Before creating Workaholics, Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine, Anders Holm, and Kyle Newacheck were part of the sketch comedy group Mail Order Comedy, which began in Los Angeles in 2006.

Comedy Central ordered the series in March 2010 after network executive Walter Newman saw a series of videos the group had posted on YouTube.

The pilot episode first aired as a 'TV Sneak Peek' on March 15, 2011, right after the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump.

Kyle Newacheck, one of the four co-creators and the show's frequent director and executive producer, also plays a recurring role on screen as Karl Hevacheck.

Kevin Etten served as the series' showrunner, while the show was largely written by its three main stars, Anderson, DeVine, and Holm.

Due to the show's popularity, Comedy Central ordered both a fourth and fifth season simultaneously in January 2013, each consisting of 13 episodes.

A planned film revival of the series for Paramount+ was announced in February 2021 but was canceled in January 2023, just five weeks before filming was scheduled to begin.

The A.V. Club's Kevin McFarland praised the show by calling it 'a more adult version of Ed, Edd n Eddy'.

The show reached its peak popularity during season 2, averaging about 1.64 million viewers per episode, with the seventh episode 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Roommates' achieving the series' highest-ever rating of 2.16.