SurrealTube: Salad Fingers Ep 9-11

Weird. Hello everyone, and welcome to Scary Stories we Tell. I am one of your hosts, Chris, and I'm joined by my two other hosts on these Surreal Tube episodes. You have heard her here before and you're hearing her again. One of the hosts of this show.

It's me. Hello, I am here and one of the other hosts of this Surreal Tube journey through the magical, wild world of the Internet and the things that people put on the Internet for other people to watch. He makes things sometimes that go on the Internet. Artist Dustin, I'm just here for the rusty spoons. Gross dude.

So if you have been joining us up until this point, you know what we're going to be talking about. We're going to be talking about some more episodes of the Internet sensation salad Fingers. But before we get started, as always, if you are not familiar with this, go back to the beginning. But if you're dead set on being here and you don't want to start from the beginning, Emma tell the audience once again a little bit about what salad Fingers is. Salid Fingers is hard to describe in terms of coming in midway through.

Yeah, there's definitely a lot of news that comes with coming into a series like this at this point. But basically, we are following in a very odd story with very little context of a lengthy green Man with some really long gross fingers and him interacting with a post apocalyptic potentially world, very dystopian type setting, and his own delusions, his own mental health issues potentially, And so each episode sort of goes into its own little theme, and I'm waiting to see when exactly it starts culminating into because it's been a while since I've even watches culminating into more of a cohesive narrative, which I think around this point might be it. They don't have much time. Let there's literally four more episodes, including this one.

I think this is where that shift happens. So we've already seen a shift in the animation style, right, These episodes are much much more recent. The first few that were put up online were from like way over, like a decade ago. They were they took new Grounds by Storm, which if you listened to the first episode in this surreal Tube series, you know how not a thing new Grounds is now. So it's still out there, it's still out there, But it is crazy to me that we're closing in on the end of this series, and the last episode came out in twenty twenty two, which is last year.

That's to me, that's actually fucking bonkers. It's been a long time in the making, and you can definitely see how it's starting. Like how it started with just like Weird Creepy for Weird Creepy's sake, it didn't really set up too much for us other than just introducing us to this world and like kind of ending it there with the intention of making us uncomfortable. And now like there's there is a level of intrigue. I feel like the first couple episodes lacked that narrative intrigue.

It just had that like general unhinged creepiness factor that we could you know that we're so nostalgic form from a time long past. But now it's really starting to come into its own in terms of having a narrative structure and giving you something a lot more to try to theorize on. So I'm curious to see with this episode what you guys think in terms of where the story might be going. I'm still waiting for the narrative. I think it's this one, Like I said, it's it's been a while, but I think it's this one.

Okay, I am very interested to see what that is. So again, I just you know, there was so much of it and don't hug me. I'm scared both you know, subtext and like outfront. So this has been a lot of subtexts, so it hasn't been outfront as much as I was expecting. So do you have aabe we'll be seeing feel a sub sustin before we hop in.

Well, yeah, I'm also kind of waiting for the moment where like, thanks just all start coming together and uh, you've got me hyped up with this episode, all right, then I think we should the hype train is leaving the station, folks for two Salad Fingers all the born. Indeed. Yeah, so we're gonna be watching the ninth episode of Salad Fingers. This episode is titled Letter. It was posted on YouTube nine years ago.

It has five point one million views. Here we go. Well, what I don't know is it we see salad Fingers in this episode two different states, one where he looks like he's dead and then the other one where he looks perfectly fine. I mean, there's that scene where he goes like, you know, he's writing the letter with his finger. He's like, I can't make the war or whatever sysing that effect, right, Like is that taking place in the present?

Is that taking place in the past? Does it bad? I guess ultimately, like I don't know if it matters. I guess I'm still having a hard time sussing out where this is going, if it's going anywhere, because now we're at episode soon to be episode ten, and I would contend it's in rather dire straits now if it's introducing mythology, because there's two episodes left past this one. It's I'm still searching for a point.

And this episode for me felt like the first one where I'm like, is this is maybe just a little meandering. I could see that. I think that's fair, right, and like I don't want to say that, but also it's like the thing I should have said before we watch the episode is my concern is whether or not it will be able to fill up nine minutes, and then the next episode is fucking ten minutes, and then the one past that is fifteen. So I'm just concerned that that there's not a no off there in the state that the show is in now to necessitate these longer run times, and watching this episode kind of it feels a little bit like validation because by the end of this episode, I have no idea what's going on. It seems intentionally vague this time around, or intentionally just strange, which it's kind of been this whole time, but now it feels like they really cranked it up.

