Salad Fingers

Salad Fingersis a Britishadult animated web seriescreated byDavid Firthin 2004. It revolves around theeponymousSalad Fingers; a thin, green, mentally troubled man who inhabits a desolate world. As of September 2023, thirteen episodes have been published onYouTubeandNewgrounds. Since its debut,Salad Fingershas amassed acult followingand has been described as aviral phenomenon.
Salad Fingers was conceived as anin-jokewhen 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.In 2004, Firth posted the first episode viaFlashto entertainment websiteNewgrounds, where it was initially unpopular. However, the video quickly gained traction once it was featured on the website's front page.Later, once the series transitioned to video-sharing platformYouTube, Firth turned tocrowdfundingbecause he was unable to monetize videos due to the platform's content policy.
In addition to writing and animating the series, Firth voices the titular character himself.Firth says the character's voice was inspired by that of his grandmother's andMichael Jackson's speaking voice. The softness of Salad Fingers's voice is due to the circumstance that Firth did not want to wake up his parents while recording.While the first episode took Firth "one day and one night" to produce, others took him six months and up to one year.He has cited the works ofDavid Lynch,Tim Burton, andChris Morris, as well asThe League of GentlemenandSouth Parkas sources of inspiration. Music featured inSalad Fingersepisodes includes work credited toSigur Rós,Aphex Twin, andBoards of Canada.
In 2007, the series, then spanning seven episodes, had its theatrical debut at Sydney Underground Film Festival, where all episodes were shown back to back.In 2009, episodes were screened at Glimmer,Hull Daily Mail's international short film festival.In 2020, aSalad Fingerstour throughout the United Kingdom was announced.The tour was postponed due to theCOVID-19 pandemicand was ultimately held in 2021 and 2022.Events featured back-to-back screenings of all episodes released thus far, followed by an in-person interview with Firth.
Salad Fingershas become the subject of acult followingand has generated a number ofmemes, having "captured the comically demented and strange underbelly of the internet" according to Elijah Watson ofThe Daily Dot.The series's characters, themes, and setting have inspired extensive discussions and theories online.In 2005, theSan Francisco Chronicleranked it among its "Top 10" pop culture phenomena.WiredconsidersSalad Fingersto be one of the most memorableFlash animations,andThe Guardiandescribes it as one of the first to go "fullyviral".Writing for the academic journalConvergence, Jessica Balanzategui and César Albarrán-Torres describeSalad Fingersas "a significant stylistic and generic contribution to the early period of participatory digital cultures"and the character as a "patron saint of the digitaluncanny".In 2020, the series had been viewed 110 million times in total on YouTube, with the first episode alone receiving 36 million video views.
Jon Mendelsohn ofComic Book Resourcesobserves that the series has "terrified audiences" by means of its "post-apocalyptic setting and crypticness" and compares it to the television seriesTwin Peaks.Tanner Fox ofScreen Rantdescribes it as "nothing short of haunting" due to its "weird premises, nails-on-chalkboard background music, and shocking moments of gore and depravity".Devon Maloney ofThe Vergeremarks its emphasis on gore and bodily fluids, calling it "basicallyASMRfor psychopaths".Will Ramsey ofHull Daily Mailcalls it "comic, horrifying and strangely endearing".Emma Garland ofVicenotes that the series has caused both fascination and dread in its viewers, and deems it "one of the bleakest comedies to ever come out of the UK".The series's landscapes, figures, dream sequences, and open-ended nature of episodes have drawn comparisons to the works ofDavid Lynch.
In 2019, a Canadian high school teacher was temporarily suspended after showing his class a range of videos that students described as "weird, creepy and inappropriate" includingSalad Fingers. The teacher ultimately resigned from his job at the school and attended a disciplinary program.In response, Firth commented onTwitterthat viewings ofSalad Fingersshould be "mandatory" for children.