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Web Animation: Salad Fingers

"I've been disconnected."

...Where to begin?

A popular Flash cartoon created by David Firth, Salad Fingers is a notoriously surreal and disturbing series set in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. The title character is a grotesque recluse with long green fingers, a seemingly sexual fetish for rusty objects, masochistic tendencies, several Companion Cubes, a very loose grip on reality, and a habit of (possibly unintentionally) killing or otherwise harming everyone he meets.

It's that kind of series. We warned you

It's pretty much considered Not Safe For Humanity.

This nightmare of a series provides examples of:

After the End - A common interpretation of the setting.
And Call Him George: Salad Fingers gives his "little sister" Bourdoise the woodlouse a "big stroke" and ends up squishing it.
Animation Bump: Episode 9, 'Letter'. Justified as this episode came after a three-year hiatus.
Antiquated Linguistics: Salad Fingers talks like this— liberal use of Northern English colloquialisms is the norm.
Armless Biped: Milford Cubicle in the third episode.
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!!: In the second episode, Salad Fingers is distracted by a rusty nail in the wall while holding the oven door open, and lets it shut on the kid he asked to grab his fish for him.
Autocannibalism: This happens in one episode. Or maybe not. Its not very clear just what is going on, only that Salad Fingers likes his doppelganger's brains.
Black Humor: Lapses into this occasionally
Blipvert
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Some of the episodes begin with Salad Fingers greeting the viewer, and explaining what he's up to that day.
"Today I'm going to try and find France, because I've always wanted to go there."
Break the Cutie: Even though most people find Salad Fingers scary rather than cute, in Episode 8, when Roger reduces Salad Fingers to a sobbing, moaning miserable wreck curled up in the fetal position in his safety cupboard, you can't help but want to give the poor guy a hug.
Brief Accent Imitation: Salad Fingers does this at least twice, randomly speaking French in one episode and Jeremy Fisher's "strange dialect" in another.
Brown Note: Roger the radio uses these to upset Salad Finger's insides.
Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": At least to Salad Fingers. "Red water" = blood, "nettle carrier" = baby carriage, and "floor sugar" = sand, to name a few.
Chest Burster: In episode 9, Salad Fingers feels deathly ill immediately before a slimy black mass bursts from his abdomen.
Clip Art Animation - Horace Horsecollar, the taps and various other objects.
Cloudcuckoolander: Salad Fingers
Companion Cube - Several. The finger puppets Hubert Cumberdale, Jeremy Fisher, and Marjory Stewart-Baxter. Also, Horace Horsecollar (a toy horse) in the sixth episode, Kenneth (a mummified corpse) in the seventh, Roger (a radio) in the eighth, and Yvonne (a slimy black infant-sized mass) in the ninth.
Crapsack World
Creepy Child: The little girl in "Picnic", at least in-universe. She doesn't really do anything scary, but she manages to terrify Salad Fingers himself. The child-like... thing in "Cage" and Mr. Branches from "Letter" may also qualify.
Creepy Doll: Any of Salad Finger's three finger puppets can be this. To elaborate, Hubert Cumberdale can become human-sized, gain red eyes, and scream for no apparent reason, as well as randomly turn into a black liquid that burns at the touch. Marjory Stewart-Baxter jealously watches Salad Fingers have a picnic with a little girl through the window. Jeremy Fisher can also become human-sized, stores a weird green fluid in his plugged-up mouth, and can suddenly transform into a second Salad Fingers to get eaten alive by the first.
Creepy Long Fingers: Salad Fingers.
Crossdresser: Salad Fingers does this on occasion for no apparent reason. At least, it's probably crossdressing.
Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being a creepy noseless green man who lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Salad Fingers seems to be friendly and nice. What happens to the people around him, though...
Deranged Animation