I would agree. I definitely think in terms of visual symbolism, it's really difficult to sus out exactly what is happening. But I think in the context of the previous episode, which I recall a sort of landing on the idea of abuse, right primarily like the radio representing a parental figure, you know, yelling at you to clean the house and judging you. And then he goes to his covered cry, which I think when you label it as you know, familial abuse, I think despite how strange the symbols are, it makes some sense. And I think it's also fair to say that either this is representing current abuse or it was meant to be him reliving that trauma while he is alone and you know, personifying the things around him to cope with se trauma.

Like however, I think interesting. Yeah, I think this episode kind of dives a little deeper into It could either be him role playing what his family was like growing up, where he takes on the role of what his parents might have been for him interesting, or it could be manifesting this desire that he wishes that he could have had a family after all of that abuse that he endured in his childhood. Seeing. I mean, family is probably the biggest theme in this episode, and I think coupled with abuse from the previous episode, I think that makes a lot of sense. Having the tree in the beginning, which pretty sure that was meant to be a dream sequence.

I assume so, because he seemed to have woken up after being like squeezed by the branch, right, and it's so maybe it's not a chronological thing, it's like a states of being. Yeah, I think it's supposed to be a look into his subconscious in a way and how we process trauma. But I would say that the tree in the beginning represents neglect. So with the context of that being like the opening for the episode, does that sort of help you put some some thoughts into words, Chris, Yeah, But I mean again, it honestly just comes back to this idea of like, how is salad figures and don't hug me. I'm scared talking about the same thing, but one is doing it so much more entertaining seamlessly.

Because that's kind of what don't hug me. I'm scared, Sagama right, like, gotta stop comparing the two. It's apples, like we can't help it. That's not it's all on the internet. It's not apples and oranges when you could be watching this or don't hug me, I'm scared.

We got hey, we're doing both, but you know what I mean, you know, you know what I need eager to compare them though I think they're different medium. I think they're different stories, and I think they're trying to evoke completely different feelings. I don't think it's fair to compare. You're very, very harsh. I think it's fair to I think it's fair to compare any anything to anything else.

If it's if it's if it's art, I think it is doing what it's intending to do effectively personally. I mean, I agree with that. I just don't think it's resonating with me fair the way. Don't hug me I'm Scared, and that's more what I'm getting at. It's again, like I one can remove myself and my feelings from things and be objective, and this is objectively interesting.

I'm not sure it's objectively as successful as Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, as I mean, there were parts of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared that were not great either, that were meandering, and like that. The family episode of that show was not as good as most everything else we had seen. So I'm not gonna say it's surprising. I just don't think it resonated with me as much. And I'm not surprised now because I don't know Don't Help Me I'm Scared.

I resonate with it immediately. I definitely think that they both play on a different form of nostalgia, and so I think Don't Know Me I'm Scared really capitalizes on the nostalgia of you know, early development programming, you know PBS type stuff, public access television. You know, it really pulls from that part of a lot of our shared childhoods to an extent, whereas this is doing something completely different, and the nostalgia that it's pulling from is specifically the creepyness of the Internet at this time, the weird dark you know, the creepy pasta's, the all of like the weird reddit stories and you know, the squidward seu aside. I'm sure you've heard of that one, Chris. Now, oh my god, there's just like there's a lot of like very etchy content from that time period, and so this taps into that.

I mean, the Originals were made around that time, and then he continued this series which was obviously a callback, and continues to evoke those same feelings, which was just like you stumbled across like a really weird part of the Internet, and that's always how it felt. And I think it's trying to evoke that feeling, but now it's telling some kind of a deeper narrative and having some kind of commentary on abuse or trauma or PTSD, some kind of mental issue following around a single character. Right, Yeah, No, I agree, I completely. I mean, so it makes sense, you know, if it isn't resonating the same way, because I mean, we were all indoctrinated with children's programming, we weren't all indoctrinated with creepy dark corners of the Internet, Like, if you weren't actively seeking that out, it took a lot to stumble across it, unless if somebody else showed it to you.

You had to actively be seeking out this stuff. Maybe it came up and you're recommended, but you still had to click it, like right right, if you didn't hear about it, you didn't know about it. Like a lot of this stuff will very easily fly under the radar, but everybody knows Sesame Street, you know. So I think, like, like I said, comparing the two nostalgias in terms of like where it resonates of these two different series, I think that's where it really, you know, divides. I suppose it's pulling from two very different sources, right, No, I agree, I agree.

I think, like you said, it's just I think the approachability with don't Hug Me, I'm Scared is more there than it is with this. I think that the intent of this is to kind of keep you out at arm's length. I think don't Hug me, I'm Scared is meant to bring you in. But also, like as you get closer, you realize that, like maybe that picture isn't what it actually looks like, like this is felt feels like it's very much keeping you at an arm's length. Yeah, you know what I mean, and like it's intentional, right almost to the point of non existence.

