The Shivering Truth

The Shivering Truth is an American adult stop-motion animated anthology horror comedy television series created by Vernon Chatman and directed by Chatman and Cat Solen. The show is produced by Solen with PFFR and ShadowMachine, and features a wide range of voice talents besides Chatman, including Janeane Garofalo, Jonah Hill, Trey Parker, David Cross, Jordan Peele, Kyle Mooney, Julia Davis, Tierra Whack, Will Forte, and Josh Gad, amongst others. The Shivering Truth premiered on December 10, 2018 on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim, with the pilot episode having been released online on May 22, 2018 on the Adult Swim website.

The Shivering Truth
Genre	Anthology Black comedy Comedy horror Dark fantasy Surreal comedy
Created by	Vernon Chatman
Written by	Vernon Chatman
Directed by	Vernon Chatman Cat Solen
Voices of	(Complete list)
Narrated by	Vernon Chatman
Composer	Heather Christian
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	12 (and 1 pilot)
Production
Executive producers	Vernon Chatman Alyson Levy John Lee Cat Solen Lisa M. Thomas[a] Lourri Hammack[b] Kirk Kelley[b] Alvaro Cubillas[b] Keith Crofford[c] Mike Lazzo[c]
Producers	Alex Bulkley[d] Corey Campodonico[d] Ryan Cunningham Rebecca Bowen[e]
Cinematography	Mark Elfert (Pilot) Tarin Anderson and Drew Fortier (Series)
Editors	Jon Philpot Kira Ablak
Running time	11 minutes
Production companies	ShadowMachine (season one) HouseSpecial (season two) PFFR Williams Street
Original release
Network	Adult Swim
Release	May 22, 2018 (2018-05-22) – June 14, 2020 (2020-06-14)

In November 2019, Adult Swim renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on May 10, 2020.^[1]

Overview

When announced in a press release by Adult Swim in May 2017, The Shivering Truth was described as "a delicately crafted, darkly surreal anthology comedy, a miniature propulsive omnibus cluster bomb of painfully riotous daymares all dripping with the orange goo of dream logic. A series of loosely-linked emotional parables about stories within tales that crawled out of the deepest caverns of your unconscious mind and became lovingly animated in breath-slapping stop motion – in other words, it is the TRUTH".^[2][3]

Development

The characters in the show are 10-inch (250 mm) puppets with wire-based armatures, created with silicone, wool, polystyrene, and resin.^[4] Chatman stated that around six months of physical production, a month of recording, and 2+1⁄2 months of post-production were needed to complete six episodes. Chatman has noted several inspirations for his work on the show, including Terry Gilliam's work on Monty Python's Flying Circus, stating that "I saw it when I was very young, so it scared me. I didn't know when the animation was beginning or ending."^[4] He also explained that "A lot of my influences are non-animated, primarily in short films, novels, even radio shows. A recent one is David Eagleman's books on the brain. He's a neuroscientist and he gives you 40 different versions of the afterlife, and none of them can co-exist."^[4] Solen has spoken on her inspirations as well, saying that "I loved the movie The Wizard of Speed and Time, which is a cautionary tale about making movies. Another film that I loved as a kid was Nicolas Roeg's [film] adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches, which featured both Anjelica Huston and Jim Henson's puppets. It scared me so much!"^[4]

Cast

Season 1

• Vernon Chatman as the narrator
• Janeane Garofalo as Mrs. Lawson / Iris Beekoh / 911 Operator
• Kevin Breznahan as Roommate / Mr. Glimmer / Doug Dwyer
• Trey Parker as Sgt. Pat Mounder / General / Doctor
• Miriam Tolan as Mrs. Glimmer / Insecurity System Machine
• Michael Cera as Delmer Gibbons
• Jonah Hill as Useful Suicidal Man
• Starlee Kine as Blind Girl
• Richard Steven Horvitz as Hand Salesman
• Julio Torres as Dale
• Zack Pearlman as Exploding Prisoner / Neil Lem / Mary / Benny's Wound
• Ivy Chatman as Trudy Glimmer
• Zadie Chatman as Young Dale / Benny Beekoh / Pauly Dindin
• Maria Bamford as Elderly Woman
• Conner O'Malley as Pvt. Ray Pontle
• Nicole Rodenburg as Panties Saleswoman
• John Reynolds as Mr. Lawson
• Andy Daly as Angus Dindin
• David Cross as Prisoner 72301 / Armed Rebel
• Martha Plimpton as Nurses
• Peter Serafinowicz as Lyle Darpi / Charleston
• Jordan Peele as Prison Guard

Season 2

• Vernon Chatman as the narrator / Demon / Doctor
• Kate Berlant as Lily Liblin
• Mike Birbiglia as Hank Alto / Prayer Jacker
• Wyatt Cenac as Dr. Ton Bntu
• Julia Davis as Dr. Lynnert
• Robert Kelly as Eban Dylfyl
• Josh Ruben as Mr. Lombadi / Buddhist Monk
• Dalya Knapp as Gretchen
• Kristen Dodson as Braille Ghost / Goo Narrator
• Chris Elliott as Slab
• Will Forte as Dustin Okus / Creepy Eye
• Josh Gad as Divided Guy
• Miranda July as Grace
• Cole Escola as Ike
• Zadie Chatman as Birthday Kid
• Ivy Chatman as Birthday Kid
• Rachel Butera as Friend / Mom Doll / Holly Inglet
• Dasha Nekrasova as Mrs. Minugm
• Joseph Sikora as Hunky Messiah / Dad
• Desus Nice as Electronics Store Employee
• Jason Mantzoukas as Clive
• Kyle Mooney as Gil Minugm
• Griffin Newman as Fred Lombadi
• Timothy Levitch as Dr. Bodgey
• Ego Nwodim as Rosa
• Alia Shawkat as Amy Liblin
• Tierra Whack as Bully
• Kyle Beltran as Jay Reese
• David Pasquesi as Love Doll Salesman
• Kate Micucci as Sheila Sherma

