Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Best Episodes, Ranked

There is truly no better way to experience the surreal world of Aqua Teen Hunger Force than by explaining the plot and ending of its most memorable episodes. Following the life and exploits of a shake cup, medium-sized fries, a ball of meat, and their next-door neighbor, the plots don’t make any sense; the characters are constantly contradicting each other, and there’s little to no resolution, instead opting out for indifference at the face of all the absurdity. Running for 11 seasons and with two feature-length films to boast about, the legendary Adult Swim program was part of a very special time in television history, making it all the more impactful in its influence and sustainability. Here are some of its very best episodes:

13/13 Revenge of the Trees (S2 E13)

Shake and Carl dump a vat of hot oil in a nearby forest. The trees inhabiting the area come to life and take Carl as prisoner and kidnap Shake to bring him to trial at the wood court. The episode is a classic unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object; the trees refuse to listen to reason, and Shake consistently doubles down on his horrible behavior, breaking the arms of a small tree and lying about his age. Frylock becomes so frustrated with the situation he uses his laser eyes to burn down the whole forest. Also, it’s important to mention that Carl’s skin is constantly getting peeled to be used as court documents. As you may have noted, the humor is found both in the dialogue and in the completely illogical plots.

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12/13 Fry Legs (S6 E8)

Frylock begins to act very psychotic when he develops an infatuation for his IT repair clerk. He stalks her to a diner with her boyfriend, killing him and using his body as a disguise to gain her love. Despite his best efforts, she refuses his advances and reveals to be a monster from another world, killing Shake at the end after Frylock struck out. The episode is remembered by the fanbase for Frylock’s uncharacteristic behavior, going well out of character in his action and leaving many disturbed in the process.

11/13 Rubberman (S7 E2)

Frylock constructs a duck made out of used condoms and needles that magically comes to life when Meatwad puts a G-men fantasy lamp in his head. Named Lance by Meatwad, he begins to develop a craving for modifications to his body, ordering Meatwad to commit a bevy of heinous deeds, such as cutting Carl’s arms off and a police officer’s feet. He is finally stopped when he’s tricked into removing his magic hat.

10/13 Interfection (S1 E15)

When Shake compulsively clicks on a pop-up ad, he initiates a sequence that transports them into the real world, where he compulsively clicks on them too. It gets to a point where the whole house is riddled with them, forcing Frylock to take extra measures to ensure their deletion. He travels to the cybernetic world and requests that they stop, only to be laughed out of the room and forced to move out to where the internet isn’t available.

9/13 The Greatest Story Ever Told (S11 E9)

The final episode of the series, following what was a red-herring series finale the week before, feels like the true proper send-off to the show. Shake discovers he is immortal and forms a cult with 12 disciples who eat off his liver, while Frylock and Carl become immortal through a shampoo and go on wacky attempts to mutilate their bodies out of thrill. Their stories culminate in a glorious shootout that sees every member dying a gruesome but honorable death. As if there was any other way for a show like this to end.

8/13 T-Shirt of the Living Dead (S3 E11)

When Shake steals a T-Shirt belonging to an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh in the hopes of gaining its powers, Meatwad is the only one who can access its power after it shrinks in the drier. Instead of wishing for what Shake wants, Meatwad wished for the Easter bunny, an Eastern bunny monster, and Santa Claus. When Santa Claus is severely burned by the Easter bunny monster, the group starts delivering presents for Christmas, even thought it was established in the episode that it’s July.

7/13 Gee Whiz (S3 E4)

When Meatwad gets pregnant after praying to a billboard of a shotgun’s stock resembling the image of Jesus Christ (but he’s not allowed to say his name, so he substitutes it with Gee Whiz), the group is forced to accept things are going to be very different when the child is born. None of them ever questions how or why it’s possible for Meatwad to get pregnant, and they only accidentally discover he’s just carrying a hundred spider eggs when they do a sonogram. The episode ends with Meatwad stuck in the house full of baby spiders and Shake complaining that he can’t watch The Lord of the Rings. Also, Ted Nugent suddenly shows up and shoots Carl in the arm, causing him to explode into a colorful rainbow. Brilliant story.