That's fair, you know. I mean again, like I'm not trying to drag this, but more just speak to the idea of like, if they're using the show to tackle serious topics, then they're doing a really good job. I think of being vague enough where things can mean multiple things, but in terms of like traditional storytelling, there is not a traditional narrative. Definitely, it is right, so right, and I think for not a lot of people, but I think for some people that might be an immediate jumping off point before they eat it, of course, yet a minute in and I think that again, like I said, that's what, in my mind is like keeping you at an arms link. That's I think.

What's really fascinating about this show specifically is that each episode is in it of itself, its own character study, and you can view it individually. As such, it does lack the overarching narrative, but it has self contained narratives. And I don't remember past this point. If it starts to connect a little bit more, I will tell you now you will have a ton of answers at the end, and you will probably never know what the end a ton of questions at the end, you will never know what those answers are. So it's I'm prepared for that speculation, and I think it was meant to do so, you know, David, when creating this, I think definitely wanted people to discuss it and put their own spins on what they think the meeting would be.

Whereas I think, like with Don't Have Me, I'm scared, it feels more like a mystery where they're giving you all the puzzle pieces and like it's up to the community to like put it together and there is a definitive answer eventually, And that's what I think Don't Have Me is building up towards, right. I don't think that this has a definitive answer. If anything, it has a nebulous answer, which I'm again like, I'm I'm perfectly fine with frankly, like, you know, so I'm okay with that, you know, I don't. I don't need them to answer everything, thankfully, but I understand the trepidation of anyone getting involved watching something like this where they watch it and at the end They're just like, what the fuck was all this?

Like, what the fuck was any of this? And like I could I could see that more with this than I could with down hug mens. Yeah, but again, I feel like this is such a unique, uniquely specific thing that like that was always going to be the case. So again, I appreciate that you wanted to watch this, because I never would have watched this something. I mean, that's what that's a fucking comes down to.

Is I am culturing you. I have Internet culturing you again, a fucking Petrie Dish culture. But uh, dustin any thoughts before we continue on to the next episode. You know, I've just kind of stuck on what the hell came out of his stomach? That's a good question.

Well, I mean it was a baby, I think, well, it was a mass it was something. So while you guys, do you think I was just gonna say, do you think it's meant to represent an abortion or still birth? I don't know, maybe maybe a miscarried. I mean, I know I would ask him that would well, I don't know what that would say about salad fingers. So I think solid Fingers is definitely confirmed to be a male.

And I think at this point. It's just that he vacillates between roles as he's reliving trauma, okay, which, ah no, it doesn't. Well, I was just gonna say I was I was thinking more literal with it. I was just trying to think of all the weird things Solad thinkers have been as been eating throughout the episode. That's a good point, and here we are that everything he's been, all of you crap he's been eating, bursting it because he hasn't exactly the picture of elf.

You no, I wouldn't styled off screen. Maybe, I mean, he does refer to that thing that popped out of him as his child. Maybe symbolically it is meant to represent some kind of either either it is supposed to be like a baby via c section or an abortion or a still birth. I mean, obviously it bursting out of his stomach to me represents some sort of you know, sea section being performed. But in terms of like if something is actually it's so hard to say, like what is actually happening and what isn't right?

And I think that's also where Chris You're probably struggling the most. I mean, it's where everybody is struggling is discerning what's what's meant to be reality in this realm? But well, I'm just struggling to figure out if it Mattter is more of mine. That's because like, why are you doing this? Like what in what scope in regards to the narrative does this matter that there's like dream sequences and stuff, Because again, like I'm cool with dream sequences and out of step storytelling and chronologically disjointed storytelling, but it needs to be serving some purpose, and it's just it feels like again, like the purpose David Firth knows the purpose if there is one, do you know what I mean?

Like, but I do think that's that's what do you think? It's a really interesting point dustin that like saying like if this, if what had happened to his stomach, you know, if that was an actual thing that has happened in his reality and not a dream sequence, not a hallucination, not a representation, but actual thing, it would make sense that it's from all the shit he's been eating and touching. It makes a lot of sense. I honestly, that is not something that I've thought of before, because so much of this, as I said, is so nebulous and speculative that I often forget to remind myself what could and could not be reality, and I sort of just take everything at face value and think everything at this point is a hallucination, which isn't I don't think is true, but it's the easier way to think about it.

Well, and again to what end right, Like at the end, he's cleaning the window with the name the Sandwich. It was strange, all thanks strange when I was saying, but I mean, I think a really interesting part towards the end of that episode though, was the fact that he was intending on giving this child, this baby, to an to potentially this you know babies. Ant approaches a figure in the wasteland who, like every other living potentially living creature in this story, none of them speak except probably I think that there was one little girl in an episode earlier on that did speak, but everybody else sort of just has sounds or mumbles or screeches. But he approaches this person, question Mark, intending initially to give over the child and then decides not to.

