Characters / Smiling Friends: Clients

Smiling Friends Main Character Index
The Smiling Friends | Clients | Villains | Other Characters

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Season 1

Desmond

Desmond

"... Is this supposed to make me not want to kill myself?"

Voiced by: Mike Stoklasa

A depressed man at the end of his rope, whose mother employs the Smiling Friends to cheer him up.

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• The Anti-Nihilist: A very downplayed one, as he initially has no reason to live, but once he discovers he finds joy in the eradication of Bliblies, he completely drops his nihilistic outlook and becomes a successful businessman.
• Basement-Dweller: Moved back into his childhood bedroom, now a Mess of Woe.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Alan's life from the Bliblies by blowing them away with his Hand Cannon, which also gives him something to live for again, inversely making the Bliblies this to Desmond himself.
• Blood Knight: What gets Desmond out of his funk is him realizing that he loves killing the Bliblies after he shoots one that charged at him.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Sure he spends almost all of his time on-screen being a comically over the top wreck of a man on his last ropes. but when a Bliblie rushes him, Charlie, and Pim, he swiftly rushes forth to protect the two by landing a headshot at point blank range without it even being able to touch the three, and it's implied that he went on an epic rampage to save the rest of the Smiling Friends and their office from the Bliblies, which, if his commercial indicates anything, involved him not only shooting them, but smashing them, stabbing them, and even setting them on fire.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: Neglects to wear pants in his room, continuing to do so as he walks barefoot in his boxers to everywhere that Pim and Charlie take him.
• Death Seeker: But is willing to give a lad a chance to talk him out of it.
• Desperately Seeking A Purpose In Life: It turns out this is what was wrong with him, as he regains his will to live after finding out that he likes exterminating Bliblies, and develops an entire business centered around getting rid of them for other people.
• Driven to Suicide: His lost investment in life provides the conflict Pim and Charlie have to face. Ultimately, he decides he wants to live.
• Fat Slob: Has really let himself go after the divorce, having grown a gut that hangs out of his stained shirt and over his boxers. He cleans himself up brilliantly once he's on television.
• The Eeyore: Oh boy. He gets better.
• Gonk: He's one sad, disgusting shell of a man to look at. Not so much after he manages to find a new purpose in life, as he becomes significantly less ugly.
• Hand Cannon: Owns a comically large revolver which he keeps pressed against his temple at all times.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: When he cheers up after finding his true calling in life, all of his hair grows back, his skin clears up, and loses its wrinkles and veins, his teeth become clean and white, and he starts wearing a nice suit.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Of a sort; his design appears to take noticeable cues from that of Mr. Plinkett, another character that his VA, Mike Stoklasa, plays, right down to Stoklasa reusing the Plinkett voice for Desmond. Once he cleans himself up, he looks less like Plinkett and quite a bit like the actual Stoklasa.
• Insane Proprietor: Becomes a downplayed example when he founds Desmond's Bliblie Control. He is a sincere and direct spokesman, but in retrospect, he's still personally advertising Lilliputian genocide. Though to be honest, said Lilliputians are shown to be quite dangerous, chaotic pests, so it's relatively the same as a real life exterminator.
• Muggle: He is thus far the only client to be a regular human as opposed to a fantasy character or cartoon creature.
• Not Good with Rejection: His deteriorating mental health was brought on by how his wife took everything in their divorce and his children have cut all ties with him.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Him killing all of the Bliblies running amok in the Smiling Friends Office, it's implied through his commercial for his Desmond's Bliblie Control that he not only used his gun to kill them, but stabbed, smashed, and set the Bliblies on fire.
• Quick Draw: Turns his gun away from his temple and onto a charging bliblie in a second, blasting the tiny berserker at point-blank range.
• Reckless Gun Usage: Justified. He was planning on shooting himself after all. Frankly, it's more surprising the gun doesn't accidentally discharge when he's on the roller coaster or bumper cars. Given the implications that he just wanted a reason to live, the fact that he has it pressed up to his temple with his finger resting on the trigger for most of the time he's on screen is rather counterproductive.
• Revolvers Are for Amateurs: An average guy with an average gun. That said, it's still a Smith & Wesson 500, which isn't anything to scoff at.
• Sadist: Implied with his vow that if Pim and Charlie fail to cheer him up, they have to watch him kill himself, and shown in full once he kills his first bliblie.
• Shown Their Work: Although it isn't explicitly named, the revolver that Desmond wields is an incredibly accurately drawn Smith & Wesson 500.
• The Stoic: He doesn't vary much from his dull, bored tone. Subverted once he gains a new purpose in life in the form of the owner of "Desmond's Bliblie Control", his new business centered around exterminating the Bliblies, as he becomes a lively and cheerful Large Ham.
• Stout Strength: A very subtle example. The revolver he carries on his person is, as mentioned before, a Smith and Wesson Model 500, going by it's appearance, which weighs close to 5 pounds when fully loaded, and he's able to carry it with one hand for an entire day without any signs of tiring. He also swiftly lands a headshot on a Bliblie charging at him while also only using one hand without experiencing any recoil from the gun's massive firepower.
• Straw Nihilist: Explains his bleak outlook on life, inadvertently causing Pim to question his own existence.
  "Are the best parts of life just momentary distractions to keep yourself busy so you don't think about the harsh reality of life? I can ride roller coasters, make new friends, and spend time with my family all day long. But it doesn't change the fact that the sun is just gonna explode, and all this was for nothing."
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: After he point-blanks a Bliblie to defend him, Charlie, and Pim from it, plus Charlie encouraging him to take them all out to save everybody, he discovers that he finds exterminating Bliblies fun, which reignites his will to live now that he's discovered a new purpose in life for himself, and winds up starting a company dedicating to the extermination of them, earning him a job that he loves and can readily make money from.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Implied. The gun he's trying to kill himself with appears to be a Smith & Wesson Model 500, which has one of the largest calibers out of any revolver. He later shoots one of the bliblies on-screen with it by shooting it point blank, which quite literally obliterates it.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: He becomes a lot more lively and cheery after he inadvertently discovers a reason to live after finding out that exterminating Bliblies makes him feel good.
• Trauma Conga Line: The reason why he's contemplating ending his own life; his wife left him, then his children, and his dog died last week, plus, going from how his mother states that he's been "a bit mopey lately", is living with a mother that's unable to fully comprehend the depth of his emotions or even understand how much emotional pain he's in.

