Shining out amidst a sea of mature themed dramas are, believe it or not, cartoons.

Granted, they are mature themed cartoons. Still, not since Saturday mornings of plopping down in front of the T.V., in one’s Ninja Turtle pajamas with a heaping bowl of Frosted Flakes, have cartoons been the cool thing to watch. It’s okay to watch cartoons again. Really.

Cartoon Network began airing these more “mature” cartoons a few years ago on a whim. Much to the surprise of many people, the popularity of the “Adult Swim” program block has soared recently. Nielsen ratings consistently rank “Adult Swim” cartoons at the top of their time period (Saturday through Thursday from 10 p.m. — 4 a.m. CST) among both adults 18-34 and men 18-24 (Associated Press). Producers of “Adult Swim” are flexing their creative muscles with shows like “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law,” which takes an old Hanna-Barbera superhero and places him in a new cartoon where he’s a lawyer. It may sound ridiculous, but the comedic charm of it and almost every other “Adult Swim” show is undeniable.

In an effort to get out the word about these programs, Cartoon Network enlisted the help of college students from around the country to help with promotion. Katiana Aguado, a junior at UW-Madison, was hired earlier this fall to do just that. Aguado works alongside Ryan McNerny and Ayelet Halamish, the other two “Adult Swim” college reps in Madison.

For Aguado, this job came out of a long-time love for the programming itself. “I’ve watched for over two years now,” she said. “I found out about the job through the internet, where I saw this link on the website asking for college students interested in being representatives for ‘Adult Swim.’ I’m a strategic communications major, so they wanted me hardcore.”

The college reps are predominantly involved in a lot of pre-planning for monthly events. Cartoon Network provides them with some moderate funding and programming, but it’s up to them to find venues and ways to promote these events. Earlier this year they held a pub crawl while watching “Adult Swim” favorites at each destination. Aguado also created and maintains a website dedicated to the programming as well as events held in the area (http://adultswimreps.tripod.com).

All of this success leads one to wonder how cartoons can be successful when pitted against late night staples like Leno and Letterman. Perhaps college students latch on to programming that is less geared toward informing and more aimed at making one laugh. Whatever the situation may be, viewers are tuning in nightly to watch the programming in droves.

“I think it’s more okay to accept that it’s cool to watch cartoons,” said Aguado. “People usually hear about ‘adult’ cartoons and think it’s either very dirty or very silly. The coolest thing is that they aren’t trying to become mainstream. They maintain control over their characters and topics in the cartoons … [which] allows them to keep their creative freedom.”

Since its inception, “Adult Swim” has had noticeably low production quality in most of their in-house cartoons. Cartoon Network took notice of the success of the programming, but the continually cheap-looking animation shows no signs of an increased budget. Where this might be evident is in the star power being brought in for different shows as well as some of the well-known syndicated cartoons picked up by the network.

Acquisitions like “Family Guy” and “Futurama” came on the heels of these programs’ cancellations over on FOX. The irony of it all is that “Adult Swim” took what had been seen as duds and turned them into hits. Whether they just found a home with the already established fan base or created that fan base is debatable, but the fact that they went from sitting on a shelf to pulling in monster ratings is hard to argue with.

While these cartoon leftovers have been surprising hits on “Adult Swim,” FOX recently announced that “Family Guy” is going back into production, with new episodes slated to air on FOX. While they could quite possibly be responsible for the show’s rejuvenation, one is left to wonder where Cartoon Network will sit after the dust settles.

Even if they lose some programs, there are always plenty of new ones on the way. While much of it is speculation, Aguado has gotten wind of a possible spin-off from “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” starring the highly beloved mooninites.

The next planned “Adult Swim” event is scheduled for Friday. The Majestic (115 King St.) will be host to a screening of selected episodes of “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” one of the more popular cartoons on “Adult Swim.” Doors open at 9 p.m. and the event is free, outside of a minimal cover charge for entering the building itself.

“We’ll be watching five episodes of “Aqua Teen” with bumps between them. These bumps will include some old school Hanna-Barbera characters and are hilarious,” said Aguado. “Stand-ups of the “Aqua Teen” cast will be there for people to take pictures with. We’ll have posters, t-shirts, trivia and games to play after watching the shows. The main difference with this [event] is that it’s open to 18 and up, as opposed to the pub crawl. It’s going to be really laid-back … just people coming together to watch some cartoons.”