Salad Fingers
| Salad Fingers | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Animation |
| Created by | David Firth Christian Webb[1] |
| Written by | David Firth Christian Webb (co-writer) Jimmy Hollis (co-writer) |
| Directed by | David Firth |
| Voices of | David Firth |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Animator | David Firth |
| Release | |
| Original release | 9 May 2004 – present |
Salad Fingers is a British animated web series created by David Firth in 2004. The cartoon revolves around the eponymous Salad Fingers, a thin, green, mentally troubled man who inhabits a desolate world. As of March 2022, there have been thirteen episodes published on YouTube and Newgrounds, one of them being a short. Since its debut, Salad Fingers has amassed a cult following and has been described as a viral phenomenon.
Background[edit]
Salad Fingers was conceived as an in-joke.[2] One day, while Firth was playing the guitar, his friend and frequent collaborator Christian Webb commented that he had "salad fingers", referring to the way Firth played the C-chord.[3] In 2004, Firth posted the first episode via Flash to entertainment website Newgrounds, where it quickly gained traction.[4][5] Later, once the series transitioned to video-sharing platform YouTube, Firth turned to crowdfunding because he was unable to monetize videos due to the platform's content policy.[2][6]
In addition to writing and animating the series, Firth voices the titular character himself.[7] He has cited the works of David Lynch, South Park, Tim Burton, The League of Gentlemen and Chris Morris as sources of inspiration.[1] Music featured in Salad Fingers episodes includes work credited to Sigur Rós, Aphex Twin, and Boards of Canada.[1]
In 2020, a Salad Fingers tour throughout the United Kingdom was announced.[8] The tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was ultimately held in 2021 and 2022.[9] Events featured back-to-back screenings of all episodes released so far, followed by an in-person interview with creator David Firth.[8]
Episodes[edit]
| No. | Title | Original air date | Viewers (millions) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Spoons" | 9 May 2004 | 41.21 | |
| Salad Fingers explains how touching rust stimulates him, and that he holds a particular love of spoons. He asks a boy to see if he has any rusty spoons. The child screeches twice, at which point Salad Fingers leaves. | ||||
| 2 | "Friends" | 15 July 2004 | 23.49 | |
| While sitting down talking to his own finger puppets, Salad Fingers checks for a fish cooking in his oven. He finds that he cannot reach it and asks a bystanding child to reach it. As the child crawls inside the oven, Salad Fingers sees a rusty nail in the wall and reaches to caress it, causing the oven door to close. Salad Fingers then impales his finger with the nail, causing him to pass out. He awakes from a dream in a pool of blood, and smoke is emerging from the oven. | ||||
| 3 | "Nettles" | 1 August 2004 | 14.94 | |
| Salad Fingers comes across a perambulator, lays nettles inside it, and takes it home with him. An armless man appears and chases after him, repeatedly banging his head against the door. While fondling the nettles and secreting white liquid out of his nipple, Salad Fingers starts daydreaming. Salad Fingers finds the man lifeless in front of the door and hangs him on a meat hook, offering him a glass of white liquid. | ||||
| 4 | "Cage" | 20 August 2004 | 10.97 | |
| Salad Fingers declares that he is going to try to find France. A boy, who speaks only in growls and grunts, approaches Salad Fingers, which makes him uncomfortable. A tap connected to a string appears at Salad Fingers's door. It is pulled away and Salad Fingers chases it. The boy catches him in a cage and offers him a ring, which Salad Fingers rejects. He then disappears from inside the cage and the boy starts to cry. Salad Fingers flies away on a giant tap. | ||||
| 5 | "Picnic" | 25 November 2004 | 8.04 | |
| Salad Fingers talks to his finger puppet before attending a picnic along with a crow and a girl. Salad Fingers asks the girl questions but she does not respond. His finger puppet watches Salad Fingers through the window as he declares the girl his new playmate. The crow steals Salad Fingers's spoon, upon which the girl speaks to him for the first time. Salad Fingers screeches in shock. | ||||
| 6 | "Present" | 24 July 2005 | 7.29 | |
| Salad Fingers argues with one of his finger puppets. Another finger puppet presents him a toy horse, and Salad Fingers eats the finger puppet. He plays with the horse and finds a lone toilet outside. He talks to it and flushes it in concern. He walks back home and sees another version of himself repeating what he had done earlier. The inside version of Salad Fingers starts eating his finger puppet and the other version of himself. | ||||
| 7 | "Shore Leave" | 28 January 2006 | 1.63 | |
| As Salad Fingers is digging holes outside with his finger puppets, he finds an old corpse that he is familiar with. He pulls it out of the hole, promises to draw it a hot bath, and prepares a dinner of sand for it. Later in the day, Salad Fingers salutes the corpse, sings to it, and kicks it back into the hole crying. Salad Fingers suddenly stands on a stage singing in front of an audience before leaving. | ||||
| 8 | "Cupboard" | 22 September 2007 | 7.14 | |
| Salad Fingers tunes a radio and feeds it marbles. It then starts emitting a piercing sound, upon which Salad Fingers escapes into a small adjacent room where he waits for the noise to stop. There, he finds a few singular hairs and converses with them. Later, the radio instructs Salad Fingers to return to it its hairs, which he refuses. The radio torments him and Salad Fingers returns to the small room. | ||||