Deus ex Machina: Salad Fingers escapes from the "little boy" who put him in a cage to propose to him by dropping a curtain and then apparently flying away on a giant tap.
Ear Rape: There are many sudden loud noises, drawing the viewer into a sense of paranoia. Translation: Don't listen with the volume up high.
Extreme Omnivore: Salad Fingers will eat stuff like finger puppets, sand, and hairs on scotch tape.
Eye Scream: Not exactly graphic but still enough to make you shudder. During episode 8, Salad Fingers takes a strand of hair and slowly drags it across his eyeball.
Fan Disservice: Salad Fingers without his shirt on: emaciated and hairy with a scar on his abdomen. Squick.
- Depends on the fan. There's fan art on deviantART with him shirtless. (But they made him look less squicky.)
Fetish: Spoons, rust, hypovolemia, and nettles are apparently this to Salad Fingers.
Freak Out - Salad Fingers, on a regular basis. Such as when the little girl speaks to him in episode 5, or when he's at the toilet in episode 6.
- Regarding the little girl freakout, an interesting way to look at it (and likely the genuine one): Salad Fingers only imagines the noises that he hears, or makes himself. Because he is insane, he must feel like he's truly all alone, and deserted. When the red-haired girl speaks, he is disturbed and alarmed because he realizes he is in reality, and she is human. You'll notice that after this episode, all the other episodes include Salad Fingers having bad memories, crying, and being afraid. The little girls voice, is what snaps him into reality. Credits go to a comment on YouTube.
Go Mad from the Isolation: One theory as to why Salad Fingers is so mentally disturbed.
Gonk: Basically every character. See below.
Grotesque Gallery: Everybody. EVERYBODY. Including:
- Salad Fingers himself: a bald, noseless, red-eyed, lanky green "man" with three fingered prong-like hands and filthy yellow teeth.
- A large eyed and limbless "young child" whose head looks like a kernel of corn from the first episode.
- In episode 3, the screaming man with a combover and wearing a "BBQ" apron has no arms.
- A "little boy" from episode 4 who stalks Salad Fingers. It has black bulging eyes, needle-like teeth, and a large scar on its bald, veiny, and oversized head.
  - The only thing that comes even close to averting this is the red haired girl from episode 5, which is to say she looks recognizably human.
Halfway Plot Switch: The eponymous letter from the episode "Letter" is read aloud by Salad Fingers for a few seconds at the beginning. The rest of the episode has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Heroic BSOD: The ending of episode 5.
Hey, It's That Guy!: Datach'i himself plays piano on one episode.
High Pressure Blood: In episode 2, when Salad Fingers stabs one of his fingers with a nail in the wall, he bleeds himself unconscious within seconds.
I'm a Humanitarian - Salad Fingers eats Jeremy Fisher (who turns out to be himself) in one of his Freak Out moments.
It Tastes Like Feet - "Hubert Cumberdale, you taste like soot and poo!"
Lampshade Hanging:
- In episode 5, the creepy crow gags in disgust when Salad Fingers feeds the little girl "pease pudding" using a rusty spoon taken out of a pouch made up of pieces of human skin sewn together.
  - Some even believe it says "Fuck you" in a distorted voice; there is a "fuh" sound in there, but YMMV on whether that is the message.
- In episode 8, Roger remarks that Salad Fingers's house is filthy and demands that he clean it up.
Leitmotif - "Beware the Friendly Stranger" by Boards Of Canada.
Looks Like Orlok - Salad Fingers, while lacking any nose or ears, is bald, hunchbacked, has creepy claw-like hands, and has filthy teeth.
Mindscrew - All of it.
- Particular mention goes to the ending of episode 6, where Salad Fingers walks into his house and sees a doppelganger sitting in a chair. The Salad Fingers sitting down accuses the standing Salad Fingers of 'deflowering' his daughter's rose. The standing Salad Fingers morphs into A life size Jeremy Fisher, goo trickling from his mouth. The sitting Salad Fingers remarks about not tasting him, and proceeds to eat the normal Salad Fingers head. It's never explained which Salad Fingers as real.
Mr. Imagination: Salad Fingers.
Mummies at the Dinner Table - Salad Fingers digs up the corpse of his brother Kenneth and has dinner with him - assuming that was his brother, and he wasn't playing a macabre imagination game with whatever/whomever was lying around.
