Anime is one of the weirdest forms of media around. They are cartoons if one wants to be blunt about it but they are so much more than that. Anime encompasses so many genres that there is assuredly something out there for everyone from cooking to racing to samurai epics and everything in-between.
Anime also often has a lot of comedy in them. Dragon Ball Z, for example, is one of the toughest and most action-packed anime around. It’s also very silly. There are anime that aren’t just funny in spots though. There are some shows that parody the culture and these are some of the best picks out there.
10 Sgt. Frog
Sgt. Frog is about an invading race of alien frogs that is led by the charismatic and titular Sgt. Frog. He and his fellow frogs soon grow to love Earth and decide not to destroy it even though every episode is mostly about them plotting new ways to enslave everyone.
It’s an absurd comedy with the English dub seemingly going out of its way to make everything, even more, fourth-wall-breaking. It parodies anime as a whole as well as specific shows like the Gundam series.
9 Attack On Titan: Junior High
Attack on Titan: Junior High isn’t just a parody anime, it’s a mockery of the series. This was seemingly made to give fans something to watch in-between season breaks which lasted years at some points.
Instead of a bloodthirsty anime about survival, this took the Titan concept and made it more laughable. It is not as strong as the core show and it only got a half-season order, but fans of Attack on Titan and comedy anime may still want to check it out.
8 Cromartie High School
Cromartie High School looks like a typical street punk anime about delinquents. On its face, it certainly appears that way but these thugs have a heart of gold. It’s more of a Sunday strip-style anime that has a bunch of sketches in one episode.
Sometimes these segments tie together and sometimes they don’t. Whether they do or not doesn’t matter as the material is always absurd and should make viewers laugh hysterically.
7 Ghost Stories
Ghost Stories is a misleading name. It’s not a horror anime but is instead a parody of the genre. The localization for the English dub is some of the raunchiest comedies around. Not every joke may hold up from this early 2000s anime but the writing still hits more often than not.
One of the characters is dubbed to just mumble all of his lines. It’s funnier than it sounds. The show tackled a lot of Japanese mythology and turned tropes on their head.
6 Crayon Shin-Chan
Crayon Shin-chan might be one of the wildest shows to ever hit Adult Swim. It looked like a children’s anime as the main character, Shin-chan, is a preschooler. The words that come out of his mouth prove otherwise.
This isn’t a one-to-one correlation but it could be likened to South Park in terms of juxtaposing children in adult situations. It parodies typical childhood lessons like sharing and stranger danger so don’t put this on for real toddlers.
5 One Punch Man
The title of One Punch Man says it all. In a world filled with superheroes and supervillains, Saitama is the strongest hero on Earth. He doesn’t want to be though. He trained too hard and now doesn’t find fun in anything. He literally kills anything in one punch whether he winds up or just taps an opponent.
No one believes in his strength though because Saitama looks ridiculous. Every other character in the show takes everything too seriously like a typical Shonen action anime. Building tension when there shouldn’t be any is a parody of the action genre then.
4 The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is set up like a normal slice of life anime but that’s only the surface of it. The titular star, Haruhi Suzumiya, is fascinated with proving the occult is real through her after-school activities.
A typical anime might try to explain away these unnatural occurrences but everything turns out to be real. It’s a funny twist to include aliens, time travel, ghosts, and so much more. It’s a weird show that gets even stranger in the sequel season.
3 Ranma 1/2
Ranma 1/2 is about the titular Ranma and his father who both fell into magical pools in China. Ranma turns into a girl when he gets wet while his father turns into a giant panda. They’re not the only ones cursed with water-based illnesses as others can turn into pigs, geese, and so much more.
At its very core, this long-running anime and manga series is a martial arts story. There is hand-to-hand combat but most tournaments involve some sort of other activity such as fighting while ice skating. It’s a bit older but Ranma 1/2 is still good as its genre twists remain relevant.
2 G Gundam
G Gundam is almost like this mech series’ answer to the popularity of Dragon Ball Z. Earth has been turned into a war zone where every country sends a warrior to fight for them in a global tournament.
Whichever country wins gets to rule the galaxy next. The story is so over the top that the creators had to have known this was a parody of itself. There is a Gundam made out of a windmill and a Viking ship for crying out loud. It’s hilariously cheesy.
1 FLCL
FLCL, or Fooly Cooly, is the penultimate parody that pokes fun at both mediums of manga and anime. It’s hard, to sum up, what it’s about other than to call it a show that has to be seen to be believed.
Some scenes in the show are even broken down into manga panels and it breaks the fourth wall constantly. The original anime was only six episodes but it recently received two sequels. They’re not considered to be a classic but for fans of the comical original, they might wish to give them a second chance.