Mr. Frog

Mr. Frog

"I'm Mr. Frog! This is my show! I eat the bug!"

Voiced by: Michael Cusack

The titular star of The Mr. Frog Show. An altercation with a TMZ reporter gets him kicked off his show.

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• Affably Evil: He's a pretty friendly guy. Until he abruptly isn't.
• A-Team Firing: If you pay attention during the firing range scene, you will see that Mr. Frog misses every shot he takes at the targets in his own range. Being unstable and high as a kite on what might be coke, it's unsurprising.
• Author Avatar: According the credits of the Mr. Frog Show episode shown, Mr. Frog was the author behind a Broadway musical titled "The Frog Paradox", of which he no doubt was the star of.
• Ax-Crazy: The cause of Mr. Frog's Role-Ending Misdemeanor in-universe. Something is clearly wrong in Mr. Frog's head, and he has spontaneous bursts of violence that horrify everyone around him, such as trying to swallow a TMZ reporter whole, or strangling one of his fans during a meet-and-greet. He even outright eats his executive producer alive in front of a live audience, on live TV, seemingly hamstringing any chance he had to revive his career... until the audience begins to applaud him instead.
• Big Fancy House: He lives in an absolutely massive mansion decorated with sculptures and paintings of himself.
• Breakout Character: Easily the most popular of the clients in Season 1, owing to his unsettling demeanor and penchant for some of the show's darkest jokes. Sure enough, he was brought back in Season 2.
• Brutal Honesty: When Pim says he could simply apologize for putting the news reporter in his mouth, Mr. Frog simply counters by saying that he's not sorry, implying he believes that lying would be wrong.
• Cephalothorax: Instead of having a distinct head, his face is just located on his chest, as if to evoke the image of a frog looking straight ahead.
• Depraved Kids' Show Host: When the cameras aren't rolling, the host of the cheerful, family friendly Mr. Frog Show is a violent, racist maniac with a serious drug problem.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • An extremely famous macro-celebrity is caught doing a criminal act wherein someone is seriously harmed, and is thus cancelled. This sounds a lot like the wave of sexual harassment claims that swept through Hollywood at the end of the New 10's, and this connection is furthered when Mr. Frog ends up getting his job back at the end of the episode despite committing an even worse act than the one he got cancelled for.
  • His situation overall is rather similar to that of Pepe the frog (which he resembles, is a notable topic of discussion in Zach's podcast and whose "Pepe Con" is alluded to by two people with a picture of "Frog Con").
• Drugs Are Bad: At least some of his erratic and violent behavior is the result of abusing what looks like purple cocaine.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appears as a doodle on the walls of Pim's family's house in the first episode.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He looks genuinely horrified when he cuts off the old woman's hands off with the giant check, most likely since, unlike his other violent actions, it was a total accident as a result of going through a withdrawal phase.
  • He's initially dismissive of the idea of apologizing for nearly eating a journalist because despite it having explained to him that it would be good optics, he doesn't want to lie about being sorry when he isn't.
• Extreme Omnivore: Every episode of his show focuses on him eating a bug (which is normal for frogs), but his appetite turns out to be more extreme than that; he gets kicked off his show after attempting to swallow a reporter, and later eats Rex whole in front of a live studio audience. Considering his eating habits, one could wonder if he was based on a bullfrog by any chance.
• Fiction 500: His show is so popular that he's able to live in a massive palatial estate with a gym, a movie theater, an "animal sanctuary", a firing range and a huge pool. By the end of the episode, his show becomes even more popular, and he becomes one of the richest and most powerful people on the planet.
• Freudian Excuse: It's implied that his mental health issues are at least partially due to having to work under Rex for so long, given the latter's abusive treatment of Glep.
• Frog Men: He is literally a talking humanoid frog.
• Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Seeing the bug he eats in every episode is the same bug, and is still around post-cancellation, it seems he can just swallow him harmlessly. It decidedly does not apply to his producer, though.
• Green and Mean: Played With. He's a green frog who comes across as being a pretty friendly guy, in spite of his sudden unprovoked outbursts of violence, but even when he isn't being violent, he's still prone to borderline sociopathic behavior, such as pulling on Pim's "hair" (actually an exposed nerve ending) despite Pim requesting him to not do that.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Beneath his placid exterior, he's quick to disproportionate bursts of anger for little to no reason; when a fan approaches him at a meet & greet and politely asks for a selfie of them together, Mr. Frog's response is to throttle the guy until his neck bruises.
  Mr Frog: Hello. He was insulting me.
  Pim: N-no, he wasn't, he really wasn't, Mr. Frog...
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Wears a pair of brown shorts but no shirt or shoes.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: After burning all of his bridges he makes a sincere apology to the world for his actions. This is interrupted by his douchebag producer reaming him out, causing Mr. Frog to eat him. While Charlie and Pim aren't sure if this killing is justified, everyone else cheers and he goes on to become even more successful than ever before. And indeed, the ending hints he'll continue his violent actions when he sneaks up to the woman reporting his story and raises a hammer.
• Idle Rich: Outside acting, even with his gigantic mansion full of entertainments he awkwardly confesses that all he does for fun is "watch Jimmy Fallon clips on YouTube all day". Seeing what happens whenever he's in contact with people, it seems to be for the best.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: His show consists of him running on screen, introducing himself to the viewer, explaining that the show is about him, and that he eats the bug, before he makes good on that explanation, and declaring that he has eaten the bug, and proclaiming it to be the end before telling the viewer he loves them. Somehow this show has managed to run for 47 seasons by the time of the present In-universe, and spawned a massive merchandising empire, with Mr. Frog living in a gigantic palace of an estate.
• Informed Species: Aside from having green skin and flipper-like hands and feet, he doesn't look much like a frog.
• Long-Runners: The Mr Frog Show apparently has 47 seasons, and if the way the production goes is any indication, every episode is the same.
• Louis Cypher: In an interview with Cusack and Hadel where they were questioned on whether Mr. Frog was a critter or something else, neither were sure but Hadel considered that he might very well be a demon sent up from Hell.
• Mister Descriptor: His name should very obviously tell you that he's a frog.
• Nailed to the Wagon: Pim and Charlie try to clean up his act by taking his drugs away. The withdrawal leave him a cringing, fearful, cadaverous husk of his usual self, and he somehow cuts off an old woman's hands with a giant novelty check seemingly out of sheer fight-or-flight panic.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He says something horribly racist on The Tonight Show after Charlie pairs up his drugs with sleeping pills. According to the interview with The Create Unknown, in its uncensored form, it's Cusack making "s" noises.
• Shown Their Work: Instead of eating with a long sticky tongue like most cartoon frogs (which real frogs lack), Mr. Frog eats people by shoving them into his mouth with his arms, which is how frogs handle large prey items in real life.
• Simpleton Voice: Speaks in a very low register, and typically with very short, simple sentences. He's more verbose while under the effect of sleeping pills, as seen in his disastrous appearance on The Tonight Show.
• Super-Speed: He's jarringly fast, be it when he runs around faster than anyone present in the show or when he's committing one of his wanton acts of violence. Soon as he gets the idea he's already mauling you, and he devours a man alive leaving nothing but a bloodstain in less than a second.
• The Unapologetic: Proudly admits he's not sorry when Pim suggests for him to apologize for putting the TMZ reporter in his mouth.
• Verbal Tic: Slips a 'hello' into everything he says. Although, he never says it on his show at any point.

Shrimp

Shrimp

"Do you like Mouse Quest?"

Voiced by: David Firth

A hapless shrimp whose recent breakup has him down in the dumps.