Nice Hat: Salad Fingers wears a beret when he wants to visit France. Also ~~Hubert Cumberdale~~ Barbara Logan-Price and his bosun hat.
The Nicknamer: Salad Fingers, to everything.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant - Salad Fingers' voice, mannerisms and dialogue are extremely unnerving, usually more so to the viewers than to the other characters.
No Fourth Wall: Mostly during the earlier episodes, Salad Fingers will address the audience with a friendly "Hello" and then explain his adventure for the day.
Noodle People: This is how Salad Fingers is drawn.
Obliviously Evil: Salad Fingers tends to kill people (and animals, and puppets) without even noticing.
- The "people" part is debatable. The only humans who have died in the series have been the boy who got stuck in the oven while Salad Fingers was passed out, and the man who died from banging his head on the door. Salad Fingers can't really be said to have killed either of them, though he's certainly oblivious enough to be capable of this.
Oh Crap: Taken to far beyond merely unrealistic proportions in episode 5, after a crow steals his spoon.
Our Monsters Are Weird: Only two creatures in this series are normal humans.
Ravens and Crows: A particularly creepy crow appears in episode 5 during the picnic.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Salad Fingers'.
Scare Chord: By Hubert Cumberdale in the meat locker scene in episode 2. Also by baby Yvonne's "birth" in episode 9.
Scenery Gorn: Unless Salad Fingers is daydreaming, the setting will be a desolate wasteland full of weird, unintelligible creatures. The only plants are dead trees, weeds, and nettles. Also Salad Finger's house is dark, severely dilapidated, and filthy.
Silent Partner: Salad Fingers's three finger puppets, as well as Horace Horsecollar.
Shout Out - Salad Fingers' telephone has the Aphex Twin logo on it, and Aphex Twin's song "Avril 14th" can be heard at the end of episode 4.
- "Rhubarb" makes a couple of appearances as well.
Split Personality - Salad Fingers has quite a few of them.
Stalker with a Crush - The little boy from the fourth episode, who lures Salad Fingers into a bear trap by using a tap, and puts him in a cage in order to propose to him.
Sudden Anatomy - Salad Fingers' fingers occasionally turn normal in later episodes when needed.
Surreal Horror
Surprise Pregnancy: Possibly in episode 9. Salad Fingers feels deathly ill with an affliction that makes him pale, seep a black fluid, and have a pulsating distended abdomen. Then a black blob bursts from his abdomen. After he regains consciousness, he happily accepts the slimy mass as his newborn daughter. However Salad Fingers may just be delusional as usual.
Unusually Uninteresting Sight:
- When Hubert Cumberdale, a usually mute finger puppet, becomes human-sized, gains red eyes, and screams at Salad Fingers, Salad Fingers nonchalantly knocks Hubert Cumberdale on the head with a rusty spoon and continues to sing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".
- The two normal human characters in the series go along with Salad Finger's requests (getting a fish out of the oven and joining him in a picnic) despite him being a creepy green man.
- To be fair, other than those two kids themselves, Salad Fingers is the least creepy creature we see roaming the wasteland.
Through the Eyes of Madness
Title Drop - The first episode.
Troubled Fetal Position:
- Salad Fingers does this as well as cry in the cupboard when Roger assaults him with Brown Notes.
- Also he does this during a Freak Out after a little girl speaks to him.
The Unintelligible - Almost everyone except Salad Fingers.
- In fact, when one character actually speaks to him, he is profoundly disturbed. "What's wrong? Do you not like my mouth-words?"
- The Radio in episode 8 at first just emits creepy noises, then begins speaking back to Fingers with Fingers's own voice.
Vocal Evolution
When Trees Attack: Mr. Branches in "Letter".
Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Happens to Salad Fingers's eyes whenever he's Freaking Out.
World War One - Salad Fingers frequently makes reference to "the Great War", although the significance of this is never explained. It could also refer to The End of the World as We Know It.