5:20PM, Jul 03, 2009
One of the internet's biggest viral sensations finally hits our TV screens.
But be warned, this cartoon is not for the faint of heart.
The Smurfs, My Little Pony, Care Bears. Everyone loves cute, fuzzy-wuzzy cartoon animals, don't they?
Now imagine someone's just sprinkled the Smurfs into a blender, run the ponies through a glue-factory and declared open-season on the bears.
Welcome to the world of Happy Tree Friends.
Each 10 minute short follows a regular group of nauseatingly endearing, ickle-wickle cartoon woodland critters. Short-sighted anteaters, a disabled beaver handyman and a clueless mongoose are just a few of the squeaky-voiced, brightly coloured characters who we see going about their everyday lives.
Except they don't seem to lead very lucky ones, and by the end of each episode every character has usually met their maker in a number of overtly graphic, gory and excessively bloody ways.
Every death is surprisingly elaborate, resulting in each mini unfolding like a mash-up of Saw, Final Destination and the Gummi Bears.
Consider this: your typical episode of Happy Tree Friends makes the gore-tastic excess of Itchy & Scratchy look as violent as Postman Pat.
Disembowelings, decapitations, spontaneous combustion, cannibalism and leisurely impalement are just an entree to the majority of the hilariously twisted demises waiting for our hapless crew.
Like marmite, Jeremy Clarkson and chicken bhunas, Happy Tree Friends is unquestionably something you're going to either love or hate.
But if you enjoy adult comedy in the vein of South Park and Adult Swim, you're in good company here.
Find out when Happy Tree Friends is on TV.