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• Badass Longcoat: Parodied; his idea of a "cool new attire" that will impress Shrimpina is a big black jacket with a Satanic pentagram necklace and the word VENGEANCE painted on his sleeve, along with boots plus jeans. He ends up looking pretty terrible in it.
  Charlie: Y-you look like you're about to tell your friend not to come to school tomorrow, man.
• Be Yourself: For all of Charlie's work to get him tough and good looking, he ends up getting over Shrimpina on his own and nets a new loving girlfriend who's into Mouse Quest just by bringing it up to her.
• Bittersweet Ending: With more emphasis on sweet than bitter, but he doesn't get back together with Shrimpina like he wanted to, but manages to find a completely new girlfriend, essentially allowing him to move on from his breakup.
• Creepy Monotone: His voice is done in David Firth's signature stilted monotone, with him only ever raising his voice when shrieking in pain.
• A Dog Named "Dog": He's a shrimp named Shrimp.
• Eaten Alive: After getting tanned too much, a random stranger took a bite out of his head. Fortunately, it didn't do any real lasting damage.
• Eyes Always Shut: The pupils in his glasses rarely open, giving him an even droopier look.
• Eye Glasses: His pupils are also drawn into his glasses. In one moment where you see the back of his head, they’re still drawn into his glasses than his actual head.
• Extreme Doormat: Lets a Homer Simpson-like dude take a bite off his head because he's scared of confrontation, and doesn't call out Charlie for giving him dangerous pointers in the gym.
• Gross-Up Close-Up: Charlie decides to dress him up in a jacket and some jeans, and when showing off his new outfit he's suddenly drawn very realistically and way differently from the usual art style.
• Interspecies Romance: Considering Shrimpina is a human woman and he's an anthropomorphic shrimp man, it's a given. Except it turns out that "Shrimpina" is actually a completely different woman he never met before named Jennifer, leaving it ambiguous if his relationship with the actual Shrimpina was an example of this trope. He does play the trope straight regardless by getting together with Jennifer in the end.
• Iron Butt Monkey: Suffers a lot of Amusing Injuries from getting cooked alive by a tanning booth to having his spine crushed by dumbbells, and despite his fragility manages to survive.
• Kavorka Man: Even in the setting of the show and its bizarre character designs, Shrimp is noted as being incredibly unattractive, yet he's hired the team in the first place to help him win his girlfriend back and winds up hooking up with the exceptionally attractive Jennifer at the end of his episode. It is lampshaded by Charlie, who's baffled that he even managed to get a girlfriend in the first place.
• Manchild: He's pretty bad at taking care of himself and his apartment, plays video games all day in a dark room and has tons of action figured/merchandise set up on his shelves, some of which include a not-Master-Chief and a Mr. Frog figure.
• Meaningful Name: Aside from Shrimp being, well, a shrimp, he’s also got what could be called a shrimpy personality, being small and pathetic and too nervous to stand up for himself, plus he’s also too anti-social to get out and meet people himself.
• Mess of Woe: He's taken his breakup pretty harshly, and has a dark and badly kept room to show for it.
• Oop North: Has a noticeable northern English accent.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: He says the word sigh itself instead of actually sighing when introducing himself to Pim and Charlie.
• Sickly Neurotic Geek: He's visibly overweight, exposure to sunlight physically hurts him, and is obsessed with a game called Mouse Quest II. Luckily for him, he turns out to be the shrimp of Jennifer's dreams.
• Tainted Veins: Downplayed considering we're talking about shrimps here, as you can see the bright and bulging veins on his arms and during his Gross-Up Close-Up like how you can see the intestinal track through an actual shrimps skin.

Salty's Mascots

Salty's Mascots

The wonderful mascots of Salty's. ^{Click to see Century Egg}

Voiced by: Michael Cusack (Ketchup, Pepper), Zach Hadel (Salt, Century Egg), Erica Lindbeck (Mustard), Mick Lauer (Crazy Cup), Harry Partridge (Grease)

A bunch of wonderful zany wacky fast-food mascots. You got Ketchup, Mustard, Salt and Pepper, Crazy Cup, and the Fun Twins. One of them killed Simon S. Salty. There's also Grease. And Century Egg.

