 25Which two actors took over the voices of Rick and Morty from season seven?
Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden
Ian Cardoni (Rick) and Harry Belden (Morty) debuted in the season 7 premiere in October 2023, chosen as soundalikes after the original voice actor was dropped.
Q 26Which McDonald's item came back because of a Rick and Morty joke?
Szechuan sauce
Szechuan sauce, a 1998 Mulan tie-in, came back after Rick's obsession with it in the season 3 premiere; McDonald's shipped 20 million packets in February 2018.
Q 27Which Rick and Morty episode won the show's first Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program?
Pickle Rick
'Pickle Rick', the season 3 episode in which Rick turns himself into a pickle, won the 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
Q 28Too Many Cooks, the viral 2014 short, first aired at what time in Adult Swim's Infomercials block?
4:00 a.m.
4:00 a.m.: Casper Kelly's 11-minute parody of sitcom credits aired in the Infomercials slot on October 28, 2014, and went viral within days.
Q 29Which Adult Swim online show involved hosts narrating over footage of the Williams Street fish tank?
FishCenter Live
FishCenter Live, a daily livestream from 2014, had hosts chatting and taking viewer calls over live footage of the office fish tank.
Q 30Primal, the dialogue-free series about a caveman and a T. rex, was created by which animator?
Genndy Tartakovsky
Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack, made Primal; Spear and Fang lose their families in the opening episode.