Squim Returns

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Squim Returns
Season	3
Episode	6
Overall	23
Broadcast Information
Airdate	November 16, 2025
International Airdate	November 16, 2025 (Latin America & Brazil) November 17, 2025 (France, Spain, Czechia, Hungary & Poland) December 1, 2025 (Germany)
Credits
Written by	Michael Cusack Zach Hadel
Storyboard by	David Hootselle
Directed by	David Hootselle
Music by	Brendan Caulfield Michael Cusack Zach Hadel
Animation Production by	Saerom Animation Zam Studios
Episode Guide
Previous	"Pim and Charlie Save Mother Nature"
Next	"Shmaloogles"

Squim Returns is the sixth episode in Season Three of Smiling Friends.

Synopsis

Pim is the only Smiling Friend at work today, so the Boss calls upon an old employee to assist. Meanwhile, Charlie must make it to work by noon or he'll be fired. But once becomes violently ill, the trip won't be so easy.

Adult Swim description

After buying a magic mirror, Pim meets Squim. Meanwhile, Charlie starts "digging deep" and gets into some reeallilly bad internet stuff...like REALLY bad stuff. Not in a good or funny way. At ALL.

Plot

Pim is shown watching "Grimpsons," a parody of The Simpsons, where the Marge parody nags "Blart" about using his confounded computer tablet device, only for the Homer parody to walk in and eat Blart. Pim notes that the show has still got it after 487 seasons, and Allan and Glep walk into the break room wearing anime cosplay. They announce that they’re going to spend the day at AnimeCon, and after they leave, Pim rings up Charlie to see what he’s up to. Charlie tells him that he’s sick, but when he voices suspicion due to the game he wanted to play coming out that day, the yellow man quickly hangs up his phone. Immediately halting his coughing facade and putting on a wicked grin, Charlie hops on his laptop to play Grand Strategy IV while dining in on some wicked grub.

At the office, Mr. Boss asks Pim where Charlie is, to which he’s informed about his illness. He notes this is normally fine but due to the situation they’re dealing with being of a domestic nature he wants at least two people dealing with it for safety reasons. With Allan and Glep at AnimeCon, Mr Boss is left with no other choices and brings Squim - the first Smiling Friend - out of retirement. The yellow ball of energy announces his excitement to do a mission for the first time in 24 years and Mr Boss tells them to go on to do their mission as he gets to important boss duties - namely rubbing his arms. Charlie, meanwhile, is shown destroying the competition in his new game as he remarks that the kebabs he ate hit the spot - though he was certain he ordered the non-spicy version and not the spicy one. Mr. Boss calls him and tells him he knows he’s slacking off work, so he has to get in by midday or he’s fired. Realising he only has 45 minutes to get to work, Charlie remarks he can’t lose his job as he’s still paying off a large painting he purchased, but the kebabs from earlier appear to have made his stomach sore. Nevertheless he heads to work.

Squim announces his excitement on going on another job. Pim questions him about the early days of Smiling Friends and he reveals it was only him at first, but due to it he learned to only face life with a positive attitude. When Pim tells him other people make fun of him for also thinking that, Squim reassures him and leads him down the sewer to their clients - a rat and a maggot fighting over garbage. Pim begins to make a suggestion but Squim tells the two fighting animals to be positive. The animals immediately make up and the two Smiling Friends plan what they should do next. Squim suggests ice cream and the two leave right as the sewer gets flooded. On the bus, Charlie begins to experience food poisoning-related hallucinations, only to cause chaos on the bus as he throws up, with the bus itself crashing into a lamp pole.

Pim tells Squim that he’s glad to have someone so positive to work with now, and Squim wonders if that means his normal partner isn’t. Pim somewhat confirms his statement but Squim shows enthusiasm with working with Charlie as well anyway. At the ice cream store, Pim introduces Mr Ice Cream to Squim, who marvels at how amazing the store is. Mr Ice Cream reminisces on how he and his wife opened the store together 30 years ago and now that she’s gone, he misses her. Despite him sounding content, Squim takes it as him being negative and he does a Squim dance to try and cheer him up, disturbing Pim and driving Mr. Ice Cream to tears. Charlie, meanwhile, is mistaken as a crazed terrorist as he attempts to get to work, experiencing more hallucinations along the way.

Pim, being fed up with Squim’s behaviour, tells him that he’s starting to get annoying and that despite optimism being great there’s a time and a place for people to be sad, using the Mr. Ice Cream situation as an example. Squim takes it as meaning that he needs to be even more positive and does so by “helping” random people in the street (giving flowers to a woman despite her boyfriend being with her, pushing a wheelchair-confined man into traffic and jumping onto a homeless person.) When Pim catches up, Squim decides to help the police officer with their current situation. Currently, they are pointing guns at a naked Charlie, assuming him to be the terrorist. Charlie tries to tell them that this is all a big misunderstanding when Squim runs in and tries to cheer everyone up with a Squim dance. The police officers spot the Squim dance and open fire on the yellow ball and shoots him to death. Squim's ghost rises from his body and continues the dance, only for the police officer to open fire on it as well.

