Review of Salad Fingers

The very English David Firth, an unusual animator specializing in darker surrealist imagery, began at a young age with projects ranging from misunderstood disfigured superheroes to slimy humanoid creatures. Salad Fingers, his most notable creature-feature, was featured at Newgrounds in 2004 and has gained considerable popularity since, spawning several parodies and causing higher visibility for Firth. Voicing all of his own characters, Firth brings an undeniably inner-city English feeling to all of his work.

Welcome to the world of Salad Fingers, the eerily animated, deftly voiced flash series about a slimy green androgyne who has a rather intimate relationship with rough surfaces (and of course, salad for fingers).  Everything here is just shy of being graphically inappropriate, from his near-orgasmic reaction to spoons and faucets to his fascination with blood and death.  It leaves a somewhat unsettling feeling in the viewer, which is most probably desired. 

This sorry little creature’s accent is so quaint and Cockney, he almost becomes

charming (but not quite). His travels bring him into contact with a progressively more disturbing band of oddballs and freaks, including a menacing armless man and a smitten young boy with severe head/eye problems.  This, not to mention the poor child trapped in his oven! Although the themes and storylines aren’t for the faint of heart, the technique here is near flawless; the artfully done subtitles and the moody soundtrack (featuring pieces credited to Aphex Twin and Brian Eno) add considerable value to the series.

Billed as “Animation, absurdity and comedy from the UK by David Firth”, Fat-Pie is the animator’s homepage and gathered collection of work; a quirky site that delivers on all three accounts. Salad Fingers is only one of many series found here, offering humor that ranges from sickly (check out Christmas) to sweet (sort of – check out this catchy music video).