Salad Fingers

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Salad Fingers
Flash series
Salad Fingers plays with Horace Horsecollar in Episode 6.
Devised by	David Firth
Written by	David Firth Christian Pickup (co-writer)
Animated by	David Firth
Voiced by	David Firth
Launch date	July 1, 2004
Website	http://www.fat-pie.com

Salad Fingers is a Flash cartoon series created by David Firth.

1 Summary
2 Characters
3 Attributes of Salad Fingers
4 Episodes
5 References in other media
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Summary

In the surreal cartoons, the eponymous Salad Fingers inhabits a sparse and desolate world where he obsesses in the "delightful" feeling of the textures of various objects on his "salad fingers" (his fingers are long, green, and strangely shaped.) He especially enjoys rusty articles (particularly spoons); he also enjoys blood (or as he calls it, "the red water"), dirty water taps, and nettles, the sting of which he finds pleasurable. His fluctuating, gentle monologues serve to entice the viewer into a bizarre world. When Salad Fingers speaks, his dialogue appears in loopy text on the screen.

The main music is performed by Boards of Canada (the featured song is "Beware the Friendly Stranger"). The dark music in the soundtrack that appears when Salad Fingers is scared is actually David Firth playing the guitar (slowed down and reversed). Other music included in Salad Fingers episodes includes work credited to Brian Eno and Aphex Twin. David Firth frequently inserts references to Aphex Twin in his flash cartoons; for example the Aphex Twin logo can be found on the telephone in Salad Fingers Episode 5.

[edit] Characters

Salad Fingers uses the phone in Episode 5

Salad Fingers greeting his finger puppet friends. Left to right: Jeremy Fisher, Marjory Stewart-Baxter and Hubert Cumberdale (Episode 2).

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Salad Fingers: The main character, he is a green man with a hunch on his back. His long, green fingers are sensitive to rough surfaces. Salad Fingers will stimulate himself by rubbing his fingers on such things as rusty objects, metal bars, and nettles, which he uses for self-urtication. Salad Fingers appears unable to tell whether something is alive or not, frequently talking to and providing internal monologues for inanimate objects (such as finger puppets, a tree, an abandoned toilet, and a toy horse), which he often names. He lives alone in a small shack with the number 22 on the door. Episodes variously reveal that he can play the flute and speak French.

Hubert Cumberdale, Marjory Stewart-Baxter, and Jeremy Fisher: Finger puppets who appear variously in episodes two, three, five, six, and seven. They often appear in Salad Fingers's fantasies as life sized beings. Salad Fingers also enjoys "tasting" these puppets saying they "taste like soot and poo," or "sunshine dust."
Milford Cubicle: Appearing in episode three, Cubicle is a human-like armless being who wears an apron identifying him as being employed at a "BBQ", with the nametag "Harry".
Bordois: Appearing in episode four, Bordois is a woodlouse which Salad Fingers kills by accident by attempting to pet her. He refers to this bug as "little sister."
Mable: Appearing in episode five, Mable is a young girl who goes to a picnic with Salad Fingers. She is the first character other than Salad Fingers who can communicate in English.
Kenneth: A decomposing corpse found in a hole near Salad Fingers's house; Salad Fingers claims that it is his brother, "back from the great war".

Salad Fingers also ramblingly mentions having an "old pal Charlie" and a daughter, though neither of them are seen.

Un-named characters include:

A big-eyed, screeching child who Salad Fingers visits to "enquire about his spoons" in episode one.
A young child wearing a varsity-type jacket whom Salad Fingers accidentally cooks by leaving in an oven in episode two.
A grotesque "little boy" who falls in love with Salad Fingers in episode four.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Attributes of Salad Fingers

Salad Fingers has many notable details that include:

Although having many female attributes, Salad Fingers's gender is never confirmed, although in episode 7 he refers to himself as Kenneth's older brother. In the same episode, Salad Fingers is seen wearing a white dress that displays a female figure. Also, he comments he has teats in Episode 3. And in episode 4, a boy falls in love with him.
His obviously large and sensitive fingers, with only 3 at the end of each arm.
Salad Fingers speaks English with a Northern English accent. He also speaks some words in French in one of the episodes.
He has rotten, yellow teeth with green food gunk adorning them, as well as bloody gums. The teeth have different alphabetical characters written on them in different frames of the animation.
He has blood-red irises, which, along with the pupil, shrink when frightened and enlarge when happy.
He seems to be masochistic, as he practices self-urtication with nettles and even says, "I like it when the red water comes out", referring to his blood after he impales his finger on a rusty nail.

