Best Cartoons to Watch High

The best cartoons to watch high usually combine distinctive visuals, memorable music, easy-to-follow episodes and humor that still works if your attention drifts. Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, The Midnight Gospel, Regular Show and Smiling Friends are standout choices, while Bob’s Burgers and SpongeBob SquarePants are better when you want something lighter, familiar and easy to watch.

If cartoons are your go-to comfort viewing, you will want to keep the list growing well beyond these picks. Our roundup of the best animation to watch when high expands the selection with more visually rich films and series, giving you a deeper watchlist of colourful, easy-going titles that pair beautifully with a laid-back, elevated night in.

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Animation and cannabis have always been a natural match, and there is plenty more where this came from. If you want to keep the marathon going after these picks, our companion roundup of cartoons to watch stoned gathers even more colourful, easy-watching shows that pair perfectly with a relaxed, elevated evening on the sofa.

Best Cartoons to Watch High at a Glance

There is no objectively perfect cartoon for watching high. A visually overwhelming show may be entertaining for one person and irritating for another, while someone who wants effortless comedy may prefer a familiar sitcom-style cartoon over something intentionally psychedelic.

1. Adventure Time

Best overall cartoon to watch high

Adventure Time is probably the strongest all-around recommendation because it works on several levels at once. On the surface, episodes are colorful, funny and easy to follow. Beneath that simplicity, the series gradually builds a surprisingly strange world filled with surreal characters, emotional stories and unexpected philosophical ideas.

Its short episodes also make it ideal when you do not want to commit to a complicated plot for an entire evening. You can watch one standalone adventure or let several episodes run without needing to follow every detail.

Visually, Adventure Time moves effortlessly between cute, bizarre and genuinely psychedelic imagery. It is imaginative without constantly trying to overwhelm the viewer, which makes it a safer recommendation than some of the more chaotic shows further down this list.

2. Rick and Morty

Best for sci-fi and dark comedy

Rick and Morty combines science-fiction concepts with absurd humor, alternate realities and deliberately ridiculous situations. Episodes can jump from ordinary family problems to interdimensional disasters within minutes, so there is almost always something unusual happening on screen.

The show works particularly well for viewers who enjoy complicated ideas presented through comedy. Episodes involving simulations, parallel universes or altered realities can become surprisingly absorbing, although the more plot-heavy stories require more attention than something like Bob’s Burgers or SpongeBob SquarePants.

Its darker humor will not suit everyone. If you want something warm and relaxing, Adventure Time or Bob’s Burgers is probably a better choice.

3. The Midnight Gospel

Best trippy cartoon to watch high

The Midnight Gospel is the most deliberately psychedelic show on this list. It combines surreal animation with long conversations about subjects such as consciousness, meditation, death, spirituality and relationships.

The unusual part is that the dialogue and visuals often seem to exist almost independently. Characters may be calmly discussing mortality while the animated world around them collapses into complete chaos.

That contrast makes the series visually fascinating, but it also means The Midnight Gospel is not really passive background entertainment. It works best when you are interested in both abstract animation and philosophical conversation.

Some episodes also deal heavily with grief and death, so it may not be the right choice when you simply want something light.

4. Regular Show

Best laid-back cartoon

Regular Show begins with two friends working at a park and somehow turns everyday problems into completely absurd adventures.

A task as simple as replacing a chair or organizing an event can escalate into supernatural battles, strange dimensions or encounters with bizarre creatures.

The familiar structure makes the weirdness work particularly well. You rarely need to understand a complicated mythology before watching an episode, and the friendship between Mordecai and Rigby keeps everything grounded even when the story becomes ridiculous.

There is also a strong nostalgic quality to the music, video-game references and visual style, which makes Regular Show one of the easiest series here to put on for an extended viewing session.

5. Smiling Friends

Best for unpredictable humor

Smiling Friends is ideal if your sense of humor leans toward awkward conversations, strange character designs and jokes that appear with almost no warning.

Episodes are short and move quickly, but the show rarely becomes difficult to follow. Instead, much of the comedy comes from extremely unusual characters behaving as though everything happening around them is perfectly normal.

Its mix of animation styles also gives the series a distinctive look. Traditional 2D animation may suddenly be interrupted by 3D characters, live-action elements or intentionally uncomfortable visual designs.

For viewers who enjoy Adult Swim-style absurdity, Smiling Friends is one of the strongest modern options.

6. The Amazing World of Gumball

Best for visual creativity

The Amazing World of Gumball is much stranger visually than its children’s-cartoon appearance initially suggests.

The series mixes traditional animation with CGI, puppetry, photographic backgrounds and characters rendered in completely different artistic styles. Somehow, all of those elements exist naturally in the same world.