At the hospital, Charlie is shown recovering as the doctor tells him that the kebabs he ate were infected with a dangerous parasite but it’s now extracted from him so he should recover. Charlie lets the doctor keep the parasite when he asks about it and Pim rushes in to apologise to him for doubting him on being sick. Charlie admits he did pretend to be sick but he learned his lesson and Mr Boss tells Charlie it’s all water under the bridge sucks that while he was still a liar he showed his loyalty to the company. Pim remarks it’s a shame that Squim has died, to which Mr Boss reveals his soul survived a 14 hour surgery. Squim - now hooked up to an IV and wheelchairbound says hello, and Charlie asks who he is, to which the other two give a general rundown.

The post-credits show Glep and Allan and Anime Con, sitting at a table while eating fries. Allan is approached, harassed, and later chased by an obsessed cosplayer.

Characters

• Pim
• Allan
• Glep (non-speaking)
• Charlie
• Mr. Boss
• Mr. Frog (cameo)
• Squim (debut)
• Police Officers (debut)
• Doctor
• DJ Spit
• Mr. Ice Cream (debut)
• Mr. Man (cameo)
• Sewer Rat (debut)
• Sewer Maggot (debut)
• Obsessed Cosplayer (debut)

Title in other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Czech	Squimův návrat	Squim's return
French	Le Retour de Squim	The Return of Squim
German	Der erste Smiling Friend	The first Smiling Friend
Polish	Squim powraca	Squim returns
Portuguese (Brazil)	A Volta Do Squim Não Foram	The Return of Squim Who Never Left
Spanish (Latin America)	El regreso de Squim	The return of Squim
Spanish (Spain)	Squim regresa	Squim returns

Trivia

General

• This episode's synopsis is intentionally misleading, as Pim doesn't purchase a magic mirror nor does Charlie get into "bad internet stuff."
• Blart, the parody of Bart Simpson in the Simpsons parody Pim watches in the opening scene, is voiced by Aqua Teen Hunger Force creator, Dave Willis, as confirmed by Willis himself.
• Despite Charlie failing to return to work by noon, he was not fired.
• This episode reveals that Squim was the first employee hired for Smiling Friends Inc., retiring at some point in 2001.
  • Squim was designed by character artist Kosperry, who has previously drawn fanart of the Smiling Friends cast in his artstyle.
• The general appearing on the menu screen of Grand Strategy IV is co-creator Michael Cusack.
• Mr. Boss is shown unusually strict and aggressive to Charlie when he found out he was faking being sick, even threatening to fire him. He seemingly values employees loyalty to their jobs to a ridiculous degree and hate them lying to him.
• The face that Charlie makes after calling Pim is similar to the face he makes in an official drawing announcing Seasons 4 and 5.
• Youtuber Luka Big Pants animated the Grand Strategy IV scene.
• Mr. Ice Cream’s Ice Cream Parlor was opened the same year as Smiling Friends in 1995.
• When Squim said “Squibbidy Dee Squibbidy Doo” it is a reference to the person of the same name who was shown in the “In Loving Memory” card in Season 2 Episode 7.
• In Charlie's apartment, a Tupperware container with Allen's name on it, can be seen below the microwave.
  

  Charlie's devious face

  

  The same face from the artwork

Production Info

• As revealed in an interview with People Magazine, this episode originally started off with Pim being sick instead of Charlie.
• According to storyboarder David Hootselle, originally Mr. Ice Cream would have banned both Pim and Squim from his building in anger as a result of the latter's inappropriate behavior. An artifact of this original scene is present in the final as Mr. Ice Cream turns angry and looks like he's ready to snap before he then devolves to crying.

Episode connections

• Charlie's lockscreen depicts Mr. Frog surviving an assassination attempt, possibly by Mr. Boss, as it was implied at the end of "Mr. President."
• Before entering the manhole, Pim and Squim can be seen outside of a dental office called "Men in Plaque", with a poster of Mr. Man appearing on one of the windows, advertising a "Free Brush", revealing that he is a dentist, most likely having this job to recover from the stress that Grim and Gnarly put him through.
• One of the buildings the bus passes is called Blingostan Embassy, complete with a photo of Mr. Blingo on the outside. This is a reference to "Mr. President."
• This episode confirms that DJ Spit survived the helicopter crash from “A Allan Adventure”, now having a scar on his chest from being impaled.
• Squim gives flowers to the girlfriend of the angry man drawing a heart at the airport from "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil!" and "Silly Samuel."
• When Charlie stumbles to the office, the Frowning Friends building is shown to have been demolished since there are now normal generic buildings in its place.
• This episode marks the second appearance of the Doctor from "Silly Samuel."
• Allan's anime cosplay is of an anime girl briefly featured on a poster in the Mole Man's underground den in "Mole Man". The poster image would reappear on the Obsessed Cosplayer's phone, establishing that the anime character, and by extension Allan's cosplay of that character, is an object of obsession for the Obsessed Cosplayer.