[edit] Episodes

Each episode is 4-6 minutes long; the narratives themselves are quite surreal, and each one only follows a semblance of a story.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Episode 1 - Spoons

Release date: July 1, 2004
Credits: Drawn, animated and voiced by David Firth. Written by David Firth and Christian "Crust" Pickup. Music by Boards of Canada (in particular, the song "Beware the Friendly Stranger").

This episode introduces us to the Salad Fingers character and his love of touching rusty spoons. He explains how touching any form of rust, including spoons, a door bell panel and a kettle, stimulates him ("The feeling of rust against my salad fingers is almost ORGASMIC"), and that he holds a particular love of spoons. Salad Fingers walks to the house of a strange young boy to see if he has any spoons; the child screams several times, at which point Salad Fingers leaves, after a quick caress of a rusty kettle.

This episode stands out from subsequent episodes; the animation makes use of more abstract backgrounds (especially during close-ups of Salad Fingers), and the title character's voice is higher with a slight sing-song tone, which becomes more subdued in later episodes. Salad Finger's teeth are also less detailed.

[edit] Episode 2 - Friends

Release date: July 15, 2004
Credits: Drawn, animated and voiced by David Firth. Written by David Firth and Christian "Crust" Pickup. Music by Boards of Canada and David Firth.

Salad Fingers has a get-together with his "friends" - finger puppets - whom Salad Fingers introduces as Hubert Cumberdale, Marjory Stewart-Baxter and Jeremy Fisher. He appears to believe that his friends are real, living beings, suggesting that they say "Hello" to the audience. He wonders what his friends "taste like", which he finds out by briefly inserting them into his mouth. (Marjory Stewart-Baxter tastes "like sunshine dust" while Hubert Cumberdale tastes "like soot and poo". He never tastes Jeremy Fisher, although in Episode 6, he does eat him). The next scene involves Salad Fingers calling for help, which is provided by a frightened child. Salad Fingers asks the child to take a fish he was cooking out of his oven whilst holding the door open. As the child is reaching, Salad Fingers sees a rusty nail jutting out of the wall and leaves the oven to stroke it, causing the door to close and trapping the child inside. Salad Fingers then impales his finger on the spike and begins bleeding and says he "likes it when the red water comes out". Salad Fingers goes pale and passes out, entering a dream-like state. During his dream, he walks through a large meat locker singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow to himself, and also briefly encounters (a life-size) Hubert Cumberdale, who is silent untill Hubert screams in his face. When Salad Fingers awakens, the oven smokes and oozes, although he pays no attention to the fact he left the child in there. Instead, he states, "That fish smells about done." In this episode, Salad Finger's voice has lowered in pitch, yet it is still lighter and higher than later episodes.

[edit] Episode 3 - Nettles

Release date: August 1, 2004
Credits: Drawn, animated and voiced by David Firth. Written by David Firth and Christian "Crust" Pickup. Music by Boards of Canada, Brian Eno and a yoga flute.

Salad Fingers is playing with nettles and has irritated blisters all over his hands. He then comes across an empty baby carriage; he places nettles in it and leaves with the carriage. A man with no arms wearing an apron with the phrase "BBQ" on it comes onto the screen screaming unintelligibly and then chases after Salad Fingers. As Salad Fingers sits inside rubbing nettles on his nipples, causing him to lactate, the armless man stands outside Salad fingers's house. The man bangs his head on Salad Fingers door repeatedly as Salad Fingers tells viewers that the nettles remind him of happy times (as he says this, a flashback is shown with Salad Fingers and Hubert Cumberdale getting their hair done). Eventually Salad Fingers comes outside of his house to find the man bloody and unconscious. He names the man Milford Cubicle, despite the fact that his name tag reads "Harry". Salad Fingers then drags Milford inside and hangs him on a meat hook on the wall. Salad Fingers begins to play the flute for Milford, and later offers him a glass of warm milk which may have come from his nipples..

[edit] Episode 4 - Cage

The hydrocephalic boy who falls in love with Salad Fingers.

Release date: August 20, 2004
Credits: Drawn, animated and voiced by David Firth. Written by David Firth, Christian "Crust" Pickup, and Jimi Mwng. Additional character design by Jimi Mwng. Music by Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and David Firth.

