Top 10 Times Adult Cartoon Characters Went Beast Mode

“South Park” (1997-)

Cartman is perhaps TV’s most evil and hateful child. After the obnoxious brat mocks Wendy’s presentation on breast cancer, she promises to beat him up after school. Cartman may talk a big game, but like most jerks, he’s a coward and tries everything to get out of it, including blackmail. Ultimately, Wendy decides to accept the consequences and fights him. The whole school turns out to watch - Butters is positively giddy. And while Cartman gets a few hits in, Wendy goes absolutely ham in beating him down, repeatedly punching him and knocking him into metal playground equipment. Wendy may be nine years old, but her brutality here puts her among truly ferocious company.

“American Dad!” (2005-)

Through some ridiculous circumstances, Roger the alien convinces Steve Smith he’s been accepted at Hogwarts from “Harry Potter” and sends him to a drug house. The dealers use his chemistry skills, while Steve believes he’s “making potions.” Meanwhile, Roger makes some cash. But when Steve takes some product home with him for “extra credit,” the dealers show up with guns. Roger gets a face full of the stuff after they beat him up, and becomes incredibly focused. As Steve ineffectually “casts spells,” Roger fights off the gunmen singlehandedly, using their own weapons - and the furniture - to take nearly all of them out. Potions, man…

“Archer” (2009-)

H. Jon Benjamin voices a lot of animated characters. In a fun crossover, Season 4 of “Archer” sees the titular Sterling Archer with amnesia as one of Benjamin’s other characters, Bob Belcher of “Bob’s Burgers.” But when a KGB hit squad arrives at “Bob’s” eponymous restaurant and threatens his new family, Archer’s old instincts take over. The amnesiac secret agent quickly and brutally takes down the Russians, using their guns and his grill and coffee. The Belchers are horrified, mostly, but the vicious and efficient takedown combined with the unexpected mashup of adult cartoon series (and shades of “A History of Violence”) makes for one fantastic action sequence.

“Metalocalypse” (2006-13)

Toki Wartooth is usually the most childish and easygoing member of the metal band Dethklok. But even he has a breaking point. While attending the reunion of Snakes n’ Barrels, his bandmate Pickles’s old band, Toki is continually harassed by a loud and annoying fan who doesn’t understand personal space. As the concert erupts into the kind of chaos that usually follows Dethklok - breaking sobriety, hallucinations, snake demons, that sort of thing - Toki has enough. He proceeds to beat the ever-loving hell out of his noisy neighbor/ Toki’s bandmate Murderface wants a piece of him too after Toki pranked him. But after seeing Toki curb stomping a guy’s face into paste, we don’t blame Murderface for backing down.

“Castlevania” (2017-21)

This supernatural series has blood, gore, and action aplenty to choose from, but our pick goes to this battle involving vampire general, Striga. Humans attack Striga’s camp by day, killing her soldiers in their tents by exposing them to sunlight or burning them. It’s a good plan. Unfortunately for them, Striga has something most vampires don’t - day armor. Donning this badass suit that looks like something out of “Berserk,” Striga sets about cutting through dozens of men. She stops a horse in its tracks, throws a man across the camp, and is generally pretty bestial throughout. While her foes are generally unskilled peasants, Striga’s barbarity and the fact that she’s fighting at a time when she’s innately disadvantaged make this battle awesome nonetheless.

“Primal” (2019-)

It could be argued that every fight in this brutal dinosaur and caveman series sees the protagonists go beast mode. However, during Spear and Fang’s encounter with ape-men, Spear goes one step beyond. With Fang downed by the ape-men’s mutated leader, Krog, Spear desperately goes to drink the same black liquid that changed Krog. After consuming the stuff, Spear essentially becomes the Hulk. In his raging, mutant form, Spear not only stands up to Krog, but he rips both the ape-man’s arms off and beats him with them. When the other ape-men charge him, Spear shatters their bodies with single blows. It’s one of the most intense and shockingly violent displays in an intense and shockingly violent series.

“Arcane” (2021-)

Crime boss Silco’s forces are transporting a shipment of illicit substance shimmer on an airship when they’re attacked by the Firelights, young vigilantes. When some of them go below, they’re attacked by a figure who attaches grenades to them. As the smoke clears above, Jinx steps out of it. Tossing some more grenades, she rapidly takes down several more of the Firelights. Although she makes a costly hesitation when one of them reminds her of her sister, bringing up old trauma, she soon goes on a shooting spree with her minigun. Although she ultimately hits more of her allies than her intended targets with the barrage, Jinx still makes a deadly impression in her reintroduction.

“The Venture Bros.” (2003-18)

Brock Samson is basically a one-man army, so any fight he’s involved in sees him go beast mode. However, his rampage in the Season 7 finale arguably trumps them all. When a Guild Blackout team teleports into VenTech Tower and kidnaps Dr. Venture, Brock decides to lock them in and hunt them down - because he’s bored. While we only see snippets of the fight throughout the episode, what we do see is terrifying. Brock dresses up like a samurai and slices through the assassins. He even gives them a pee break because he needs one himself. The stack of bodies that pile up when Brock sends them through the teleporter really speaks for itself.

“Rick and Morty” (2013-)

As tempting as Rick Sanchez’s sewer fight with rats while he’s a pickle was to talk about, his escape from imprisonment goes bigger and better. While he’s captured in a Galactic Federation prison, Rick escapes by swapping his mind with one of his captors and then with one of the assassins sent by the Citadel of Ricks, versions of him from other universes. By further mind-swapping, Rick is able to materialize the Citadel inside his former prison, setting his enemies against each other. For a follow-up, he rescues his grandchildren. And for dessert - he destroys the Federation’s economy. Rick is generally a drunken disaster, but properly motivated, he can destroy anyone in his path.

“Family Guy” (1999-2003; 2005-)

Peter Griffin has been involved in some intense altercations over the years. And while his long-running feud with the giant chicken does get very intense, our pick goes to his battle with his fellow animation figurehead, Homer Simpson. The duo comes to blows after initially hitting it off. Their fistfight takes them all over Springfield, leading to cameos and references galore. They even briefly gain radioactive superpowers and get launched into space. Their crash down to earth leads to some of the bloodiest fighting, as teeth are knocked out and Homer is crushed beneath a spaceship. The duo agree to disagree, but during the minutes-long fight, their ferocity knows few bounds.