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• Almost Dead Guy: Century Egg is on the brink of death by the time he's introduced, but he manages to help Charlie and Pim solve the mystery through his secret security camera before biting it.
• Ambiguous Gender: Salt and Pepper. Their genders are never mentioned, plus their designs have nothing that would indicate their gender as well, leaving it ambiguous whether or not they are a heterosexual or same-sex couple consisting of two men or two women.
• Anthropomorphic Food: Most of them are food-related items with faces, although Crazy Cup is shown to be a critter shaped like a soda cup, and the Fun Twins are eyeballs with limbs.
• Armless Biped: Crazy Cup isn't a living food item like most of the mascots, but a funny character in a suit. His lack of arms, combined with his neck and head being shaped like an actual bent straw, means it takes him twenty minutes to get in or out of costume.
• Art Shift: When they first show up in the Salty's commercial, the mascots have a more stylized appearance that makes them look closer to the McDonaldland mascots during the 80s and 90s.
• Ax-Crazy: Almost all of them are dangerously unbalanced, especially the Fun Twins. Charlie even refers to them as psychopaths.
• The Brute: Crazy Cup is shown to be rather strong, given that he's tough enough to leave a hole in the restaurant's front door and emerge unscathed just by running into it, and he's also immediately seen tipping over a bus just by repeatedly tackling it.
• Cool Old Guy: While we don't know how old Century Egg is, he's been locked in the basement for a long time and has a raspy, elder-like voice. He's also the only mascot who helps Pim and Charlie solve the murder of Salty.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Century Egg tries to invoke this when talking about how he was taken off the menu due to poor sales and left to die in the basement, referring to what happened to him as his "cool fucking backstory". Charlie agrees that it's pretty cool.
• Drugs Are Bad: Crazy Cup has a drug problem that's given him fecal incontinence, which leaves him frequently needing to clean "doodoo feces" stains from his costume.
• Disproportionate Retribution: None of the stated motives are even close to justified, but Salt and Pepper stand out for trying to murder Salty simply because he didn't like them kissing on the job, along with Mustard, who didn't want to go through with a breakup.
• Early-Bird Cameo: You can spot Century Egg in the Salty's commercial, being cradled by Simon S. Salty himself.
• Everybody Did It: Subverted; Salty actually died of a heart attack, and the mascots were unwittingly just attacking a corpse.
• Fan Disservice: What does Crazy Cup exactly look like under the suit? Well you're treated to a scene where it is revealed he looks exactly like what he wears.
• Femme Fatale: Mustard. Every whodunnit needs one.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Ketchup tries to justify his attempted murder of Salty by saying he just wanted what was best for the restaurant, but Charlie immediately shuts him down; as much as he loves unhealthy fast food and hates that his favorite restaurant was switching to a healthier menu, he's not about to kill someone over it.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: The Fun Twins speak only in a high-pitched, fast-paced babble. When interviewed, they apparently tell a story about flying on a rocket to a planet with a face where they ran around and stabbed all the inhabitants, but only Pim understood it.
  Pim: Well, that's a nice story and all, but it doesn't really answer my question.
  Charlie: Pim, how did you understand any of that?
• Karma Houdini: They figure that since none of them actually killed Simon S. Salty, that means they're all innocent and can go free. Charlie briefly slows them down by telling them he's not sure that's how it works, since they all still tried to kill him and desecrated his corpse one way or the other, but before he can finish his sentence, the mascots all break out of the restaurant and start causing havoc in the streets. They even end up killing an innocent bystander by rolling a bus over him.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: The grease stain known as Grease is somewhat treated as such.
• Not Even Bothering with an Excuse: Unlike Ketchup, Salt & Pepper, and Mustard, Crazy Cup doesn't explain why he wanted to kill Salty.
• Last Request: The dying Century Egg wants to be buried in the Chinese village he was born in.
• Shout-Out: Mustard speaks in a voice and accent reminiscent of Femme Fatale characters from 1940s Film Noir movies.
• Sickening Sweethearts: Salt and Pepper are constantly kissing each other. Charlie thinks their relationship is beautiful, but Simon S. Salty apparently didn't appreciate them kissing while on the clock.
• Super Spit: The blue Fun Twin spits some sort of substance on Pim's arm that causes it to sting and be covered in a nasty looking rash.
• There Was a Door: Played With. Crazy Cup makes his exit by charging through the glass door in the restaurant, breaking a hole in it and receiving no damage whatsoever instead of actually opening it.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • Grease, if only by default. He's the only one not really interviewed, nor is he recorded in Simon Salty's room from Century Egg's tape. After all, how can a grease stain kill a guy?
  • Century Egg is a more genuine example, as he didn't even attempt to kill Salty and actually helps Pim and Charlie uncover the mystery.
• Unperson: Century Egg, as a result of being taken off the menu.

The Princess of the Enchanted Forest

The Princess of the Enchanted Forest

"Oh, hello there. How can I help?"

Voiced by: Erica Lindbeck

The Princess of the Enchanted Forest.

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• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": She's only ever referred as the "Princess", her actual name is never said.
• Flat Character: Only shows up for less than a minute at the end.
• Modest Royalty: Downplayed. She lives in a castle on top of a mountain with a big throne room, but she herself is very casual and approachable. She also had to deal with a stalker in a way a normal person would have to, which involved blocking him on social media and moving out twice.
• Nice Girl: What little we know of her is she is a casual and friendly woman who's easily approachable in spite of her status as royalty.
• Oh, Crap!: When she realizes the gift was from Mip thanks to Pim declining Mip's request to keep it a secret, her tone immediately changes into a subdued horror because he's her stalker and she knows whatever the gift was had to be something bad.
• Princess Classic: Nice, reasonable, and well-maintained. Still, she has realistic problems like the rest.
• True Blue Femininity: Her gown is mainly blue aside from some gold trim.
• Wham Line: Reveals why she called Smiling Friends once they said the gift was from Mip.
  Princess: Did you just say Mip?
  Pim: Yep.
  Charlie: Yeah, Mip, yeah.
  Princess: Oh my god!
  Pim: Did you know him?
  Princess: He was the entire reason I wasn't able to smile for my portrait. He's my stalker!

Satan

Satan

"...are you seriously criticizing me?"

Voiced by: Zach Hadel

The lord of Hell itself. Has kinda lost all motivation to manage the underworld, resulting in Hell freezing over. He makes a bet with Charlie that if the latter can get him out of his funk, he'll let the guy return to the world of the living.

