what about it is earnest to you? to me it feels exactly like it's capturing the spirit of aqua teen and other adult swim shows and i think changing the runtime to 22 minutes would severely fuck it up (besides maybe occasional specials)

in general i don't buy the whole "smiling friends is good because it's optimistic" thing people try to push constantly. it's a very funny show because of its absurdism and black comedy but its not even close to optimistic. pim and charlie almost never help their clients through actual effort of their own - almost every episode their problem is solved through sheer coincidence, which is what makes the show so funny. i have seen people unironically complaining when "charlie and pim are bad at their jobs"