Salad Fingers wears a beret and declares that he is going to try and find France. However, he is frightened by a hydrocephalic boy with disproportionately large eyeballs that has been "watching him for a while". The boy only speaks in growls and eventually approaches Salad Fingers and licks his hand. It is apparent that the child is in love with Salad Fingers as he emanates little symbolic hearts. Salad Fingers is alarmed at this, and leaves.

Inside his house, Salad Fingers accidentally squishes Bordois, a woodlouse who lives in his walls, whom Salad Fingers refers to as "little sister". Salad Fingers hears a knock on the door, which he opens to find a "grubby tap" attached to a string on the ground. Salad Fingers finds this fortunate and begins to daydream about taps. He attempts to fetch it, but it is drawn away on the string as bait. He is caught in a bear trap which causes him to lose blood and consciousness while savoring the pain blissfully. He wakes up in a cage, and enjoys rubbing the bars. The grotesque boy approaches the cage and holds out a ring comprised of a human tooth to Salad Fingers, as if proposing. Salad Fingers thinks the whole thing is a game and pulls a curtain down over the window of the cage; when the curtain is lifted, Salad Fingers has disappeared. The little boy begins to cry. The episode ends with Salad Fingers, wearing his beret, flying away gleefully on an oversized tap.

[edit] Episode 5 - Picnic

Release date: November 25, 2004
Credits: Designed, animated, voiced and written by David Firth. Additional writing and the voice of Mable by Christian "Crust" Pickup. Music by Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin and David Firth.

Salad Fingers talks to an apparently broken and disconnected phone, asking the operator to connect him to his "old pal Charlie" so he can invite him to a picnic. Whilst describing the picnic fare, Salad Fingers rubs his stomach in hunger, then claims to have been rudely disconnected. He then holds up a hand with Hubert Cumberdale on a finger, though Salad Fingers instead calls him "Barbara Logan-Price."

In the next scene, Salad Fingers wears a bridal train and talks to himself in a mirror, declaring "You look so beautiful." He then goes outside for his picnic, which is attended by an strange crow (which appears in other David Firth cartoons) and a little girl with scars on her face, a filthy, bloodstained pink dress, and orange hair. Salad Fingers asks the orange-haired girl a question and answers it for her, ending with "replied Mable." Salad Fingers calls her his new playmate and complements her on her dress, and as he does this, Marjory Stewart-Baxter is seen in the window, jealous. Salad Fingers offers "Mable" some "Pease Pudding," which he feeds to her with a rusty spoon. The crow then swoops down and steals Salad Fingers's spoon. The little girl giggles and says that the crow must like spoons too. The shock of the girl speaking to him in English and not via Salad Finger's own voice shocks Salad Fingers, and he begins to hallucinate, seeing the girl with no eyes in her eye sockets.

[edit] Episode 6 - Present

Salad Fingers' teeth often have alphabetical characters drawn on them. In some frames there are other characters (eg. "j") or even smilies.

Release date: July 24, 2005
Credits: Drawn, animated and voiced by David Firth. Written by David Firth and Christian "Crust" Pickup. Music by Boards of Canada, Chris Gladwin and David Firth.

The episode begins with Salad Fingers walking about his house alone. He sees Hubert Cumberdale on top of a cupboard. He instructs the finger puppet to come down at once, which it does by turning into a black, viscous fluid and oozing down the cupboard. A silhouette is then seen walking through the house and Salad Fingers asks if somebody is there; it is, in fact, the Jeremy Fisher puppet on his finger. Salad Fingers remarks that he thought Jeremy was out "fighting the great war".

Another perspective shot shows Jeremy Fisher (now with arms) handing Salad Fingers a toy horse. Salad Fingers is pleased with the present and says "my very own Horace Horsecollar". Salad Fingers also remarks on the pleasing texture of the toy. He then eats Jeremy Fisher. He walks outside with it and goes to an abandoned toilet which he starts having a conversation with. Suddenly, the mood changes and the music becomes sinister; he becomes concerned and he begins defending himself, saying "You've got the wrong bloke, squire". He then flushes the toilet saying "wash those bad thoughts away".

Upon arriving home, Salad Fingers gasps and sees himself sitting inside. The Salad Fingers inside appears to be hallucinating, seeing the "outside" Salad Fingers as a life-size Jeremy Fisher. The "inside" Salad Fingers speaks in a slighty different voice and also has rougher text showing what he is saying. The conversation starts off just like the earlier one with Jeremy Fisher, but goes on to include accusations that Jeremy Fisher has been "tailgating [his] daughter with aspirations of deflowering her rose". This appears to be the other "side" of the conversation Salad Fingers had into the toilet.

