Line #38 ComicBook/TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fffb.png]]
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3	->''"Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope."''
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5	Classic indie UndergroundComics series which ran from the late 60s to the early 90s. Written and drawn with exceptional talent by Gilbert Shelton, it followed the Gonzoid, gleefully profane adventures of the titular brothers: Fat Freddy Freekowski, Phineas Phreakers and Freewheelin' Franklin Freek. [[PerpetualPoverty Invariably broke]] and struggling to avoid a hippie's FateWorseThanDeath -- having to ''work'' -- these adventures were usually based around attempting to score a large amount of drugs without falling foul of Norbert the Nark and his dastardly government friends. HilarityEnsues.
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7	Read one way, it could be seen as a [[TakeThat vicious dig]] at the decline of the alternative culture at the end of TheSixties -- it is made painfully clear that the brothers are aging, impulsive, ignorant and utterly amoral, invariably subscribing to counterculture beliefs only as far as it will net them free pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, it is a mark of what a CrapsackWorld the Brothers inhabit that they themselves come across as harmless, lovable buffoons. The ''real'' targets of the comic are right-wing politics, surveillance-state invasiveness and the mundane, destructive hyper-consumerist culture the Brothers' {{slapstick}} existence runs completely at odds to.
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9	A film version has often been touted but [[DevelopmentHell has never materialised]] (with an exception to "Up In Flames", a poorly made porn "parody"). Some animated shorts, featuring the voices of Creator/JohnGoodman, Creator/WoodyHarrelson, and Creator/PeteDavidson, have appeared on Website/{{YouTube}}. In 2021, a new animated series starring Goodman, Harrelson, and Davidson appeared on the free streaming service Creator/{{Tubi}}. The series titled "WesternAnimation/TheFreakBrothers" involves the titular characters ending up in, and attempting to adjust to, the 2020s after smoking such a powerful strain of weed that it leaves them in a ConvenientComa for over half a century.
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11	Compare and contrast Creator/CheechAndChong.
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13	----
14	!!''The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers'' contains examples of:
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16	* AllJustADream:
17	** If the plot of a given episode gets way too crazy or disturbing, this sometimes comes up as the explanation (given the Brothers' [[JustifiedTrope addiction to weird substances, it makes sense]]).
18	** One story from the early '70s has the trio staging a violent assault on a prison to free an incarcerated friend. Fat Freddy ends up cut off and bludgeoned to death by a horde of cops - but it's all just a dream, and Franklin is beating him with a rolled-up newspaper for eating a whole batch of hash cookies. Then, some seven years later, an extended story where they take a cross-country trip in a vintage RV ends in a full-scale riot at a Greenwich Village Halloween parade - but it's all just a dream, and Franklin is beating Freddy with a rolled-up newspaper ... implying ''everything that happened between the two stories'' was Fat Freddy dreaming.
19	* AnimalsLackAttributes: Totally averted with Fat Freddy's Cat.
20	* {{Angrish}}: From issue #7:
21	-->'''Phineas:''' Uh-oh! Here comes her father! [[LampshadeHanging He appears to be too engraged to speak articulately]], and he has a pistol in his hand!
22	-->'''Father:''' EEEEEUH! AAAAANGH!
23	* ArtEvolution: In the first comics the characters were drawn with bold outlines and very little cross-hatching as opposed to the latter classic style.
24	* ArtShift: Usually used to illustrate particularly bad trips. In one notable example, the Brothers decide ''not'' to take drugs and end up trapped in an incredibly boring faux-photo comic style.
25	** While Phineas waits in his car for an endless parade of pedestrians in his path, they become cartoony duck-men.
26	%%* BloodyHilarious
27	* BilingualBonus: In ''The Idiots Abroad (part two)'', while visiting UsefulNotes/ColdWar Moscow, Fat Freddy's suitcase accidentally bursts open in the middle of the street revealing a couple of American bluejeans inside. The Soviet crowd goes after them in a frenzy with several people muttering ''"[=HorrorShow=]!"''. An odd remark until you consider that Russian "хорошо" (which would mean "Good!") sounds similar to "Horror show" to an American.
28	** This could also be a ShoutOut to the Russian-derived slang in ''Literature/AClockworkOrange''.
29	* ChewToy: Notorious Norbert the Nark of the Drug Enforcement Agency. In one story, Phineas slips him a drug consisting of an [[LaxativePrank elephant laxative]] and a massive LSD dose. In another, he slits open the Brothers' inflatable couch looking for drugs, gets a blast of nitrous oxide gas, believes himself in FluffyCloudHeaven and ditches his gun and his clothes, ending up naked and humiliated at the local police station. In yet another story, when a girl brings a poorly-disguised Norbert to their apartment, the Brothers simply [[RefugeInAudacity toss him out the window]].