And I think that's a really interesting point. Why wouldn't he and so what might that represent? And I think you know then using this quote unquote baby grows this thing that was ripped from his stomach to then wash a window. And like, I think that that probably has a deeper meaning. Could be again, could be abuse, could be representing forcing you know, a child to do those types of things and reliving that.

There are a lot of ways to interpret it, but I do think it if we were to point out, like one really interesting thing is why wouldn't he want to give away the child after everything? Saying that he couldn't take care of it, saying that he's in poor health, knowing that's apparently that somebody else could have taken the child in Yeah, and chose not to a switch like that into what you're saying. It's like, rather than get rid of saying that he thinks as a child, rid of it, put it to use, use it for something, Yeah, make it work for it in some capacity. Interesting, I feel like there is a there is a point there, right, It all feels too intentional to not be Like again, like the symbolism is kind of there, like you have to what yeah, and like look at that represent like being blind blinding yourself to something like Yeah, every every detail, I feel like you could comb through each episode with a fine tooth comb and like write them out and like maybe once it's in list form, you know, separating it all out from like all the weird that just like hypnotizes you the whole time makes it hard to you know, think further past what you're seeing.

If you were to take all of those symbols and just write them on paper and define what they could mean, I think we'd probably get closer to an answer. Well, there's a lot of children, there's a lot of finger puppets. I mean, that's a reoccurring theme. So yeah, I'm I'm excited. I mean it's as excited as I can be to watch the next episode.

And so just to it, which which is titled Birthday. Uh cool, it was just my birthday. So solid Solid Fingers is celebrating a birthday, Shupert Cumberdale's birthday, but Milford Cubicle isn't feeling so well. This episode was posted a while ago. Say, isn't that's not right?

Isn't can't be right? Says says March of West. But be a re upload. The uptick and animation quality has made David far too powerful. Like six Salad fingers running around.

So yeah, it's a little much, I think again, ultimately, when you watch something like this again, like you know, try as you may, try as you might, am I'm still failing to see the nere that's tim all right, all right, al right, I think it's but it's not your I'm not saying that's your friends. I'm saying it's like I'm saying, it's just like the thing with this is, I'm actually surprised on the tenth episode that this lasted as long as it did with in my opinion, doing as little as it really has of like saying anything really that's fair, which is in and of itself impressive, Like that's that is a impressive feat is to be able to just be genuinely quote entertaining unquote and not necessarily be trying to, you know, change people's mindset about climate change or familial trauma.

So I have a question for you. What upset you about the teeth so much? So, fucking gir Was it really that gross? It really was? It was it was those teeth being those teeth going back and forth while he's cranking is just gross teeth stuff gross.

See that's what I wanted to get to the bottom of did you have like a weird issue with weird teeth stuff? Did I have a weird issue with teeth stuff? When I was four or five years old? Uh? You know, you know at the playground above the slide, there's like that metal bar you swing on.

I definitely didn't face plant into that by accident and smash out my forefront teeth as like a five year old. My god, and have was back to childhood. We are unpacking childhood trava. And I had the shards jammed into my gums to the point where they had to give me thirteen shots in my mouth to then extricate the teeth shards from my face. I learned something new about you today.

Yeah, I wore childhood dentures, Oh my god. Yeah, because I had, I was missing my forefront teeth so and thankfully they were baby teeth, not adult teeth. But yeah, I maybe have some teeth stuff. I can see why. Yeah, it grosses me out.

And like I grind my teeth at night. I have to wear like a little sing in my mouth when I go to bed. So I don't know teeth me and teeth not, that's my thing, Like my wife's thing is stuff in the eyes, like my stuff is like tease. Wow. I don't know if I have a specific body part that I associate with discomfort, that's fair, that'sn't What about why you dustin?

It's a body just killed pert just like something of a specific body part, like when they when something does something weird with it, some freak you out when that was weird. But teeth stuff doesn't bother me. In fact, I love going to the deddist, but drew me harder. Daddy is not something dust and says on ironically, you know if you look to the top of your foot and you know that, like see the veins. Ah wait wait, let me get the visual all right, looking, if anyone were to press on those veins on the top of my foot, it's freaked out.

Really, that's random. That's even more random than teeth stuff. That is oddly. But this is this is important. Can we trace it back to child?

I have no idea. That's just is it because they're really weird? Onmin it doesn't matter if it's somebody else's foot. No, it's just my foot, just your foot. Huh.

So is it just that part of your foot or is it your whole foot that you don't like being touched. I'm just asking it's just just those veins, just for when we're in the sensory deprivations together, Dustin, do you like having your feet touched? No, stay on that side of to take for me. Rub and if her and she knows us about me, and uh, sometimes she'll do it to where she'd make she's funny, but she'll like run her thumbs are something across and I'll just be like, oh. And it takes everything in Dustin's power to not accident.

