Arf and Omega Berry

Arf and Omega Berry (often referred to simply as Arf & Omega, the Berry Boy Twins, or the Berry Boys) are the deuteragonists of The Residents' unfinished feature film Vileness Fats, shot between 1972 and 1976. A pair of conjoined twins, Arf (conjoined at the right arm) and Omega (conjoined at the left) are tag-team wrestlers who help to defend the village of Vileness Flats from invading rebels in Atomic Shopping Carts. 
They were portrayed by Palmer Eiland (Arf) and George Ewart (Omega) in all their appearances between 1972 and 1976. Their musical number "Aircraft Damage" appeared on The Residents' debut EP Santa Dog in 1972. The twins are prominently featured in the VHS featurette Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats?, released in 1984, as well as the short "concentrate" version of the film featured on the 2001 DVD video collection Icky Flix. 
Arf and Omega's last noted appearance with The Residents was in June 1976 at the group's Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! performance in Berkeley, California. Ewart died in a car accident in May 2011,Ryan Sabalow, "Memorial slated for George Ewart of Jefferson Public Radio", Record Searchlight, May 17th 2011 and Eiland passed away in April 2017.Palmer Eiland obituary at Legacy.com A 1972 photograph of the twins would later become a minor plot point in The Residents' 2022 feature film Triple Trouble.
== History ==
"Kick a cat, kick a cat, kick a cat today! Fish are dumb, pluck an eye from one!"
Arf and Omega, "Aircraft Damage", 1972The conjoined twin tag-team wrestlers Arf and Omega Berry were created by Residents, Uninc. in 1972 as major characters in their feature film Vileness Fats. The roles were written for their friends Palmer Eiland (Arf) and George Ewart (Omega); the decision to make them conjoined twins stemmed from the fact that Ewart only had one arm."Residents History - Part 14 (continued)", Randy Rose, Maurice and Me, ca. 2013
The Residents shot Vileness Fats between 1972 and 1976, though it was ultimately left unreleased and unfinished. During this time Eiland lived with the group at the Sycamore Street building which doubled as their home and work space. Eiland left San Francisco after a series of failed suicide attempts during production of Vileness Fats."The End of Arf" on YouTube
Arf and Omega's musical number from the film, "Aircraft Damage", was featured as the closing track of The Residents' debut EP, Santa Dog, in December 1972. The twins later performed "Aircraft Damage" live with The Residents in June 1976, at their Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! live performance in Berkeley, California. 
The Oh Mummy! show was Eiland and Ewart's last known appearance as Arf and Omega. Ewart died in a car accident in May 2011, and Eiland passed away in April 2017. 
== In Vileness Fats==
Deciding to help rescue the village of Vileness Flats from invading rebels, conjoined twins Arf and Omega Berry use their knowledge of the occult to summon the immortal Native American priestess Weescoosa. When the town is saved, the Mayor holds a banquet in the twins' honor, where the village's spiritual leader Saint Steve delivers a lengthy and boring speech. The twins are disgusted by the broccoli they are fed, throwing it at Steve and mocking him. 
Later, Arf and Omega find themselves at Uncle Willy's night club, where they see a performance by singer Peggy Honeydew. The twins sit and flirt with Honeydew, who - unbeknownst to the twins - has been planted by the villainous Lonesome Jack. The twins argue over the voluptuous singer, and she suggests that they settle the matter with a knife fight.
Willy presents the twins with a pair of knives and blindfolds them. Arf and Omega fight on the dance floor of the nightclub, which ends dramatically when Omega fatally stabs Arf in the chest. The twins are last seen as the anguished Omega pathetically drags his dead brother from the room.
== Legacy ==
Although Vileness Fats was abandoned and left unfinished by The Residents in 1976, most of the footage shot for the twins' subplot in Vileness Fats (including part of the opening musical number "Aircraft Damage", the Banquet Hall scene, and the concluding Knife Fight sequence) were released to the public as part of the VHS featurette Whatever Happened To Vileness Fats? in 1984.
The Banquet Hall and Knife Fight sequences were later featured as part of the 17 minute "concentrate" edit of Vileness Fats created for the 2001 retrospective DVD Icky Flix. In the newly recorded soundtrack for this edit, Arf and Omega's voices were overdubbed by The Singing Resident due to the low sound quality of the original footage.
In 2016, Arf and Omega's role in Vileness Fats was mirrored by the villainous Al and Ollie Gump in The Residents' unproduced film Double Trouble. The Gump twins were ultimately featured as minor characters in The Residents' first completed feature film, Triple Trouble (an "alternate universe" sequel to Double Trouble featuring footage shot for the earlier, unfinished film), which premiered in 2022. 
Arf and Omega themselves make a notable posthumous cameo in Triple Trouble; an edited version of a 1972 photograph of the twins standing in costume outside a San Francisco thrift store becomes a minor plot point within the film.
== See also ==
* Vileness Fats
* Weescoosa
* Peggy Honeydew
*Uncle Willy (Vileness Fats)
* Santa Dog
* "Aircraft Damage"
* Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy! (live performance)
* Al and Ollie Gump
== External links and references ==
* Vileness Fats at The Residents Historical
* Arf and Omega at Discogs
Category:Vileness Fats
Category:Santa Dog
Category:Oh Mummy! Oh Daddy!
Category:Characters
Category:Eiland brothers