André said the show was partly influenced by Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and he rewatched several episodes of it before shooting the first season to 'absorb as much Space Ghost as he could'.
The original pilot, titled 'Duh Air Ache On Dre Shoe', was shot over a few days in an abandoned bodega in Brooklyn in 2009 while André was 'flat broke' and doing odd jobs like playing a caveman in Geico commercials.
After running out of money to hire an editor for the pilot, André spent a year teaching himself Final Cut Pro to edit the footage himself; the pilot was then rejected by several networks, including NBC and MTV, for looking 'cheap and public access-y'.
Hannibal Buress left the show midway through season 5 for personal reasons and was replaced by 'Blannibal', a character played by James Hazley, whom André found on Craigslist.
Blannibal is depicted in-universe as a mutant clone of Hannibal made from his nose hair.
During the filming of season 1, at least twenty desks were broken, and although the desk was built from drywall to make it easier to smash, André still suffered injuries during production.
André was once arrested and spent time in jail during season 1 production after attending a town hall meeting dressed as a frat boy and announcing plans to put 'beer in the water fountains and cameras in the girls' locker room'.
While filming a season 2 interview with Vivica A. Fox, André jumped through his desk onto solid concrete and landed on his tailbone, causing his body to feel asymmetrical and making him 'walk around all weird' for the rest of the year.
During season 4, André was hospitalized for stitches after his hand went through a car window during a man-on-the-street segment where he was supposed to just knock on the glass.
While filming a set-destruction intro for season 5, André suffered a concussion when John Cena threw him into a shelf that fell backward and hit him with a metal bar; André said this happened often enough that he had a code word, 'popcorn', to signal he needed medical attention.
Andrew Dice Clay was set to appear in season 1 as 'Andrew Nice Clay', a comedian whose punchlines espoused positive feminist ideologies, but the sketch was never filmed due to a scheduling conflict.
A planned season 1 sketch involving André shitting so hard his organs fell out of his anus was flagged by Adult Swim's Standards and Practices, who said it could look like he was doing it intentionally.
A season 2 episode ended with a fake 'In Memoriam' tribute to drummer Pfelton Sutton after André tackled him twice, leading some fans to mistakenly believe the musician had actually died until he confirmed on Twitter that he was alive.
Lauren Conrad appeared on season 3 and reportedly left the interview hostile after André pretended to eat his own vomit, which was actually oatmeal; André later said she would 'probably forever hate' him.
Chris Rock appeared on the show after personally calling André to say he was a huge fan and would fly himself out and pay for his own accommodations to be a guest.
The metal band Exhumed performed on season 3 with backup singers impersonating The Supremes as a replacement for Pig Destroyer, who were unavailable; guitarist Matt Harvey later admitted the band got 'hideously, disgustingly drunk' before the taping.
Rapper Flavor Flav publicly denied on Facebook that co-host Hannibal Buress ever kicked him in the face, despite the season 4 episode ending on a freeze-frame appearing to show exactly that.
André initially planned to end the series after season 5, but decided to return for season 6 after not making money from his film Bad Trip when it was sold to Netflix, and because of the full creative freedom Adult Swim continued to offer him.
Each season was designed with a distinct visual style, including André growing out and straightening his hair to imitate Katt Williams for season 3, avoiding bathing and losing weight for the 'dystopian Eraserhead' season 4, and shaving all his body hair except his eyebrows and tanning his skin for season 5.