I was gonna say, like, that's axed way to get like kicked in the face. Literally, your teeth go flying through the air after you're accidently plunted in the pH It all comes back to teeth, right, Salad fingers? All right, all right, I don't know, I don't know what to make of what happened to that episode, but by the end of it there was a table of salad finger there was I think before we get to that, what did you think about the horses? Okay, I don't know what was going on here, folks, but there was a little monster that killed a horse or dug its way into a horse. And it was doctor and it was puppet Doctor Monster.

This like puppy Baby Monkey. Now, I mean, we're at the point with this show where like all bets are off in terms of what we can expect to be happening, and so at this point, like a horse being ripped apart by a little creature with hooks for hands, par for the course. I feel like at this point it nothing in the show will surprise me. Right, I don't even remember this episode really. I remember the salad fingers table salad fingers at the end.

I did not remember the horses. And yet it did not shake me. I mean it was pretty gnarly, but I mean again, like I've seen worse things than just like a horror movie. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it's just animation, right, it is gnarly, though it is gross, and again this this animation style, there is a level of just ick ickiness to this animation style. Anyways, I mean that's an intent of David Firth to make it kind of look grimy and gross.

He does not, and that's received right by me as an audience member. But uh, yeah, no, just so much is gross stuff in this show. But I'm solomuch. I'm wondering what the horse is represented. I would say that like the moment it hit, like the scene with the doctor, that's like that has to be a point of hallucination that like in everything onward from that point to me is either a dream sequence or just straight up visual hallucinations after visual hallucinations, Like I can't imagine anything that happened after he first found the doctor puppet happening in this in his actual reality, right, I think it has to be like a dream or something.

It seems too ethereal to be real oddly enough for this show, yes, right. I mean I feel like this show telegraphs when it's doing the dream sequence stuff pretty pretty well. I think it nails it for the most part. You know, I don't think it. I don't think it leans on the laziest of things where it's like is it a dream or not?

When it's a dream, it's a dream. It's pretty obvious it's a dream. It's not like, oh and Salad Fingers wakes up and it's actually just Willem Dafoe like, it's not that, like it's it's not gonna be that it Okay, if that was the ending. If that was the ending, I'd be like, that is, without a doubt, the wildest shit I've seen all year. I I really want to know what the horses represent.

Obviously, he has a horse figurine that he named Horace, and then I which, if you say, a really fast force, which makes me wonder if he knew somebody named Horace. He assigned that to this figuring of a horse because of that connection. But regardless, when he returns to his house, it is quite literally filled with horses, right, a live ones, one stuffed in the cupboard, in the drawer, And I think that's what really solidified it for me as a dream sequence or hallucination, Like, okay, for horses to be stuffed into a drawer, I think like that, that's really like where we kind of got to draw the line. Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna draw the line anywhere, why not why not that the horse is being stuffed into a drawer, right, I mean we didn't see how they got there, and I don't think other horses would be able to stuff a horse into a drawer.

And that's a dream sequence, right, say so, I would say all of the all of all of the living horses and all of the ones in the cupboards and in the drawers. I think all of that has to be a hallucination. But my question is why what would horses reprace set it's anything, right, I'm gonna google. I'm gonna I'm gonna google right now. I'm WAZZI dof a horse represent his I want to know what it represents in a dream a horse, freedom of your spirit, freedom to run and be wild.

Meat. I have had horse meat before. It's not bad. I think we as Americans are a little touchy on the kinds of things that we are allowing to eat because they breed horses in this country and they send them overseas to eat them. So so ie, horses aren't being bred in this country to be eaten.

They're just not being eaten here. So for the most part, what I'm getting from my googling is that they represent strength and freedom. And that's the case. If it is freedom, I think that would make probably the most sense. Is it supposed to be a reminder that he is not free, okay, you know, from whatever is plaguing his mind.

I mean that is a reach in my own opinion, I'm making a reach but it seems like a very odd symbol to fixate on so harshly, Like I feel like for the first time too, like this is I mean, like we've talked about rust, and we've talked about nails and drawing blood and hair and all of that, but like this is the first time that like we've seen just a shitload of something living that should not be there and there everywhere, just out of nowhere, just manifesting as if they had always been there, and it just why horses. I guess in that case, it could have been anything. But I feel like there has to be a deeper mean. I feel like there has to be there's got to be a deeper meaning. So all out and then just choose to hang out with himself, he rejects freedom.

Maybe he rechecks freedom and chooses to then go sit at the table with his quote unquote platoon, therefore staying in his past. Question, Martin, they just all look quite can right, and they're not letting go of the past, That's what I would assume. And so it seems like a literal attempt for him to reject freeing his own mind in favor of living in the past. And I think the fact that they are all of the versions of himself. You know, if this is meant to represent his platoon in the great are that they keep mentioning?