That visual variety gives almost every episode something unexpected to look at.

The humor also works beyond its younger target audience, frequently using satire, internet culture and absurd interpretations of everyday family life. It is colorful without being exhausting and strange without becoming difficult to understand.

If animation style itself is what you want to appreciate, Gumball is an easy recommendation.

7. Bob’s Burgers

Best comfort cartoon

Not every cartoon worth watching high needs to be psychedelic.

Bob’s Burgers is almost the opposite. Its appeal comes from familiar characters, conversational humor and relatively ordinary situations that slowly become ridiculous.

The Belcher family also makes the show unusually warm compared with many adult animated comedies. Even when family members irritate one another, the series rarely becomes cynical for long.

That makes it a good choice when you do not want aggressive visuals, complicated plots or emotionally intense storytelling.

Episodes are easy to enter without knowing much about previous seasons, so it also works particularly well as comfort viewing.

8. Futurama

Best classic sci-fi cartoon

Futurama offers science fiction without the relentless chaos of Rick and Morty.

Its futuristic setting provides aliens, robots, strange planets and ridiculous technology, but the storytelling is usually structured like a traditional sitcom. That combination makes episodes imaginative while remaining relatively easy to follow.

The series is also filled with background jokes and small visual details that are easy to miss during a first viewing.

At the same time, some episodes can become unexpectedly emotional, so Futurama offers more range than its premise suggests.

If you want science-fiction ideas but find Rick and Morty too frantic, Futurama is probably the better option.

9. Samurai Jack

Best visually immersive cartoon

Samurai Jack often communicates through composition, music and movement rather than constant dialogue.

Large portions of certain episodes contain very little conversation. Instead, the show uses dramatic landscapes, unusual framing and carefully paced action to tell the story.

That minimalism makes Samurai Jack stand out from almost every comedy-heavy recommendation on this list.

It is especially good when you want to pay attention to animation itself rather than jokes.

Some later episodes are darker and more violent than the original Cartoon Network seasons, so viewers looking specifically for a calm experience may prefer earlier episodes.

10. SpongeBob SquarePants

Best nostalgic choice

Early SpongeBob SquarePants remains one of the easiest cartoons to recommend because its comedy is simple, fast and extremely familiar to many viewers.

The exaggerated facial expressions, strange sound effects and bizarre interpretation of life under the sea can feel surprisingly surreal when revisited as an adult.

Episodes also require almost no commitment. You can start virtually anywhere without needing to remember a storyline from previous episodes.

For a nostalgic marathon, the earlier seasons are particularly strong and include many of the episodes that became long-running internet memes.

11. Primal

Best animated show without much dialogue

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal tells much of its story with virtually no spoken dialogue.

The series follows a prehistoric man and a dinosaur through a brutal fantasy world, relying on movement, facial expressions, sound design and visual composition rather than conversation.

That makes it extremely immersive.

It is also considerably more intense than most shows on this list. Primal contains frequent violence, death and stressful sequences, so it is not a relaxed comedy recommendation.

For viewers interested in animation as visual storytelling, however, it is exceptional.

12. The Simpsons

Best classic cartoon marathon

The Simpsons works particularly well when you want something familiar enough that missing a joke or briefly losing attention does not matter.

Its strongest earlier seasons combine fast jokes, memorable characters and visual gags with stories that remain straightforward.

There is also an enormous amount of material available, which makes it easy to choose between specific classic episodes or simply let a season play.

The Simpsons is not visually psychedelic in the same way as The Midnight Gospel or Adventure Time, but it is one of the best choices for relaxed, low-effort viewing.

Best Funny Cartoons to Watch High

If comedy matters more than visuals, the strongest options are Smiling Friends, Regular Show, Bob’s Burgers, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Simpsons.

Each approaches humor differently. Smiling Friends is unpredictable and surreal, Regular Show turns normal situations into absurdity, while Bob’s Burgers relies much more on dialogue and character interactions.

SpongeBob and The Simpsons are particularly good choices when familiarity is part of the appeal. Rewatching an episode you already know can be easier than trying to follow a complex new plot.

Best Trippy Cartoons to Watch High

For visually unusual animation, start with The Midnight Gospel, Adventure Time, The Amazing World of Gumball and Rick and Morty.

The Midnight Gospel is the most openly psychedelic, while Gumball constantly switches between animation techniques. Adventure Time creates strange fantasy environments without becoming relentlessly intense, and Rick and Morty uses science fiction to justify almost any visual concept imaginable.

If you want something atmospheric rather than colorful, Samurai Jack is another strong option.

Best Chill Cartoons to Watch High

Sometimes the best choice is something that does not demand much from you.

