Adventure Time

2010animated series / catchphraseclassic

Adventure Time is an animated series created by Pendleton Ward that ran on Cartoon Network from April 2010 to September 2018, following Finn the human boy and Jake the magical dog in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. Its surreal humor, quotable catchphrase "What time is it? Adventure Time!" and huge Tumblr fandom made it one of the defining cartoons of the 2010s internet.

cartoon network memestumblr memescatchphrase memesfandom shipping memesearly 2010s memes

Overview

Adventure Time follows Finn, a 12-year-old human boy who wears a white cap with little bear ears, and Jake, his shape-shifting dog best friend, as they roam the Land of Ooo, a fantasy world built on the ruins of a nuclear war1. The show is recognizable for its rubbery animation, noseless characters and a big recurring cast that includes Princess Bubblegum of the Candy Kingdom and the Ice King, described as an Oz-like patchwork of kingdoms with their own physics and rulers1.

Guest voice actors over the run included Mark Hamill, Lou Ferrigno, Andy Samberg and Neil Patrick Harris3. Outside broadcast, Adventure Time built a huge online following on YouTube, DeviantArt and especially Tumblr, where fan art, ship blogs and screen-capped GIFs of Finn and Jake were everywhere3. The catchphrase "What time is it? Adventure Time!" became instant shorthand for the show itself4.

How It Spread

The Cartoon Network premiere drew about 2.5 million viewers, and reviewers immediately grouped Adventure Time with "Chowder" and "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack," other CN shows Ward had storyboarded on, describing all three as darker and stranger than typical kids' cartoons1. That first-day buzz set up the show as an internet favorite rather than just a Saturday-morning slot filler.

Early meme spread happened through YTMND pages built around Adventure Time lines and gags, with sites like algebraic.ytmnd.com, mathematical.ytmnd.com and adventureadventuretime.ytmnd.com pushing the show's slang across meme communities3. From there the fandom moved to Tumblr, where reaction GIFs, ship posts and hand-drawn fan art of Finn, Jake, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum stayed a mainstay of the platform for years3.

The original run wrapped after eight years with the hour-long finale "Come Along With Me" in September 2018, which introduced two new characters, Shermy (voiced by Sean Giambrone) and Beth the Pup Princess (voiced by Willow Smith), as spiritual successors to Finn and Jake in a future Ooo ruled by BMO2. The special resolved the Great Gum War between Princess Bubblegum and her uncle Gumbald and framed the ending as a change in the world rather than a hard stop2.

How to Use This Meme

The catchphrase "What time is it? Adventure Time!" is typically used as a call-and-response to hype up any activity, often paired with a GIF of Finn throwing his fist in the air or a screencap of Jake stretching into an absurd shape4. Fans on Tumblr commonly repurpose show quotes like "algebraic" and "mathematical" as generic exclamations of approval3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Adventure Time

2010animated series / catchphraseclassic

Adventure Time is an animated series created by Pendleton Ward that ran on Cartoon Network from April 2010 to September 2018, following Finn the human boy and Jake the magical dog in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo. Its surreal humor, quotable catchphrase "What time is it? Adventure Time!" and huge Tumblr fandom made it one of the defining cartoons of the 2010s internet.

cartoon network memes tumblr memes catchphrase memes fandom shipping memes early 2010s memes

Overview

Adventure Time follows Finn, a 12-year-old human boy who wears a white cap with little bear ears, and Jake, his shape-shifting dog best friend, as they roam the Land of Ooo, a fantasy world built on the ruins of a nuclear war1. The show is recognizable for its rubbery animation, noseless characters and a big recurring cast that includes Princess Bubblegum of the Candy Kingdom and the Ice King, described as an Oz-like patchwork of kingdoms with their own physics and rulers1.

Guest voice actors over the run included Mark Hamill, Lou Ferrigno, Andy Samberg and Neil Patrick Harris3. Outside broadcast, Adventure Time built a huge online following on YouTube, DeviantArt and especially Tumblr, where fan art, ship blogs and screen-capped GIFs of Finn and Jake were everywhere3. The catchphrase "What time is it? Adventure Time!" became instant shorthand for the show itself4.

How It Spread

The Cartoon Network premiere drew about 2.5 million viewers, and reviewers immediately grouped Adventure Time with "Chowder" and "The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack," other CN shows Ward had storyboarded on, describing all three as darker and stranger than typical kids' cartoons1. That first-day buzz set up the show as an internet favorite rather than just a Saturday-morning slot filler.

Early meme spread happened through YTMND pages built around Adventure Time lines and gags, with sites like algebraic.ytmnd.com, mathematical.ytmnd.com and adventureadventuretime.ytmnd.com pushing the show's slang across meme communities3. From there the fandom moved to Tumblr, where reaction GIFs, ship posts and hand-drawn fan art of Finn, Jake, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum stayed a mainstay of the platform for years3.

The original run wrapped after eight years with the hour-long finale "Come Along With Me" in September 2018, which introduced two new characters, Shermy (voiced by Sean Giambrone) and Beth the Pup Princess (voiced by Willow Smith), as spiritual successors to Finn and Jake in a future Ooo ruled by BMO2. The special resolved the Great Gum War between Princess Bubblegum and her uncle Gumbald and framed the ending as a change in the world rather than a hard stop2.

How to Use This Meme

The catchphrase "What time is it? Adventure Time!" is typically used as a call-and-response to hype up any activity, often paired with a GIF of Finn throwing his fist in the air or a screencap of Jake stretching into an absurd shape4. Fans on Tumblr commonly repurpose show quotes like "algebraic" and "mathematical" as generic exclamations of approval3.

Frequently Asked Questions