30	* CompressedAbstinence: The Brothers (the Frisco hippies with attitude) once try going cold turkey from all recreational chemicals. After three miserable, horrible, tedious, dragging, hours, they give up and are seen snorting and ingesting every drug to hand as if their lives depended on it.
31	%%* CorruptCorporateExecutive
32	* CounterfeitCash:
33	** In an AllJustADream episode, Phineas gets a job as a printer. He starts printing fake bills, only for the FBI to burst in … but they're looking for pornography, and don't care about the cash, because "that stuff soon won't be worth the paper it's printed on."
34	** The brothers get in trouble in Mexico. Don Longjuan The Yaqui Brujo uses some real notes, a pair of scissors and a colour photocopier to make high-value fake notes (e.g. US$25,000) to bribe them out. By the time the fakes are detected, the brothers are well away.
35	* DeadpanSnarker: Franklin and the Cat both ''live'' this trope.
36	* DecadeThemedParty: A comic from the 1970s had the guys throwing a '50s-themed New Years party. Franklin is a holdout, declaring the decade "a drag", and as the story recalls their ''real'' '50s party some 15 years earlier, with its reckless drunkenness, sexual frustration, and violent, destructive juvenile delinquents, they decide to have a naked sex-and-drugs '60s-themed party instead.
37	* DisneyVillainDeath: Inverted at the end of "The Idiots Abroad." [[spoiler: The villains get flung into space instead.]]
38	* EverybodyMustGetStoned: Everybody ''starts off'' stoned.
39	* EveryoneHasStandards: There are drugs (heroin and speed) that even the Brothers won't do.
40	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the very first strips Franklin's chin has no cleft.
41	** The first appearance of Norbert the Nark gives him dark hair, a large nose, and a weak chin. By his second appearance he's got a blond pompadour, a smaller nose, and a LanternJawOfJustice.
42	* FatIdiot: Freddy, who frequently--and despite his roommates' warnings--gets "burned" when buying drugs, has stolen radioactive waste, fed LSD to bears, and is regularly outsmarted by his own cat.
43	* FingertipDrugAnalysis: In one strip a Texan cop takes a taste from a jar containing STP-laced water from the Brothers' backseat and orders Phineas to drive after him to the station for a more official analysis of the substance. He then takes off at full speed into the horizon, leaving Phineas behind, dumbfounded.
44	* FluffyDryCat: Happens to Fat Freddy's Cat when the titular moggie becomes so revolting of smell that Freddy forcibly washes him, using perfumed soaps. Out on the street again, other tomcats make unwise snarky comments about FFC's gender preferences. FFC is pretty much in the mood for serious violence by then. Mayhem ensues.
45	* GagNose: Shelton liked drawing them on many male characters, but Franklin and ''especially'' Phineas are the standouts (as it were).
46	* GroundhogDayLoop: The ''Phineas Gets an Abortion'' story.
47	* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: Averted. In contrast to many a story in other UndergroundComics, the Brothers' drug use is purely recreational.
48	** Subverted when Phineas discovers peyote buttons in the desert and, recalling Castaneda's ''The Teachings of Don Juan'', ingests a few so that the cactus's spirit, Mescalito, will appear and reveal "the truth" to him. He then sees a giant, shotgun-wielding peyote plant and runs off screaming. It turns out to be a Native American man who uses the costume and firearm to keep hippies off his property.
49	** The closest the series comes to a straight use of the trope is an early strip, not featuring any of the recurring characters, in which a chicken farmer takes LSD, becomes imbued with loving kindness, and sets his chickens free.
50	* IllTakeTwoBeersToo: Phineas cooks a big meal. The other two are still hungry afterwards, and Phineas reveals how much (appetite-stimulating) dope was in it. Cut to a burger stand:
51	--> '''Franklin:''' Three cheeseburgers, and make it snappy.
52	--> '''Fat Freddy:''' Three more for me too!
53	--> '''Phineas:''' And me!
54	* ImmuneToDrugs: The Freaks don't usually act any different than they usually do when they use drugs. Though this might be because ''they're high all the time.'' They also never seem to suffer any potential ill effect, with the exception of "The Death of Fat Freddy," where Fat Freddy ''OD's and dies.'' [[spoiler:He actually just temporarily fell into a coma.]]
55	* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: The relentlessly enthusiastic and naive Norbert the Nark.