| 9 | "Letter" | 26 May 2011 | 5.02 | |
| A branch snakes into Salad Fingers's house. He bites it and it retracts back into a crying tree outside. Later, Salad Fingers awakes from his sleep in pain. A black mass erupts from his stomach, which he calls his child. While writing a letter, he talks to it and suddenly turns ill. Having recovered, Salad Fingers takes the mass to another house in a bucket and smears it across one of the windows. | ||||
| 10 | "Birthday" | 24 November 2013 | N/A | |
| While preparing the birthday party of a corpse he keeps, Salad Fingers discovers an endlessly tall pole in front of his house. He leaves his house and walks through a forest in search of a hand puppet. After finding the puppet, it attacks a horse standing nearby. Salad Fingers returns to his house, which is now inhabited by horses. The corpse has skeletonized. Outside, several clones of Salad Fingers are gathered around a table. The pole retracts into the ground and reveals a present, which includes a hat made out of the corpse's skin. | ||||
| 11 | "Glass Brother" | 30 January 2019 | 6.03 | |
| Salad Fingers talks to his brother through a mirror while ridiculing one of his finger puppets. At home, he brings his finger puppet to life by sowing flesh to it. Salad Fingers's mother appears in a mirror and demands to be served food, which he is unable to do. After being forced to eat food prepared by his mother, Salad Fingers's brother kidnaps his finger puppet through the mirror. Salad Fingers rescues it by entering the mirror through a puddle outside and proceeds to destroy his mirror. | ||||
| 12 | "Postman" | 7 March 2022 | 0.64 | |
| Returning home from his job as a postman, Salad Fingers discovers the mutilated corpse of a dog. He initiates a courtship with it and takes it on several dates. After realizing that the corpse is much younger than himself, Salad Fingers carries it away and leaves it at a tree stump, declaring that they can not be together. | ||||
Reception[edit]
Salad Fingers has become the subject of a cult following and has generated a number of memes, having "captured the comically demented and strange underbelly of the internet" according to Elijah Watson of The Daily Dot.[10] The series' characters, themes, and setting have spawned extensive discussions and theories online.[10] In 2005, the San Francisco Chronicle ranked it among its "Top 10" pop culture phenomena.[11]
Jon Mendelsohn of Comic Book Resources observes that the series has "terrified audiences" by means of its "post-apocalyptic setting and crypticness" and compared it to the television series Twin Peaks.[12] In reference to its impact online at the time of its release, Emma Garland of Vice notes that the series "rapidly went viral before 'going viral' was a thing", causing both fear and fascination in its viewers, and calls it "one of the bleakest comedies to ever come out of the UK".[5]
In 2019, a Canadian teacher was temporarily suspended after showing his students a range of videos including Salad Fingers. Students complained that the videos were "weird, creepy and inappropriate", and the teacher ultimately resigned.[13] Firth commented on the situation on Twitter, declaring full support of the teacher showing the series.[14]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c "Interview with Salad Fingers Creator David Firth". Semantikon. August 2004. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ a b Grealish, Rachael (25 January 2019). "Salad Fingers Is Back With New Episode Dropping Soon". LADbible. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
- ^ Bing. "David Firth – Heroes of Animation with Bing". YouTube. Event occurs at 18:52. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
- ^ Gaudino, Elena (8 December 2005). "Salad Fingers Stream of Consciousness Entertains Viewers". The Daily Campus. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
- ^ a b Garland, Emma (16 July 2018). "Happy Birthday, Salad Fingers". Vice. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
- ^ Sydell, Laura (14 April 2017). "Online Video Producers Caught In Struggle Between Advertisers And YouTube". NPR. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
- ^ Featherstone, Gabriel (6 March 2022). "Salad Fingers Creator Teases First New Episode in 3 Years". ScreenRant. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
- ^ a b Phillipson, Daisy (26 February 2020). "David Firth Is Taking Salad Fingers On A Tour Across The UK". LADbible. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
- ^ Hardiman, Jess (3 October 2021). "People Are Feeling Nostalgic With Release Of Creepy New Salad Fingers Episode". LADbible. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
- ^ a b Watson, Elijah (30 November 2018). "'Salad Fingers' was viral before viral was a thing—and it's returning". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
- ^ Chonin, Neva (25 December 2005). "2005 In Review: Pop Culture". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
- ^ Mendelsohn, Jon (2 May 2020). "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared Endures Because of Its Brilliant Execution". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
- ^ Moore, Paul (1 August 2019). "Teacher suspended after showing his class videos of Salad Fingers". Joe. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
- ^ Donato, Al (2 August 2019). "B.C. Teacher Suspended For Showing 'Salad Fingers' To Class". HuffPost. Retrieved 15 April 2022.