Music

The song played during the closing credits is usually some version of the old English ballad Long Lankin. The music is often distorted in some way and usually begins near the end of the ballad, at the lines "There's blood in the kitchen, there's blood in the hall / There's blood in the parlour where my lady did fall." The original score is by Heather Christian.^[5]

Episodes

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
Pilot			May 22, 2018 (2018-05-22)
1	6		December 9, 2018 (2018-12-09)	December 23, 2018 (2018-12-23)
2	6		May 10, 2020 (2020-05-10)	June 14, 2020 (2020-06-14)

Pilot (2018)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
—	—	"Chaos Beknownst"[6]	May 22, 2018 (2018-05-22)	000	0.502[7]
The tales of a blind girl from middle school, an unconventional suicide hotline operator and the butterfly effect taken to its logical conclusion.

Season 1 (2018)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	1	"The Nurple Rainbow"	December 9, 2018 (2018-12-09)	TST101	0.616[8]
The tales of kinky roommates, the greatest peek-a-boo player the world has ever known, chicken blood infusions and an unproductive office worker who learns to love himself.
2	2	"The Magmafying Past"	December 9, 2018 (2018-12-09)	TST102	0.536[8]
The tales of a boy who builds a church and the intertwined lives of a private, sergeant and single woman.
3	3	"Ogled Inklings"	December 16, 2018 (2018-12-16)	TST103	0.601[9]
The tales of a prison in a desert, an amnesiac man who caused a car accident and the world's greatest poet.
4	4	"ConstaDeath"	December 16, 2018 (2018-12-16)	TST104	0.546[9]
The tales of escapism between a slave and his master, a man afflicted with perpetual death and a couple's neglected son.
5	5	"Tow and Shell"	December 23, 2018 (2018-12-23)	TST105	0.717[10]
The tales of a helpful 9-1-1 dispatcher and a boy who brought a conch shell to show-and-tell.
6	6	"Fowl Flow"	December 23, 2018 (2018-12-23)	TST106	0.630[10]
The tales of a man with a severed, human hand and a man and woman's insecurities.

Season 2 (2020)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Original release date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
7	1	"The Burn Earner Spits"	May 10, 2020 (2020-05-10)	TST202	0.706[11]
The tales of prayer in a new Age of Miracles, a television possessed by a dead girl and a skeptical and self-righteous cashier.
8	2	"Carrion My Son"	May 17, 2020 (2020-05-17)	TST203	0.617[12]
The tales of a new Messiah, a date for brunch and custom sex dolls.
9	3	"Nesslessness"	May 24, 2020 (2020-05-24)	TST204	0.600[13]
The tales of a shy girl, a panhandler's encounter with a woman and a neurotic firefighter.
10	4	"Beast of Both Worlds"	May 31, 2020 (2020-05-31)[f]	TST201	0.345[14]
The tales of a man with terminal goofiness, God within a flower, unrequited love and crippling gloom.
11	5	"The Diff"	June 7, 2020 (2020-06-07)	TST205	0.375[15]
The tales of compatible cities, a child committed to perpetual tripping in order to save face and a man with a split personality.
12	6	"Holeways"	June 14, 2020 (2020-06-14)	TST206	0.508[16]
The tales of a trip to the dentist, a magician who discovered a new type of meat and a man's emptiness.

Release

The pilot episode premiered on the Adult Swim website on May 22, 2018.^[17] Before the television premiere on December 10, 2018, Adult Swim created an "online scavenger hunt" by releasing all six episodes on multiple websites and platforms.^[18]

In June 2020, the series was uploaded to subscription video on demand streaming service HBO Max, with the exception of the episode "Ogled Inklings", which was intentionally excluded due to a scene where a woman gives birth to a child wearing a peaked policeman's cap, whom the doctor refers to as "a dirty pig". This ban took place due to the then-ongoing George Floyd protests and rising prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement, with an Adult Swim representative stating that "When Adult Swim transitions series to a new platform we determine what episodes are selected through creative and cultural filters and our standards and practices policies. Oftentimes these decisions are made in collaboration with the show’s creator”. Similar action was also taken against episodes of The Boondocks and an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.^[19]

Reception

Daniel Kurland of Den of Geek praised the pilot along with the subsequent first episodes to premiere, giving the show a score of 5/5 and calling it "straight up one of the best things that I’ve ever seen in my life".^[20][21] Jonathan Barkan of Dread Central called the show "pure nightmare fuel genius", writing that it "looks like the cast aside baby of Charlie Kaufman and Wes Anderson ... it's packed full of absurdist humor, the kind of stuff that you will watch and not be sure if you should laugh, wince, or look at your friends and ask, 'What the fuck?'"^[22] Dave Trumbore of Collider wrote that "It’s not often you get to put this level of artistry and insanity on display on an international television network", and that "You’ll definitely laugh while watching The Shivering Truth, but there’s just as good a chance that you’ll throw up a bit, too".^[23]

See also

• Jam (TV series), a similar comedy-horror sketch series
• The House (2022 film)
• Anomalisa