56	%%* InherentInTheSystem
57	* JuryDuty: Fat Freddy gets called for jury duty and eagerly anticipates the easy money, but his roommates warn him that potential jurors are sometimes dismissed based on their looks - so he slicks down his hair and puts on a suit to look super-straight...and the freak defense attorney dismisses him over his looks.
58	* LawyerFriendlyCameo: When Fat Freddy gets a job as a department store Santa, the kids visiting him are unnamed cameos from ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', ''ComicStrip/MissPeach'', ''ComicStrip/{{Dennis the Menace\| US}}'', etc. The fact that they're all asking for drug paraphernalia shocks even him.
59	* MadScientist: Phineas, sometimes. He likes to invent things. Mostly, they backfire.
60	* MalignantPlotTumor: Every story usually starts off with the Brothers attempting to score drugs. By three quarters of the way through, they may be in the middle of a gold rush, trying to find their parents, or attempting to foil a military coup of the planet.
61	* MathematiciansAnswer: While driving through Mexico, Franklin is asked where they are. He replies "Directly above the centre of the earth."
62	* MisterSeahorse: A particularly [[NightmareFuel nightmarish]] adventure of Phineas's.
63	* MoodWhiplash: The Story "The Death of Fat Freddy" has a variety of moods. Phineas and Franklin find Fat Freddy apparently dead from an overdose of something, and have to hold a wake and bury him without alerting the authorities. It starts off as tragedy, moves into black comedy, and ends with Freddy rising from the grave (he wasn't dead, just comatose).
64	--> '''Franklin:''' Be careful, next time we might cremate.
65	%%* MushroomSamba: Frequent.
66	* MyGirlIsASlut: Virtually every woman is an [[DoubleStandard airheaded, balloon boobed bimbo]], although in fairness the men don't come across any better.
67	* NonindicativeName: The comic has nothing to do with the UsefulNotes/FurryFandom and is, in fact, older than it. Also, the title characters aren't siblings.
68	* PoliceAreUseless: Fortunately they are also the villains.
69	* PreAssKickingOneLiner: Phineas gets confronted by a swarm of tiny clones of himself: "Taste the stainless blade of liberalism, you arrogant bunch of Stalinists!"
70	* RefugeInAudacity: How the Brothers' escape every sticky situation.
71	* ReminderFailure: The titular brothers are alarmed to hear the police can break into homes without knocking, so they booby trap the apartment with falling bowling balls, high-voltage wires - then they have Fat Freddy go to the store, telling him "Don't forget to be careful coming back in". He walks along repeating the mantra...then forgets what he was going to get. He rushes back in to ask and sets off the traps.
72	* ShoutOut: During Fat Freddy's wake, we see several comics creators mourning his death. Some of these, including Creator/RobertCrumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Spain Rodriguez, are drawn in the artists' trademark styles (which makes sense considering that Crumb and Kominsky are known for their autobiographical work).
73	* SinisterSurveillance: Every rooftop bristles with antennae and dishes, and the narks [[PalantirPloy are always listening in]].
74	* TheSmartGuy: Phineas, who once became the most powerful man on Earth [[EverythingIsOnline through the use of a modem]].
75	* SnarkyNonHumanSidekick: Fat Freddy's cat, who in between sleeping on his master's face and [[UrineTrouble defecating in his clothes]] wages war with the fascist cockroaches living under the fridge.
76	* STDImmunity: Averted by Fat Freddy in "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Fat Freddy Gets the Clap]]" from issue #0.
77	* StockNessMonster: In one episode, Franklin is attacked by whole swarm of Loch Ness Monsters. "Only an inch long, but icky as Hell!"
78	* TheStoic: Franklin, although such are the situations he regularly finds himself in he's [[NotSoStoic less stoic than he'd like to believe he is]].
79	* StonersAreFunny: The reason this comic exists.
80	* StrawmanPolitical: The state governor is called Rodney Richpigge. He's a UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan {{Expy}}.
81	* VerySpecialEpisode: "Fat Freddy Gets the Clap" for VD.
82	* VitriolicBestBuds: The Brothers frequently put each other down and even beat each other up. Nevertheless, whenever they're separated, intentionally or otherwise, they end up missing each other before long.
83	* WhatTheHellHero: When their gas is turned off because they never pay the bill, they start heating with wood instead. Which Freddy gets by cutting down all the trees in the park. This was before a widespread ecological movement, but still.
84	* ZanyScheme: Many a story involves the Brothers' attempts to get or produce free drugs, energy, or other commodities; to evade the authorities, or other objectives.

Context ComicBook / TheFabulousFurryFreakBrothers