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• Actor Allusion: This isn't the first time Zach's voiced Satan.
• Berserk Button: Implying that vaping is an addiction for him really sets him off, though in general it seems like criticizing him in any way already puts him in a bad mood, insisting on it will set him off.
• Can't Take Criticism: Rapidly reverts to form when he thinks Charlie is talking down to him, and even after watching Charlie's suffering breaks him out of his funk, he goes back on their deal out of hatred for the man.
• Deal with the Devil: Played for Laughs. Charlie offers to make him happy in exchange for being brought back to life. However, in a rare case of not even bothering with Rules Lawyer or Exact Words, the Devil just decides to not honor his side of the agreement. So God forces him to.
• The Devil Is a Loser: When Charlie arrives at his place, we see the Prince of Darkness has become a demoralized slob stuck in a routine of gaming, vaping, and ordering fast food.
• Evil Counterpart: Charlie is going through the same issue as him of being unmotivated, demoralized, and stuck in a cycle of quick dopamine hits while scolding a job he once loved, only to regain his happiness when he's reminded of how fulfilling his work can be. Satan is even introduced the same way as Charlie is in his episode - playing Rust on his PC while eating junk food - and they share a voice actor (Zach also voices Satan with his natural cadence, just pitch-shifted, so he ends up sounding the closest to Charlie of any character in the show).
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: At least when he's unmotivated. Goes back to Evil Is Burning Hot after he remembers that people being tormented at his command makes him happy.
• Evil Is Petty: Says "Merry Christmas" to the delivery guy after the latter wished him "Happy Holidays". He also refuses to uphold his deal with Charlie simply because he got him angry with some slight criticisms.
• Faux Affably Evil: At first he appears not to be that bad of a guy, he's polite towards the delivery guy and seems willing to let Charlie help him with his depression and even let him out of Hell if he succeeds. It all goes out the window when Charlie starts pointing out his flaws and criticizes him for it, which cause Satan to lose it.
• Fisher King: The temperature of Hell is consistent with his mood.
• I Resemble That Remark!: "ENOUGH! I AM NOT ADDICTED! I CAN QUIT MY ADDICTIVE VICES ANYTIME I WANT!"
• Large and in Charge: Is the most physically large of all the demons in Hell.
• Non-Standard Character Design: He's rendered in fully-3D CGI rather than drawn 2D animation.
• Sadist: What gets the Devil out of the depression Charlie finds him in? Watching Charlie, the person who was trying to help him out of his depression in the first place, get horribly tortured.
• Satan: Well, duh.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Befitting of the Devil himself, he embodies almost all of them in some way, with the exception of Greed and Envy.
  • Lust: He prefers to indulge in his numerous addictive vices instead of doing anything meaningful, and there is a box of tissues (with obvious implications as to what he uses them for) in the pile of trash surrounding him.
  • Sloth: He is shown to have lost all motivation in ruling Hell and spends his time doing nothing but playing video games surrounded by a pile of trash.
  • Gluttony: He is shown to be addicted to fast food, and there are soda cans and bottles, as well as paper containers for other food in the trash pile.
  • Pride: He gets offended when Charlie tries to offer him constructive criticism, which he interprets as talking down on him.
  • Wrath: He is shown to be an irritable character, complaining about the food delivery service forgetting the straw for his drink and snidely replying "Merry Christmas" when the deliveryman tells him "Happy Holidays" when leaving. There's also him flying into a rage and torturing Charlie when he offers constructive criticism, refusing to hold up his end of the deal he made with Charlie after he fulfills his simply because he pissed him off in the first place.
• Shout-Out: His lair at the Bottom Circle of Hell, surrounded by damned souls partially trapped in ice, is a reference to Cocytus in "Inferno". Another note is that in that story, the Devil is considered a prisoner of his own sins, much how this incarnation is trapped in a loop of pursuing short-lived dopamine hits.

Season 2

Gwimbly

Gwimbly

"I don't need your help, I-I'm doing my own thing now, and I'm thriving. But I can do my iconic Gwimbly victory dance for only $5. I take Venmo."

Voiced by: Zach Hadel

A famous video game mascot from the 90s who has since fallen on hard times after a falling-out with the game company.

