Four AM: the graveyard of television time slots. Forever known as the home to infomercials and syndicated re-runs, you wouldn’t be blamed for skipping out on staying up that late. If you’re a night owl, you might find yourself stuck with having to endure mediocrity. Then again, you also benefit from watching the Adult Swim programming block. A home for counter-culture and some of the strangest shows ever put on television, Adult Swim thrives off defying normal conventions that define daytime programming.
Starting on New Year’s Day in 2011, Off the Air premiered at that time slot, to the surprise of those who were still awake. Ever since, the show has maintained a low profile compared to other Adult Swim shows. However, its status as a cult classic has only been ratified by its continued renewal. With more than 44 episodes and three specials across a decade, there are no signs of stopping this bizarre anthology series.
Here’s how Off the Air captures late-night culture.
Off the Air Is Dreamlike and Surreal
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
It’s difficult to put into words what exactly happens in an episode of Off the Air. Each episode follows a specific format: a variety of short-form videos are edited into an eleven-minute compilation, with each one loosely relating to the episode’s theme. The theme for each episode is reflected in the episode’s title. For example, “Body” features everything from a cappella performance that films the interior of each singer’s throat to a Go-Pro camera on a hula-hoop to an unsettling music video featuring a jittering, dancing android.
Just describing an episode in words does the show a massive disservice, however. The show makes heavy use of unique transitions between segments, often seamlessly “melting” one segment into the next. Off the Air also heavily utilizes music, both for transitions and to set the overall mood of an episode. “Nightmares” features dark industrial tracks that reflect the unsettling imagery you’re exposed to. “Dance,” a celebration of dancing, has upbeat songs to tap your toes to. “Work” relies on extensive voice-overs in addition to a droning noise that accompanies a multitude of shorts. Every episode is a wholly unique experience, whether they’re positive or negative.
What’s especially interesting is that each segment is carefully curated for each episode, with transitions, music choice, and theme dictating whether it’ll make the cut. It makes for a beautiful 11 minutes that flows seamlessly despite the staggering differences between segments.
You really have to get into a certain environment to truly appreciate what Off the Air does. The mind should be numbed by fatigue – among other things – with the lights turned off. You shouldn’t expect anything other than a feast for the visual and aural senses. After all, it’s what Off the Air was meant for.
Off the Air Provides a Platform For Artists
The showrunner, David Hughes, originally got his start with MTV animation, editing for shows like Beavis and Butthead and Celebrity Deathmatch. When he eventually moved onto Adult Swim’s Space Ghost Coast to Coast, he was fascinated by the original programming on offer during the network’s early years. As syndication took up more of the network’s schedule in the early 2010s, no doubt driven by the successful ratings of Family Guy and similar shows, Off the Air was subsequently created as a return to Adult Swim’s surrealistic roots.
In keeping with this idea, Off the Air makes a point to feature a variety of unique artists, with some making repeat appearances across multiple episodes. David Firth, Cyriak, Clowncore, and David Lewandowski are just some of the dozens of talented artists the series showcases.
You’ll see just about everything you can imagine and then some: a hot dog murdering a chef, a serene simulation of millions of individual people falling, steaks being cooked over a canal of lava, a trippy sequence of animals morphing and melding into all kinds of elastic shapes, landscapes of all shapes, sizes, colors, and dimensions, all with varying tones and styles that often distinctly clash with each other. No two segments are alike.
Even artists that make multiple contributions often do something drastically different from before. David Firth, who provided the segments “Crooked Rot” and “Take This Pill,” depicts a surrealist stop-motion horror in the former and a biting satire of the medicine industry in the latter.
Off the Air Is Perfect for Adult Swim
Because of all this, the show remains the embodiment of what made Adult Swim so great, to begin with. It’s devoid of any kind of narrative, aiming only to celebrate the imagination, talent, and creativity that the mind can conjure up. It reflects how everyone interprets ideas in their own unique way and should be explored for a greater understanding of the world around us.
While early Adult Swim shows like Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Sealab 2021 were funny first and foremost, they also represent an era of experimentation and fun that Off the Air vigorously reinvents for the modern age.
All episodes of Off the Air can be watched on HBO Max. You can also find a 24/7 live stream of episodes on Adult Swim’s official website, in addition to a number of episodes available on Adult Swim’s YouTube channel.
