David Firth

David Firth (born January 23, 1983) is a university animation student and animator of Flash animations and various short videos from Doncaster, England. Much of his work is humorous, highly abstract and mostly deals with mental illness, nightmare imagery and surrealism. Much of his drawing style resembles Don Hertzfeldt's: thin, stick-like characters with large, wide-set eyes and dark circles underneath them. Firth's most notable works are currently Salad Fingers, Burnt Face Man and Devvo; his work first became noticed when the second episode of Salad Fingers was featured on the front page of Newgrounds on July 16, 2004.

Animation and video work
* 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, taps, and nettles.
* Devvo, a series of live-action documentaries, 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.
* Burnt Face Man, a comedy series (8 episodes) about a superhero with a badly burnt face who is often accused of being a homosexual.
* 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, dystopian society.
* Sock Episodes, a surreal selection of animations based on his dreams.
Sock Episode One
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Socklops
* ', a story about a goodness-radiating plant. Some have argued that this cartoon is a metaphor for an LSD trip, although on David Firth's YouTube he argues against that matter.
* Men from Up the Stairs, what seems to be an animated metaphor for constipation.
* 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 middle aged man living with his mother. He is delusional and kills without knowing with the help of his bird.
*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 five short cartoons following a boy called Jim. The cartoons are a satirical poke at the antics of his younger brother James. Animated with Macromedia Director.
* Fat Pie, the series of three cartoons the site was originally created for. They again follow the adventures of Jim, from Jim's Story, but are longer in runtime. The fourth episode was canceled by Firth with only one scene complete, which is viewable on the site. Also animated with Macromedia Director.
*The Latest Model, A satire of crazes and fads, where people collect Nuclear Weapons.
*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 Panathinaikos 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.
*Health Reminder, a satire on health products and advertisements on healthy living. The main feature of the cartoon is the narrator's constant viewer remindings of how terrible their life is unless they subscribe to their treatments.
*Kiss My Poo, found by searching around fat-pie.com page, a short love song.
*Jerry Jackson, a satirical pop at his Newgrounds counterparts for their stupidity and inaccuracy when trying to create an animation.

Music work

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

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

Notes and references

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See Also

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