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• Abandoned Mascot: Of Insane Groundbreaking Games. He was overtaken by Troglor as the mascot.
• Anachronism Stew: Downplayed, as he's meant to be a general throwback to mascots from The Fifth Generation of Console Video Games, but it's there. His visual design is reminiscent of the character designs from Banjo-Kazooie and what little we see of his game makes it look and sound like one of Rare's platformers from the N64 era, but his model looks more like a Playstation 1 model, right down to the vertex jitter (the weird fluctuating polygons on his model) that happened on the PS1 hardware due to its graphics chip being very primitive.
• Animated Actor: He's starred in a video game from the 90s, and he fittingly looks like a game character from that era. Like most examples of this trope, it's unclear exactly how much of his life is real and how much is just In-Universe fiction.
• Attention Whore: Downplayed. He's clearly desperate for recognition and respect, but isn't too obnoxious about it and generally only brings attention to it when he's legitimately been disrespected.
• Broken Pedestal: Surprisingly averted. Gwimbly was Pim's childhood hero, but even after Pim discovers Gwimbly is an unstable, desperate homeless man living a hard-scrabble life, he keeps respecting him. It helps that Gwimbly is actually a fairly nice guy.
• Cartoon Creature: It's unclear what exactly he is supposed to be, having yellow skin (or fur), a pink round tail (unless that's an anal prolapse), and a long, thin, curved snout tipped with a black nose, suggesting something mammalian.
• Character Catchphrase: "Ooh ooh ooh," accompanied by his iconic victory dance.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: He's a celebrity fallen on hard times much like Mr. Frog, but the similarities end there. Mr. Frog is wealthy and beloved, while Gwimbly is homeless and mostly forgotten. Mr. Frog is a homicidal lunatic despite his placid demeanor, where Gwimbly is somewhat off-putting but a decent fellow who only tries to attack his murderous Jerkass of a former boss. And while Mr. Frog takes his old role back at his replacement Gleb's expense, Gwimbly happily mends fences with Troglor out of genuine compassion.
• Crazy Homeless People: Downplayed. He's mostly rational and affable, but being homeless has clearly negatively impacted him psychologically. He's quite frazzled and somewhat off-putting, and is prone to bursts of shouting and violence when insulted - though admittedly only in situations where anyone would be angry, like being sprayed with a hose or insulted brazenly.
• Dead Sidekick: Had a sidekick in the form of Mr. Millipede, who has since died of a fentanyl overdose.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He was a famous star who helped cement Insane Groundbreaking Games's reputation, but was never appreciated and cast aside by the CEO. He's clearly quite bitter about this, and desperately wants to be appreciated now that he's been left homeless and destitute.
• Due to the Dead: He pays his respects to old friend Mr. Millipede when he finds out he died, pouring out a bottle of beer and sorrowfully giving his catchphrase at Millipede's grave.
• Expy:
  • His design and what we see of his game bear a strong resemblance to the art-style of Spyro the Dragon. Like Spyro, he also had an insect sidekick, though his has since died.
  • His proportions, long nosed face and having an "iconic victory dance" resemble that of Crash Bandicoot .
    • Additionally, some aspects of his design bear resemblance to Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • His use of a sidekick and return as a character in a new fighting video game resembles Banjo-Kazooie. His design may also have taken a cue from the long nosed Jinjos from the same series.
  • Aside from video game based resemblances, comparisons have also been drawn to real-life figures within 'lolcow' culture, an online community dedicated to morbid fascination towards severely mentally handicapped people. Daniel Larson in particular has been noted as a basis for Gwimbly, not least due to his appearance and personality.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Recording video shoutouts for fans on Cameo and performing his "iconic" Gwimbly dance to strangers for cash.
• Glory Days: Gwimbly was once a star who had multiple games and launched his company into success. However, the company stopped making games with him as their modern AAA titles made more money with microtransactions and DLC.
• Goofy Buckteeth: He has large gapped front teeth.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Gwimbly wears an unbuttoned shirt, a hat, heavily worn gloves, and shoes. He wears no pants.
• Happy Dance: The "iconic Gwimbly victory dance", where he waves his arms around and says "ooh ooh ooh" in a cheery tone. He does it for five dollars in the present day, but he's so out of shape that it sometimes makes him queasy.
• Homeless Hero: He's homeless and is one of the Smiling Friends' nicest clients.
• Hot-Blooded: He's generally amiable and placid, but he absolutely loses it when insulted. He loudly proclaims his hatred for Alan and spits on him for spraying him with a hose, and tries to assault the CEO for insulting him twice within the same scene.
  "I SWEAR TO GOD IF I HAD MY GWIMBLY GUN ON ME RIGHT NOW-"
• I Was Quite a Looker: From what we can see of his original gameplay, he was much more vibrant and healthy-looking than the sickly pallor he has nowadays. He seems to have gotten back in shape in time for his fighting game comeback.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though the Jerk part is downplayed. Gwimbly is short-tempered and violent, but only to people who mistreat him and he's never the aggressor. He's quite friendly and cordial otherwise, if desperate and somewhat awkward, and comforts Troglor after the CEO dies despite the fact Troglor replaced and tried to murder him.
• Jerkass to One: He's generally an amicable and placid guy, and only loses his temper with Alan once despite his constant insults, and for the pretty understandable reason that Alan was spraying him with a hose. However, he tries to assault the CEO twice for insulting him. It's actually pretty understandable, since the CEO is a Jerkass and a Bad Boss who tries to murder Gwimbly, Pim, and Alan just so he can keep doing nothing with Gwimbly's IP.
• Mascot with Attitude: He's a tragic parody of this archetype, being a character from this era whose franchise was considered outdated and thus abandoned and whose IP owner refuses to do anything with.
• Mr. Vice Guy: He's bitter, unstable, and skeevy, but he turns out to be a pretty decent guy who's just had bad luck.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Being a game character from the 90s, he's a low-polygon 3D character similar to something one would see on the Nintendo 64 or PlayStation 1.
• Popularity Cycle: Gwimbly was once the mascot of IGBG and beloved by millions. As the years passed, his franchise was overtaken by Troglor's and the company eventually abandoned him.
• Riches to Rags: Was the star of a popular game series, but has since been reduced to sleeping outside the Smiling Friends building and charging money for video messages to fans to make ends meet.
• Stylistic Suck: His design is low poly and unfocused, and his voice is compressed in such a way to sound as if it's coming out of an old speaker. He basically looks and sounds like he jumped straight out of a PS1 game.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: After being humiliated, mocked, living in poverty, finding out his former sidekick died of a drug overdose, and almost getting murdered, Gwimbly is able to star in a new platform fighting game with Troglor.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Creamed corn, a reference to the other edible collectibles of his peers, such as the bananas of Donkey Kong, the honeycombs of Banjo-Kazooie, and the apples of Crash Bandicoot.