Bob’s Burgers, Regular Show, SpongeBob SquarePants and classic Simpsons episodes work particularly well because their stories are accessible and largely self-contained.

You do not need to remember complicated mythology or decode philosophical dialogue.

For many viewers, that can be more enjoyable than choosing the supposedly “trippiest” cartoon available.

What Makes a Cartoon Good to Watch High?

The right choice depends primarily on what kind of experience you want.

Strong visual design obviously helps, but complexity matters too. A show such as The Midnight Gospel can be fascinating when you want something philosophical, yet the same dialogue may feel exhausting when your attention is wandering.

Comedy is similarly subjective. Some viewers prefer surreal humor, while others want familiar sitcom-style jokes.

Cannabis can affect attention, memory, emotions and time perception, so an altered viewing experience should not automatically be described as simply making colors brighter or every joke funnier. Individual responses vary considerably.

That is why this list includes several different styles rather than assuming there is one perfect “stoner cartoon.”

Cartoons That May Be Too Intense

Visually impressive does not always mean relaxing.

Shows such as Primal, Superjail!, BoJack Horseman and some episodes of The Midnight Gospel contain violence, anxiety, grief or emotionally heavy themes.

They can still be excellent animation, but they are not necessarily ideal if you already feel uncomfortable or overstimulated.

Cannabis can sometimes contribute to anxiety, paranoia or disorientation rather than relaxation, particularly depending on THC exposure and individual response.

If something becomes unpleasant, switching to a familiar and lower-intensity show makes more sense than continuing because it appeared on a “best cartoons while high” list.

Do You Need a Certain Cannabis Strain for Watching Cartoons?

No.

There is no scientifically established best cannabis strain for watching animation, comedy or television.

Recommendations that pair Purple Haze with psychedelic shows or Sour Diesel with complicated plots are essentially lifestyle opinions, not predictable effects.

Modern strain names and indica/sativa labels also do not reliably guarantee one specific experience.

The cartoon itself is enough for this article. There is no reason to turn a list of animated shows into a seed-product recommendation page.

Best Cartoons to Watch High: Final Picks

If you only want five recommendations, Adventure Time is the strongest overall choice because it combines imaginative visuals with accessible storytelling. Rick and Morty works best for science-fiction comedy, while The Midnight Gospel is the obvious option for deliberately psychedelic animation.

For something easier, choose Regular Show. For pure strange comedy, choose Smiling Friends.

The best cartoon ultimately depends less on which show is supposedly designed for cannabis and more on whether you want comedy, visual experimentation, nostalgia or something you can watch without following every second.

FAQs About Cartoons to Watch High

What are the best cartoons to watch high?

Some of the best cartoons to watch high include Adventure Time, Rick and Morty, The Midnight Gospel, Regular Show and Smiling Friends. They combine unusual animation, comedy or easy-to-follow storytelling. For something calmer and more familiar, Bob’s Burgers, SpongeBob SquarePants and classic episodes of The Simpsons are strong alternatives.

What is the trippiest cartoon to watch high?

The Midnight Gospel is probably the most intentionally psychedelic choice because it pairs abstract, constantly changing animation with philosophical conversations about consciousness, death and spirituality. Adventure Time and The Amazing World of Gumball offer similarly imaginative visuals but are generally easier to follow and less emotionally intense.

What are the funniest cartoons to watch stoned?

Smiling Friends, Regular Show, Bob’s Burgers, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Simpsons are strong comedy choices. Smiling Friends and Regular Show lean toward absurdity, while Bob’s Burgers relies more on dialogue and character humor. Familiar comedy can also be easier to enjoy than a show requiring constant attention to a complicated plot.

Are cartoons actually better when you are high?

That is subjective. Cannabis can alter attention, emotions and time perception, which may change how someone experiences animation or comedy, but it does not guarantee that colors will look brighter or jokes will become funnier. Some people enjoy television more after cannabis, while others become distracted, anxious or less able to follow a story.

What cartoons are good for a relaxed high?

Bob’s Burgers, Regular Show, SpongeBob SquarePants and classic Simpsons episodes are particularly easygoing choices because they have familiar characters and mostly self-contained stories. They require less concentration than shows such as Rick and Morty or The Midnight Gospel, making them useful when you want something entertaining without keeping track of a complex narrative.

What cartoons should I avoid if I feel anxious?

Consider avoiding animation dominated by disturbing imagery, extreme violence or emotionally heavy themes. Primal, Superjail!, BoJack Horseman and certain Midnight Gospel episodes can become intense. A familiar comedy or childhood favorite may feel more comfortable if you are already anxious, since cannabis can sometimes contribute to paranoia or disorientation in some people.