6/13 Dickesode (S4 E4)

Carl is being hunted down by agents of Mr. Wongburger, a phallus-like creature obsessed with cutting off people’s genitalia in the hopes of collecting enough of them to return to his home planet, Dick Planet. When his plan fails, Wongburger gives up and crashes his spaceship in a “building made out of dicks”, and the episode ends. You can’t get a better at storytelling than this. It has tension, drama, and stakes, everything needed to create high art.

5/13 Bible Fruit (S5 E9)

Frylock invites a couple of friends he made on MySpace to the house for a party, only for them to be complete maniacs who are into orgies, cocaine, alcohol, debauchery, and Jesus. Their attempts to be normal are constantly interrupted by bouts of maniacal outbursts. The evening dilutes into a chaotic bout of alcohol withdrawal that results in Shake getting his head cut off when Frylock tells them he has cocaine in his possession. Guess starring David Cross as Bert Banana, the de facto leader of the group of visitors, it may very well be the best guest appearance of the show, providing a couple of memorable one-liners and raising the tension up to 11.

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4/13 Super Squatter (S2 E8)

When Shake forgets (or refuses, hard to tell) to pay the electric bill, their house is left without electricity. Instead of fixing the problem, Shake spends the remainder of his time leeching off his neighbor Carl’s appliances, resulting in the amputation of Carl’s foot and the subsequent re-attachment to his head while his house burns down after Shake drained his power in order to supply their house with it. Shake never learns his lesson and refuses to accept blame or responsibility for anything he did, scolding Carl for going to sleep in a mountain of ants while he is on painkillers.

3/13 Ezekial (S4 E12)

A small cup resembling Shake suddenly shows up, claiming Shake is his father. Meatwad names him Jesus Ezekial Jesus because it’s from the Bible. After trying to drown him, Shake decides to train him to become a basketball and tennis star, but Ezekial’s failures leave Shake suicidal. Shake regains love for his son when he beats the Chess Dragon (a literal chess piece with a dragon in it) in chess, only for Frylock to reveal Ezekial is 4000 years old. Shake steals the show for the entirety of this episode, supplying most of the comedy and acting as his very worst self while giving us ample material for comedy.

2/13 Hand Banana (S4 E5)

Meatwad asks Frylock to make him a dog; he says okay without hesitation, and uses Carl’s pool for the process. Meatwad named him Hand Banana and no explanation for the name is ever given. The dog, while far from normal (he looks exactly like Shake’s hands because that’s the only DNA they used), appears to be a simple dog. However, he develops an infatuation for Carl, and begins sexually assaulting him many times. When all his efforts are met with obstacles, Carl creates his own dog in the hopes that it sexually assaults Hand Banana, except he doesn’t really care for him and instead, sexually assaults Carl, too. It is considered the best episode among many in the fanbase.

1/13 Total Re-Carl (S2 E12)

Frylock kills Carl when a jet engine-powered toilet sucks him through the pipes. The group spends the rest of the episode trying to find a replacement body for Carl’s head, the only part that remained intact and wasn’t turned into liquid. After a long search with no success, from the body of a dead person to a body made completely out of eyeballs, Carl is revived using a toy truck, not really fixing the issue, but at least Carl is alive. Out of all the episodes that best exemplify what type of show Aqua Teen Hunger Force is, this is perhaps the very best. Nothing made sense, and it was constantly being one-upped by the very next scene.

The only thing keeping it together was the brilliant chemistry between the characters and the indifferent dialogue to the situation; instead of acting surprised or shocked, every instance of absurdity is treated as normal, as if the characters are used to living in such an absurd world. This is the line that separated most shows from Aqua Teen, and it’s a line worth teetering over in the name of art.