You know, why are they all like unhinged and more so than usual than what we expect, But you know, eating brains and looking more grotesque than usual and smashing an eyeball consistently. And I think it's just supposed to be a representation of Yes, this is his platoon, but it is not a good thing. Him staying in the past is quite clearly not good for him. I think, if anything, that's probably at least for me. I think that's all that represents.

I don't know, Destin, what do you think, Well, I've known this also, that all the other cell figures at the table that may that all some of them have by uh bowles in their head like the brains them. They're eating parts of themselves. And there was an earlier episode where he was chewing on his own head. Oh yes, yes, I do remember that. Hulluh self harm, self cannibalism, auto cannibalism in your brain or whatever that might be.

Conster I metaphorically self sabotage question. I mean again, I feel like I feel like that's is this the closest bad on I mean I think that that. I mean again, I think in a lot of ways for me, this is just one of those things where it's like, ultimately, at the end of the day, like have they given us enough to really have a concrete answer. Not yet. I think if anything, there is like a single thing that we know for sure, and that is that whoever this character is served in a war and now whatever he is living in is the aftermath of set war.

And I think that is the only truth that we can rely on. Yeah, and everything else's symbolism past that point see war Trella, which would make the most sense to me. I mean they bring up the war in almost every single episode in one way or another, and I think like this is the first time that like it was like like we really saw how much it matters to him. He was so happy to see that table of himself that represented as platoon. He was so grateful to see them again, like those were his glory days, right.

Interesting. Yeah, I again, the whole like war aspect of this and what does that mean to the character? I mean, like you said, I'm like, it's the one thing we know for certain. Maybe the only thing we ever know for certain, frankly, like and much left at this point, maybe the only other constant is that he is deeply disturbed in some way or another. I think that's it.

Yeah, And I mean again, they've given us stuff, but I don't think they've given us anything concrete enough to really say like, oh, well, this is what this means definitively, or that's what this is and we can verify it like this all is just kind of like, well, this is kind of like this and kind of like this, so we kind of think this and like, I'm okay with that, you know. I think David Firth would probably say very similarly to other creators who make things like this, Oh, I don't want to tell you what the meaning is because then it would diminish what you think could be exactly. I think it's surprised to mean something a little bit different everybody, which is why it's so vague in its symbolism.

I think David is welcoming speculation like that is a part of the experience. To speculate is part of the experience, right, So do you want to do one more? Which I appreciate, by the way, like I always want to put that out there, like I do appreciate that he is making content that he wants to make unabashedly, like you know, and we could I would think we could say that about don't hug me. I'm scared as well. Like even when they changed from YouTube to the show, still making the content that they wanted to make, Just like when this went from new Grounds to YouTube, the content hasn't changed.

It's frankly gotten better quality wise. Agreed, Uh, Dustin, what do you think? Do you want to do one more? Or you want to end it here look at or more? Okay?

So, or let's do one more and we're going to bring it to the next episode. The pen ultimate episode of Salad, Fingers and Boy was posted four years ago, and my god, folks, it has a supported by the patrioids on Patreon, which is just like actually mind blowing that this show started in This show started when I was fourteen, and it ended when I was thirty two, a lot of time in the making. I feel like this would be great to like revive and like the last episode ends and like an always sunny and Philadelphia episode and Charlie wakes up and it was all his dream because he's always burning garbage and halo and so that it can go into the air and make stars. Since all a big dream. Yeah, I know that's about I would be.

Yeah, I would be. It's literally what I just said would really suck. If the show did, yes, I would be absolutely livid, and I would not have shared it with you if if that was the case, I might have still shared it with you, but with the caveat of you're going to hate the ending. Yeah. Yeah.

I have a friend who tried to get me to watch the TV show Merlin, and he said the same thing. This is different. I would watch twelve short episodes of this. I would never watch like A I would never like I would never watch Game of Thrones anymore like the original show, because someone's like, oh, it ends really poorly, and it's like, why would I even waste any of my time watching it? Like why would I waste a single minute watching something that has like a really like on a like across the board, everyone's unanimous that it was a bad ending.

That's like how if Salad Fingers woke up in a dream and he was Homer Simpson, I'd be like, Wow, this is a fucking piece of show. That is how I felt with the Netflix Sabrina series. It is, yeah, have you have you seen it? I I know, I know what ends up happening, and I know that a lot of people were really not happy after all of that, after everything awful, Like hey, I watched Dexter and I watched eight seasons of that show only for it to shit the bed about as hard as you could shit a bed. So and Game of Throne.

