Aqua Teen Hunger Force follows the adventures of the aptly named Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a group of mystery-solving fast food items. The team consists of Master Shake, or Shake, a rather sadistic, lazy, ordering milkshake who loves to torture Meatwad. Frylock, the floating box of fries, is the brains the group, and contains the one thing that the rest of the group lacks: common sense. Meatwad is a loving, caring, gentle ball of meat that crawls wherever he goes, who is frequently tortured by Shake.

Supporting/reccuring characters include Carl, the next-door neighbor of the Aqua Teens, a pure guy, after women and booze. Also has an above-ground pool that Shake frequently has the team laze around in without permission. Ignigknot and Err are creatures from the moon, called Mooninites. They seem to believe that they are vastly superior to the humans of Earth, and their behavior reflects that belief as such. Dr. Weird and Steve have thier own laboratory, in which they produce things that are, well... weird. Their antics have sometimes lead to villainous creatures that the team has had to face, such as The Rabbot.

One of the most misleading things about the show is the title. The characters have little affiliation with water, besides when Shake orders them to laze around in Carl's pool. Their ages are not known, Frylock and Shake seem to be older than teens, and Meatwad seems to be younger than one. Hunger seems to reflect the fact that the main characters are fast-food items. They are no kind of force whatsoever, as due to the laziness of everyone but Frylock, the team shows little effectiveness in solving mysteries.