The inside Salad Fingers is now seen with the Jeremy Fisher finger puppet. Jeremy unbuttons the fastener that has been attached to his mouth, and his mouth starts oozing green liquid. Salad Fingers remarks that he never did "sample the delights of your flavour" (see Episode 2). He begins putting the finger-puppet in his mouth but the scene quickly changes to a bloody scene of the "inside" Salad Fingers eating the "outside" Salad Fingers' head/brains. The episode ends abruptly.

[edit] Episode 7 - Shore Leave

Release date: January 28, 2006
Credits: Drawn, animated and voiced by David Firth. Written by David Firth, Christian Pickup and Jimi Mwng. Music by Boards of Canada, Chris Gladwin and Brian Eno.

Salad Fingers is digging holes outside with his finger puppets, occasionally tasting the sand, or as he calls it, "Floor-sugar". Hubert Cumberdale is found beside a very deep hole, which contains the torso of an old, decayed corpse (missing both legs and an arm) that Salad Fingers immediately recognizes as "Kenneth", identifying him as his younger brother who is back from the previously mentioned "great war" on shore leave. Salad Fingers pulls the corpse out of the hole, saying it was rude of him to leave for the "great war" without him, but promises to draw him a hot bath. The more keenly observant viewers will note that Kenneth bears a large wound at the top of his skull, suggesting that he met a sticky end.

The next scene shows Salad Fingers turning a cog which pulls a rope attached to Kenneth on a clothesline. This draws Kenneth out of a wardrobe, and we see him dressed in a suit. Salad Fingers tell Kennith to lock up his daughters tonight, general, whistles, and tells him there'll be trouble in the maidens quarters. Salad Fingers has prepared a dinner of sand for his guest, saying "I -- hope you like... SAND." Kenneth's head continually falls to the table, so Salad Fingers props it up. Salad Fingers tells Kenneth of his life, keeping busy with "every shift I can... [and] sing[ing] at all the functions." Salad Fingers then pours Kenneth some 'runby tea', which he seems to purposly spill on Kenneth's hand. There is a flashback in which Salad Fingers measures the distance from his door to a tree which he calls "Mr. Branches".

It is now evening, and Salad Fingers is with Kenneth outside near the same hole he found him in. He is crying over the fact that Kenneth has to go "back to the ghastly trenches". He salutes Kenneth and sings "We'll Meet Again" (composed by Hughie Charles) for him. He then kicks Kenneth back into the hole. This is followed by a dream-like sequence in which Salad Fingers sings the song, in a white dress, on a stage in front of an audience of a theatre. He then complains that the pianist is playing it all wrong and in the incorect key. He walks slowly off the stage, as the clip ends.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] References in other media

In the flash movie Final Fantasy Day Care (Episode 2) by Henry Jardim, Fighter and Black Mage go to a weapons shop. Fighter buys a legendary sword for $3.50, then Black Mage is charged 2000 gil (Final Fantasy currency) for a staff. He complains about how cheap Fighter's weapon was. Fighter is then shown rubbing his new sword against his fingers, chopping off one of them. Fighter then recites Salad Fingers' line "I like it when the red water comes out" in a quiet, whispery voice, similar to his.^[1]
Firth has written in his DeviantART journal that when Newgrounds creator Tom Fulp co-hosted Attack of the Show on G4 for a week, he also mentioned Salad Fingers.^[2]
Firth keeps a track of magazines that have mentioned his work.^[3] Salad Fingers has appeared in a Japanese magazine and was named the #12 of "Top 50 Internet Heroes" in FHM Estonia to name a few.
At the end of the Burnt Face Man Episode 6, a small "Points of View" spoof link is visible. When clicked, a letter from a person voicing their dislike against that episode is seen and a small PS. At the end says they would like to see a Salad Fingers Movie.
In the flash movie Decline Of Video Gaming 2, Dim(of the 'Super Flash Bros')'s Creator Notes involves him saying '*Carresses a Rusty Kettle*.
In the song Dunks Are Live, Dunks Are Dead, by 7L & Esoteric, Salad Fingers is mentioned briefly in the lyrics.
In "Chocolate Niblet Beans", an online movie and animutation, Salad Fingers can be seen for a split second about halfway though the movie.
In the Keentoon Bonus Stage, Salad Fingers is on deck during a company Softball game against Weebl and Bob, and forces them to forfeit.