James

James

"You have to do anything I want until I smile. Them's the rules, right?"

Voiced by: Michael Cusack

A man who claims to be depressed in order to take advantage of the plaque on the Smiling Friends building and force Charlie to do whatever he wants.

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• Ambiguously Gay: He's seen in The Stinger holding a framed picture of Charlie ("the one guy who gave a damn") in his hands as he drinks, lamenting over how he treated him. It's unknown if his feelings towards Charlie are romantic or not, but it's clear that he regrets being so abrasive with him and appreciated him putting up with him.
• Ambiguous Disorder: James' volatile and unpredictable behaviour can be seen as indicative of a mental disorder, particularly his alternation between violent outbursts and conspicuous empathy.
• Ax-Crazy: Tears Charlie's nose off with his bare hands, and later threatens to cut him apart piece by piece until he smiles. Luckily for Charlie, the CEO of the game company happens to show up. James stabs him in the head and leaves with a smile, as all he wanted to do was kill someone.
  Charlie: That man should not be allowed to walk the streets.
• Contrasting Replacement Character: He is this to Desmond, another depressed character in the First Episode of the Season whom one of the Smiling Friends struggles to make happy. However, James is incredibly muscular rather than fat like Desmond. Desmond is gloomy and quiet while James is aggressive and belligerent. Desmond threatens to kill himself if Pim fails to make him happy while James threatens to kill Charlie if that is what it takes to make him happy. They both even kill the episode's antagonists threatening the main characters's lives. However, instead of finding a sense of purpose from killing like Desmond did with the Blibblies, James just leaves the episode just as miserable as he started with him lamenting about pushing away Charlie who tried to help him.
• Early-Bird Cameo: A character resembling him previously◊ appeared in "A Silly Halloween Special," being the one to punch the Forest Demon in the face. It can be presumed he was redesigned for this episode.
• Hidden Depths: For the entirety of his screen time, James violently abuses Charlie while he's trying to make him happy and seemingly leaves no better than how he was when he first showed up. However, the stinger reveals that he was genuinely grateful towards Charlie for trying to help him and berates himself for how he treated him.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: He's a total asshat to Charlie for almost the entirety of the season 2 premiere, but The Stinger shows him coping with drink over the fact he's pushed away the only person who ever gave a damn about him. Played for pitch-black laughs, of course.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Over the course of the episode, James abuses the plaque's rules in order to wreak havoc on the Smiling Friend's building. He ends up smiling by technicality, even though he didn't actually learn anything and everyone can be finally done with him. The post-credits scene has him realize that Charlie could have genuinely improved his life if he didn't act like a jackass, and he laments about it.
• Ignored Epiphany: He seems to be a naturally violent and unpleasant person, but what made him finally smile was protecting the Smiling Friends from Troglor and the CEO. This should've been a wake-up call for him to pursue a possible career in bodyguarding so as to vent his urges in defense of others, but the moment passes and James returns to his lonely existence.
• Jerkass: Barges into the Smiling Friends building and immediately starts rooting through cabinets and breaking things.
• Karma Houdini: Does not really get any punishment for his horrendous treatment towards Charlie. However as shown in The Stinger, he is deeply, deeply sad and lonely.
• Mess of Woe: The Stinger reveals he lives in a dark, absolutely disgusting Lonely Bachelor Pad, with a mountain of candles to cover up the smell of his broken toilet and multiple jizzrags that had been left undisturbed for so long they've sprouted fruiting bodies of fungal growths. It's pretty bleak.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Is an adult man, but acts like a bratty child and has a habit of throwing things against the wall. He tells Charlie to get him a glass of milk, then breaks the glass against the wall after saying he hates milk. He does the same thing to the break room TV because it's not a flatscreen, and a casserole he forces Charlie to make because he's now decided he wants McDonald's.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: James has red eyes, and is an absolute jerk.
• Shout-Out: Him treating Charlie like his own personal servant while forcing him to wear a French maid outfit is possibly a reference to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Can You Spare a Dime?" in which Squidward does the same to SpongeBob.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: James can't stop aggressively pushing people away, no matter how much he hates himself for it.
• Top-Heavy Guy: His upper body is incredibly wide and ripped, but he's got short and twiggy legs.
• Troubled Abuser: For most of the episode, he seems to just be a psychotic asshole. However, at the end, it's revealed that he did genuinely care for Charlie and is remorseful for driving him away.
• Tsundere: He acts extremely abrasively with Charlie, but he is shown carrying a framed picture of Charlie lamenting that he ended up pushing him away.

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