So now I'm just so pissed because I got y On into it while I was like halfway through, so I was watching it on my own and like he was trying to catch up, and then like I got to the ending, it I was like, stop, it is not just stop, We're not watching. We're not watching any more of this. Yeah, I get it, I get it. I'm I'm hopeful that these two episodes, you know, this one and then when we come back and finish the last one, will maybe answer questions, give us more questions. Who knows.

But it just cracks me up that we're sitting and looking at a Patreon advertisement on salad fingers because all of this feels so distant, right, like, oh, it's started in two thousand and four on new Grounds and then here it's like Patreon, and like, I know, Patreon ain't that old because Patreon has only existed since I've started podcasting, so something something like that. If if that so, because Patreon existed around the same time as like Kickstarter, so probably like ten eleven years. So it's just funny because like here we are, souad Fingers is a Patreon product now. So I will say that the very least after we are all well, after all a sudden done with this series that we cap it out there, Matt pattit at film series game theory did cover it, so at least he got to dive into some some at least his personal favorite theories.

So you have that's a I think that has to be. I think that has to be. Obviously, the statement that's used is like personal right, because I I don't there is no way David first okay, okay, and David Firth has ever said it. I'm he might have confirmed a few things I don't. I think he might have like commented and confirmed something I don't remember, but the rest of it has remained unconfirmed as far as I know.

All Right, Well, let's do it with that. With that out of the way, we'll watch the eleventh and penultimate episodes of Souad Fingers. It was posted four years ago in twenty nineteen six point three million views, and it is titled The Last Brother and Ladies and Gentlemen. This is the longest episode of Solid Fingers, clocking in at a whopping fifteen minutes. So if we were wondering if it could support the narrative before, it's gonna be bought.

It foot to the test. So here we go. We have a new Salad Fingers. We are now in glass Brother timeline. Yeah, that was wild.

I don't I don't so. Yeah, there's like an alternate dimension that you go through a mirror. It was introduced in the eleventh episode of a twelve episode show. Yep, right right, Like, I think you are taking it probably more literally than it should be. I mean, it's literally a mirror that he goes through, though I think it's important to remember that this still could all be this bit could be within his mind as well.

This could be Oh sure, sure of course. I just so. It's a very interesting metaphor for trauma. Okay, I mean again, I still I would be inclined to agree with you that. I think more or less everything in this show is about trauma, I think so, and how one process is it or deals with it, or however you want to perceive, however you handle having trauma happen to you.

I think part of it is that. I mean, obviously, this episode of Solad Fingers has painted Solid Fingers is a much more sympathetic character than I think any of the other episodes have. Definitely, for sure, well flesh boy will do that to you. I mean, Flush Boy's great. I will say, how does that mean?

Chris? You know I have a soft spot for little flesh boys because in Uh and Don't Have Me Scared, we had Stane Edwards, the Forever Boy, who was technically also a little flesh or something about that character trope that has appeared obviously in both of these shows. They're just there, there's a zest for life just in their cute little face. And they're cute little face well stayed out ards is adorable. Objectively, Yeah, this character is ugly and weird and then is smashed in glass and licked by Solid Fingers.

Glass Brother Salad Fingers. So what do you guys think about that this whole glass brother glass mother thing, Well, what do you think your glass brother would represent? It's think you shadow, So that's how I interpret it, right, And I'm your friend and you've told me about it, so that's how I'm interpreting it. I think if we are too, I mean okay. So towards the beginning, salad Fingers asks if if he could cut, he doesn't want to be alone anymore.

He wants to return to glass brother and glass mother, which again to me, seems like rejecting freedom right, choosing to stay, embracing the abuse, choosing to stay trapped within your own mind, Stockholm syndrome, you know, esque trauma, and I, as you said, your shadow self, I would I mean, obviously glass brother salad Fingers seems more confident, seems more sure of himself. Definitely is meaner to the solid fingers that we know. He has no patience for salad Fingers being weak. And I think it's an interesting metaphor for the you know, the parts of yourself, you know, the weak part of yourself, the you know, the fight flight, freeze, fawn part of yourself, and then the part of you that does want to break free, that does want to grow and do better for yourself, and I think Salad Fingers has locked that part of himself away and it is escaped in favor of the weak version of salad Fingers.

Interesting, So you think that the Glass Brother is the one that we've been seeing this whole time, I wouldn't say so. I think we've been following normal Salad Fingers the entire time, and he has been hiding Glass Brother and Glass Mother from us. Okay, Thane, I mean it makes sense again, to what end do Glass Brother and Glass Mother matter to him? If you want right to him? But Glass Mother shows up in this episode, and again we're not I'm not sure what her point is other than being a stereotypical overbearing mother figure, which again immensely relatable for a lot of people.

