Adult Swim

Background

Adult Swim is a block of Cartoon Network started in 2001, beginning as an once-a-week block that would air adult animation, new and imported, for three hours each night. It got so popular, it expanded to be a daily block which covers all of 5 PM - 6 AM on CN, and is even considered a separate channel by Nielsen. It is overall most famous for giving cancelled shows like Family Guy, Futurama, Home Movies and Tuca and Bertie enough exposure to get picked up again (with new episodes of the latter two shows actually airing on AS itself).

Like Cartoon Network briefly did in the late 2000s, Adult Swim eventually started adding live-action programming, but this decision has been more warmly welcomed, due to the popularity of such resulting shows as Tim and Eric, its spinoff Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule and The Eric Andre Show, and unlike its present network, live-action shows still air to this day. This in turn led to the opening of a YouTube branch, which occasionally airs on the channel itself, which has made such (in)famous videos as On Cinema at the Cinema, Too Many Cooks, Unedited Footage of a Bear and Bushworld Adventures (a mock episode of their fan favorite show Rick and Morty).

A full-time Canadian version was launched by Corus on April 1, 2019, replacing Action under its license. The block on the Canadian equivalent of Cartoon Network ceased operations after March 3 of that year.

Adult Swim almost never uses an actual closing logo (Williams Street unofficially serving as such, although not every AS original is from them), but there have been exceptions. The unofficial former closing logo used for Adult Swim is Cartoon Network Productions' 5th logo.

1st Logo (2016-)

Visuals: On a black background, the Adult Swim logo (stylized as "[adult swim]") forms by the words appearing one-by-one inside the already placed brackets.

Variant: On the videos from Adult Swim UK's YouTube account, the logo is zoomed in.

Technique: Simple 2D effects.

Audio: The Mark VII Limited "Hammer" sound from 1951-1952 (the 2003-09 Heavy Iron Studios logo uses a similar sound) from the Williams Street logo, synchronized with the animation.

Availability: Seen before the start of Adult Swim programming on Hulu and Netflix overseas. Also seen on Aqua Teen Hunger Force The Baffler Meal Collection on DVD.

2nd Logo (April 18, 2018)

Visuals: Merely a very small version of the Adult Swim logo against a black background.

Technique: A still digital graphic.

Audio: A techno tune which fades out.

Availability: Only seen on the 2018 SDCC print of the Samurai Jack series finale "CI" after the Cartoon Network Studios, Williams Street and Cartoon Network logos.

3rd Logo (February 15, 2019-)

• 
  Opening variant
• 
  Closing variant

Note: The opening variant on the first video start at 1:11.

Visuals: The brackets shift to connect the Adult Swim wordmark.

Closing Variant: The Adult Swim logo fades in.

Technique: 2D digital animation.

Audio: None.

Audio Variant: On the videos from Adult Swim France's YouTube account, a 3-note rock theme is heard.

Availability: Seen before the start or end of Adult Swim programming on E4 and All 4, as well as other countries.