David Firth

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David Firth, 2001
David Firth, 2001

David Firth (born January 23, 1983 in Doncaster, England) is an animator of Flash cartoons and various short videos. Much of his work is highly abstract and mostly deals with themes of mental illness, nightmare imagery, surreal absurdity and his zany sense of humour. Firth's most notable works are currently Salad Fingers and Devvo; his work first became noticed when the first episode of Salad Fingers was featured on the front page of Newgrounds. Firth also voices his work.

Contents

[edit] Animation & Film Works

  • Salad Fingers, a series of bizarre animations about a green humanoid that is aroused by the feeling of coarsely-textured objects, most famously rusty spoons, and nettles.
  • Devvo, a series of live-action mockumentaries, some of which have been shown on E4's Funny Cuts and Channel 4's Whatever series, about a foul-mouthed unemployed delinquent stereotypical 'chav' named Darren Devonshire from Doncaster. The films (which can be seen on Google Video here and here) follow Devvo going about his typical day - getting his dole money, getting drunk in a playground, picking fights with people larger than him, attempting rap duels and setting fire to an abandoned car. The broadcasted segments follow on from a series of videos posted on Firth's website.[1]
  • Burnt Face Man, a comedy series (7 episodes) about a superhero with a badly burnt face. People accuse him of being gay, even though he states he is, in fact, not.Jerry Jackson has made an appearence in burnt face man 3.* Twinkle Tits, A short piece shown on Screenwipe BBC4 2006, presented by Charlie Brooker.
  • Spoilsbury Toast Boy, a series going chronologically backward about a young boy enslaved, and eventually murdered, by malevolent beetles in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic world.
  • Sock Episodes, a surreal selection of animations based on his dreams.

Sock Episode One Ptikobj 10 Different Types Of Soup Socklops

  • Pulch: The Good Times, a story about a goodness-radiating plant.
  • Men from Up the Stairs, what seems to be an animated metaphor for defecation.
  • The Child That Smelt Funny, a nine minute satire on media censorship
  • Video Dating Tape, a flash movie about a lonely adult woman in search of a man, which turns out to be a man in the character of a young boy.
  • A Black And White Cartoon About Roof Tiling and A Black And White Cartoon About Berries, animations in 'paperflash' telling the story of a strange psychotic loner.
  • Milkman, a strange flash movie about a murdering necrophiliac. The song in this is "Milkman" by Aphex Twin.
  • Christmas, a short animation about a man who murders his wife and child at Christmas. Originally created for Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe as part of their Christmas Special, but rejected, most likely for being too violent. A cartoon by Firth's alter ego Jerry Jackson was shown in place of Christmas.
  • Jim's Story, a series of 5 short cartoons following a boy called Jim. Animated with Macromedia Director.
  • Fat Pie, the series of 3 cartoons the site was originally created for. They again follow the adventures of Jim, from Jim's Story, but are longer in runtime. The 4th episode was cancelled by Firth with only one scene complete, which is viewable on the site. Also animated with Macromedia Director.
  • Panathinaikos Bear, a spinoff of sorts from the 3rd episode of Fat Pie. A series of 11 short and very bizarre cartoons made in Flash about Panathanaikos Bear (or Panabear for short) and his companion Meep, who is a large horned green ball who smokes a pipe. The backing music used in every episode is Elastic Ballroom by Aphex Twin from the unreleased album Melodies From Mars.
  • Feedback Wesley, a series of very short hidden "cartoons" which are themed around the title character (assumed to be another alter-ego of Firth) answering various e-mails sent to Firth, ranging from how much they hate his work to if he is a goth or a chav. The answers to these e-mails basically each consist of a variation on "Feedback Wesley has no time for these questions", the point of the skits being to show the general stupidity of the sender of the e-mail. They are found by clicking hidden links around the site.
  • Whore-os, a collection of assorted things Firth has considered not good enough to be on the main site, from a bizarre webcomic to parodies of Australians. Found by clicking the "O" in the word "Whore" in the top right hand corner on the main page, hence the name.

[edit] Music Works

Firth also creates music under various monikers and styles. His solo work is now referred to by the name Locust Toybox (formerly DJ Foyf and Foyf (the Scribbler)). One of his recordings, American Lumber vs. Locust Toybox, was released by Synchrostart Media.[2]. He has described his Locust Toybox work as IDM (even though he declares it to be a "stupid" name for a genre [3]), Trip-Hop and Ambient.

Aside from Locust Toybox, he is also the bassist for the indie band Grape Digging Sharon Fruits, and is involved in other musical projects such as the shoegaze/hardcore-esque I am the Manager and 1970's sci-fi glam rock inspired Cyber Craig and the Circuit Boards.

[edit] Jerry Jackson

The character is a parody of teenage Flash animators who create poorly produced and unoriginal films, with his voice transposed about three semitones higher to give it a childlike edge. There are twelve Jerry Jackson cartoons as of March 2, 2007. The cartoons often contain nudity, sexual themes, violence, foul language, and drugs presented in a childish manner, often with terrible grammar and shorthand text-speak. The animation is of a very poor standard, often going off on long rants that have nothing to do with the main plot. Some pop culture icons have appeared in the cartoons: Bruce Willis, Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, George W. Bush, and the band Linkin Park. On 21 December 2006, Jerry Jackson made his TV debut on the BBC 4 show Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe with a Christmas cartoon. This was done after Firth's Christmas short was rejected due to the violence (the few seconds actually shown largely consisting of a child having his head sawn through) and Firth "turned the project over" to Jerry Jackson.

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Official Devvo Site
  2. ^ Synchrostart website
  3. ^ [1]

[edit] External links

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