Take one part mangled teeth, talking finger puppets and fingers consisting of America's favorite vegetable, tie in howling noise and a few tabs of acid, add on the demented images of mis-proportioned eyeballs, non-linear plots and quirky British accents and the delusional and disturbing internet cartoon hit "Salad Fingers" is created.
Created originally in July 2004 by 22-year-old British cartoonist David Firth, the flash animation "Salad Fingers" can easily be dismissed by sober individuals as another flash cartoon created by a future schizophrenic serial killer. Ask any one who's experimented with hallucinogens and they'll swear that "Salad Fingers" is not only revolutionary, but as Salad Fingers himself states in episode six, "A pleasure for the tips."
The beloved main character, Salad Fingers, first comes off as an easy-going, puke-green colored being who is introduced in episode one as a character who enjoys the sensation of rusty spoons against his salad fingers. Throughout the series of "Salad Fingers," he goes about caressing various crusted-over objects, sighing with an "ooohh" while erotically squinting his eyes with pleasure.
Of course, this leafy-handed fellow may not seem like such a threat to society (he didn't intentionally bake that boy in the oven in episode two), it's his subtle psychotic tendencies that leave the average stoner with a dropped jaw and acid heads with a bad trip. For instance, in episode six, Salad Fingers' finger puppet Jeremy Fisher comes to life, exploding from his finger puppet size to standing head-to-head with Salad Fingers himself. As Salad Fingers grabs for him, Jeremy Fisher automatically becomes a finger puppet again as he's shoved into Salad Fingers' mouth. The scene then flashes to Salad Fingers eating out the brains of a head of what seems to be himself, leaving viewers with not only a large sense of awe and confusion, but the urgency to figure out what Firth means.
Things keep on getting more eerie as Salad Fingers goes on to reveal his love for self-inflicted pain. In episode two, after recruiting a random young boy to reach his fish out of the oven, Salad Fingers finds a rusty nail sticking out of the wall that he just can't resist. As Salad Fingers presses his, well, salad finger upon the rusted piece of metal, the nail breaks through to the other side causing him to bleed. "I like it when the red water comes out," Salad Fingers says as he falls into an unconscious state. When Salad Fingers awakes, he finds himself in a large freezer surrounded by frozen carcasses where he meets up with a life-size version of one of his finger puppets, Hubert Cumberdale. "Hubert Cumberdale!" Salad Fingers exclaims. "Fancy seeing you here." As Salad Fingers awakens from his state of dreaming, viewers can see the boy is missing as a thick smoke rises from the oven. "That fish smells about done," Salad Fingers comments.
Joe Kozlowski, a 5th-semester environmental resource economics major, said he's a huge fan of the Salad Fingers episodes, but claims his favorite episodes are episode two and episode six. "Salad Fingers is awesome," Kozlowski said. "I think it's based on what the dude saw when he was on an acid trip. That's what I heard. I enjoy how much it creeps other people out too."
"Salad Fingers" is not the only flash series Firth has to offer. His official web site, Fat-pie.com, offers more from the eccentric mind of Firth and friends. "Welcome to my acid dungeon," the head caption reads, and after sampling his cartoon link, viewers won't overlook the possibility of Firth utilizing potent hallucinogens. On the top of the Cartoons link in bold heading is a warning to the audience about combining the use of illegal substances and viewing his work.
"WARNING: These will upset the children and the elderly," Firth says. "And please watch these at your own risk if you are doing acid or mushrooms." Concerning a question on how he comes up with his ideas in a Frequently Asked Questions link, he stated: "Every morning I find them under my fingernails."
Other popular flash animations on Firth's web site that earn honorable mentions are "Socks: Episode 3," 10 different kinds of soup and the necrophilia-filled "Milkman." The "Socks: Episode 3," which is based on Firth's own dreams, follows the unsequential trip of a young boy who continuously runs across disturbing instances of a serial killer. The boy constantly is bombarded with new characters such as talking bear heads who speak in a high-pitched chipmunk language as well as a woman looking for soup. At the end, the boy meets with the serial killer believing it's his brother. When he finds the gruesome sight of decapitated bodies the killer speaks, but surprisingly with the same voice as the boy.
What makes these flash animations stand out from the rest of their competitors is their modern approach to presenting obscure and unrelated events and visions together. There are no set introduction, middle and end to these pieces, only a dive into one vision right after the other. Like the scattered thought process after a stoner has reached his limit, Firth's flash animation attacks his viewers with not only the inexplicable and surreal, but also with choppy images and inserts that set the viewer off track. Over and over again, viewers cannot help but ask what's going on, but yet still enjoy the sensation of getting pulled deeper into their own ambiguous state of mind.
Are there any meanings behind these flash animations? Watch them once and you're guaranteed a slight case of nausea. Watch them several times and it's guaranteed viewers will experience their own personal revelation. Each person can create their own meaning from each episode. Firth never intended to have one set underlying message.
"Judge for yourself, and try to work out if things are significant to the story or not," Firth says on his web site. "There'd be no sense of mystery if everything was explained." ww
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