Cultural references

• The show Pim watches in the beginning is similar to the long running sitcom The Simpsons.
  • Blart (the Bart parody) says “Hawk Tuah” in reference to the popular online meme, which references how the Simpsons is desperately trying to stay hip and modern. He also twists his head unnaturally when he says the line, which references Bart's "twister mouth" seen in the earlier seasons of The Simpsons.
  • Homer's look-alike character says "mmm boy," a similar catchphrase to Homer's "mmm-isms" and Homer calling Bart "boy".
  • After the show ends, Pim says "Haha, after 487 seasons, they've still got it.". This is obviously a reference to how The Simpsons is long past its prime, but it may also be a reference to how the original Simpsons Tracey Ullman shorts started airing in 1987.
  • The Simpson family being green may be a reference to EmpLemon's videos, in which he colors footage from The Simpsons green to avoid copyright strikes. EmpLemon acknowledged the comparison on Twitter, jokingly asking "Why are the Simpsons green?".
  • The Simpsons parody is likely a response to The Simpsons episode "Estranger Things," which parodied Smiling Friends as Screaming Friends.
  • Homer's look-alike has hair shaped like Michael Cusack's initials, just like the real Homer's ear and hair make up Matt Groening's initials.
  • A green Homer look-alike has appeared in the show before.
• Glep's cosplay appears to be a cross between Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist Yugi Mutou and Final Fantasy VII protagonist Cloud Strife.
• Squim's design resembles PAC-MAN's from a 2006 YouTube video titled "Here Comes Pacman".
  • Squim's animation style and general aesthetic pays homage to 90's television animation such as Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.
• Squim introduces himself by yelling "WAZZUP?!" in a similar manner to the famous Budweiser commercial.
• Mr. Boss spots Charlie playing a game on Steam, an online gaming storefront and community.
  • Additional references can be spotted on Mr. Boss's Steam friends list:
    • LilSkateyBoy, his other currently online friend, is based on Little Skatey, an imaginary character conjured during SleepyCast Episode 17 and later visualized by SuperProWaffles.
    • ThumbJoey, visible at the bottom of the offline list, displays an avatar that closely resembles VargThumb, a comedic edit of a bald Vargskelethor/Joel from the Vinesauce streaming group; "Joey" is also a common community nickname for Joel. The Steam image is credited to Donk·tk, who produced fan animations of Joel among his works prior to his contribution to the show.
• The photo of Mr. Frog Charlie has as his phone wallpaper is a parody of the Donald Trump raised fist photo, which was taken after a failed assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
• The painting Charlie buys is one of a series of five paintings called The Course of Empire, more specifically the fourth painting called "Destruction."
• Mr. Man's dental office being called "Men in Plaque" is an obvious reference to the franchise Men in Black.
• Squim sings a parody of "Get Down Tonight" by KC and the Sunshine Band.
• In the post-credits scene, the cosplayer harassing Allan and Glep has a character resembling Madoka Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica as his phone background.
  • In the same scene, the Anime Con banner features a character that resembles a combination of Goku and Cloud Strife. This is a joke character created by Michael Cusack called LordMichael.
• The parasite removed from Charlie resembles a Nemesis Alpha parasite from Resident Evil.
• Grand Strategy IV, the game that Charlie plays in the beginning, seems to be a parody of grand strategy video games developed and published by Paradox Interactive.
  • The menu screen, depicting Michael Cusack dressed as a general, has a close resemblance to the cover art of March of the Eagles.
  • The actual gameplay of Grand Strategy IV ironically depicts a hex-based map with graphics that resemble the turn-based strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization VI. This was confirmed by the scene's animator Hoolopee on Twitter to be a coincidence.
  • Another connection to Sid Meier's Civilization is the line "Why do you have troops around my border man" could be referencing to the "I couldn't help but notice your troops on my border" from the series. Although this is most likely also a coincidence.
• The Brazilian Portuguese title of the episode, "A Volta Do Squim Não Foram" (roughly translated as "The Return of Squim Who Never Left") is a reference to the Brazilian phrase, "A Volta Dos Que Não Foram" ("The Return of Those Who Never Left").
• The Blingostan Embassy is a possible parody of The Trump Organization.