5 Best R-Rated Animated Shows (That Are Definitely NOT For Kids)
Big Mouth finally ended its run on Netflix in 2025 after eight awkward, sticky, and painfully relatable seasons. The show made its name for its inventive, funny, and informative approach to topics that no other mainstream animation had touched before, from shame and anxiety to periods and masturbation. Needless to say, it leaves behind a gap for adult animation in the streaming landscape.
With no more episodes on the horizon, it seems like a good time to look at some other animated shows that have pushed the boundaries for R-rated television. From originators to provocateurs and stone-cold modern classics, check out our guide to five animated TV shows that are definitely NOT for kids, along with some of their best voice cameos as a bonus.
(As a note, we have chosen not to include anime in this list, as we would probably be here all day!)
Having South Park—the best to ever do it, especially if you like sweary, puerile gags mixed with sharply written satire—on a list like this is a bit like having the dictionary on a ranking of best books. The Simpsons was already on autopilot by 1998—about to reach its 200th episode and attracting guest stars like U2—when Trey Parker and Matt Stone threw their deceptively amateurish-looking hand grenade onto Comedy Central and changed TV forever.
That the show continues to be one of our most essential contemporary satires—ruthlessly skewering Harry and Meghan, the manosphere and Ozempic in its last season and returning to make headlines, and make JD Vance angry, in 2025—only confirms Parker and Stone’s unique genius. Long may it last.
Most memorable voice cameo: George Clooney as Sparky the dog in the first season set the tone, but it’s got to be Radiohead in the legendary episode, Scott Tenorman Must Die.
BoJack Horseman is the kind of show that every person who sees it seems to think was written about them, so if you like a program with talking animals that makes you feel seen (Big Mouth is actually a good comparison here), if not always in the most complimentary light, it should be right up your alley. I’d also recommend it if you like The Studio, as the depictions of Hollywood life have a real sense of specificity and insider knowledge.
All things considered, that’s quite an achievement for a show in which the hero is a toxic, alcoholic, and potentially suicidal talking horse—not to mention that his bete noire is a Labrador named Mr. Peanutbutter.
Best voice cameo: We are tempted by Paul McCartney’s micro-appearance, but Alan Arkin as J.D. Salinger is too inspired to leave out.
Premiering on Prime Video in March 2021, during arguably the first major crisis of superhero fatigue, Invincible could not have come at a better time—and if you are feeling that same fatigue, or like similarly meta superhero stories like The Boys, handily also a Prime show, I can’t recommend it enough.
Boasting richly sketched characters that can die within a single episode story arc (and in a way that never takes away from the series’ overarching narrative), the show is a breath of fresh air. What’s more, after years of PG-13 MCU, the show’s delirious helpings of blood, guts, and bone-crunching violence are a visceral thrill–though not for the squeamish, even in animation.
Most memorable voice cameo: It’s lights-out across the board, but Mark Hamill brings so much warmth in his few scenes as Art Rosenbaum, the waistcoated superhero tailor.
With its unique visual style and dry sense of humour, nothing looked or sounded like Archer when it released in 2009. Even if you’re only arriving at the show today, you’ll still appreciate the freshness of its approach—especially if you like the cultural references and offbeat humour of shows like Futurama or the unhinged vibe and colourful language of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Arriving five years after Brad Bird’s The Incredibles, we cannot credit showrunner Adam Reed with re-popularising the retro-futurist spy caper, but you won’t find this kind of sex or violence in a Pixar movie. It might have overstayed its welcome in later, genre-bending seasons, but its 14-year run still goes down as one of the greatest of any animated show, TV-MA or not.
Most memorable voice cameo: There’s no shortage to choose from, but it’s got to be the late, great Anthony Bourdain as Chef Lance Casteau in Live and Let Dine.
Monkey Dust obviously can’t boast the fame and recognition of the other entries on this list, but in terms of provocation, it might be the most daring ever made—so if you are interested in seeing how far TV can push the envelope, or appreciate the humour of shows like Brass Eye, you might be interested in checking it out. Just be warned, this one pokes fun at topics that even the most audacious shows wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.
Like Nathan Barley and Jam, Dust was one of those early ‘00s shows that seemed to only exist as a DVD boxset, strictly limited to one per friend group, and passed around like a strange and haunted object—as cursed and irresistible as the VHS in The Ring. How a TV show that made jokes about IRA kneecapping, pedophilia, and adolescent Jihadists ever made it past the censors in 2003 remains a mystery. Even seen today, it packs a mightily subversive punch.
Most memorable voice cameo: Too niche for any big stars at the time, but the show featured a young Sharon Horgan in some of her first credited voice roles.