So I get why they would include something like that, and they still kept a small piece of her in the little case the d rubbed with his blood. That is also a really good point is that he he went out of his way to destroy the mirror as much as possible, grind it into a dust, but he kept one small piece and locked it away, And I think that shows that even though he is entered into a more confident version of himself, a version of himself that does want to break free. There is still that part of him that can't let go right, no matter what he does. Exactly, it's really hard to let go of your past and makes you wonder what the blood represents. He cuts himself on the glass shard that contains glass mother and smears that blood over the piece of glass, and I'm wondering.

I mean, my first thought is, like, is that like a blood is thicker than water type metaphor m that's it. Yeah, I mean, choosing to keep something that hurts you, choosing to hurt yourself, to keep that part of your life intact right, which in and of itself is totally way Mother can keep hurting it. And it's the way that she keeps a hold over his life as much as again that he allows her to as well. Obviously, because again he clearly has some semblance of free will. He is able to create life from from no life.

So salad Fingers is a again It's he's an interesting character because there is a level of nuance here that is finally coming through, where he is a somewhat sympathetic, possibly completely sympathetic character I mean, I think it's important to remember that while being sympathetic, you can still be horrible in your own special way. Right. Well again, I mean keep him at an arm's length, right like you know, do I feel bad? Sure? Isn't enough for me to want to be his friend?

I don't think so. No. Now, Hubert from Humberdale, Oh no, no, no, no, just don't know Hubert Cumberdale. Nos. Ugh.

Yeah, that that little flesh creature man is somehow grosser than most of the things we've seen in this show. It didn't bother me that much. You just like those little fleshy creatures that run around on their little way. It was the voice, the voice diod it for that's fair. It's just so innocent, I will say.

We mentioned it while we were watching it. Uh man, The show looks good now, Like if you like, imagine episode one in comparison to this, right, Episode one was like literally done in like MS paint. This is clearly like animated in the computer because there is a level of like three dimensionalness to the character that there has not been up until this point at all. It's very much appreciated, at least I appreciate I think at this point, it's starting to feel like a very well put together feed for dream, right, as opposed to like this weird thing on the internet you stumbled onto like I. For me personally, this is the episode I remembered the most.

This is the episode I feel is the most compelling out of all of them. As you said, a lot of them felt like meandering. I think, you know, it was a lot of world building and introductions to character, all culminating into something like this, And I think that this episode is the most understandable, albeit still confusing in its own way. Obviously, you know it again, it's hard to discern reality from metaphor from hallucination. You know, did he actually create a little fleshboy who knows right right?

Exactly? Does he? It? Ultimately? Does it matter?

Right? Like? Right? It does? I think that is a good point.

I think when it comes to Hubert, I don't think it does matter. I think he could probably take that or leave that. I've for me personally, the kind of I kind of am leaning towards he in reality he is real to an extend. I don't know, because then he no, because then he references Glass Brother and interacts with Glass Brother, right, and if we're if we're working onto the assumption the glass brother is a metaphor for your shadow self. That's what I think.

Then maybe Hubert is supposed to represent a different part of salad fingers, the innocent side of salad fingers, you know, projecting, you know, the childhood he wished he could have had. Maybe, right, yeah, I mean I could I could see that. I mean, he there is that point where he looks into the mirror and he says to himself, he calls himself, you were Cumberdale. So did he again, like yeah, he like looked into the mirror and said it, like straight up. It's like very early.

It was like very early on every episode. Hey, t I guess I guess it's like the shot reverse shot. That's confusing me because we reveal it or on that like in this context class brother. You know, it can operate separate from the reflection, and so it's basically just as the mirror is a stand in for where he just would have been looking potentially at the finger puppet. That's hard, that's hard for me to say.

It could be both. I mean again, so coincidence that later in the episode he is talking to someone in a mirror. That is why it stuck out to me. Like you mentioned, there is a character later in the episode who's literally in the mirror. It's interesting.

I don't know if I've seen a theory that says like that Hubert is salad fingers. Is you know that Hubert Cumberdale, this finger puppet is a stand in for solid fingers and salad fingers has just disassociated from his own identity, which would be really interesting. Well, that's kind of where I thought this was going and is going. Is like, you know, he has these like finger puppets and other people that he's talking to, and I've never been convinced that the real people like it could just be like figments of his imagination which he's creating. And again there's literally him talking into a mirror at one point thinking he's talking to someone else that also looks like him.

So it's just hard to know, you know. Oh yeah, definitely I liked this. I think I'm with you though. I liked this episode the most death. Like I it's the most compelling, it makes the most sense narratively, but it's also just like the coolest journey out of all of them, right, I agree?

It tells a story that is infinitely more interesting and I think impactful than any of the other episodes. And it's fifteen minutes, but it doesn't feel like No, it felt like at most like ten. Yeah. Then it felt it felt like it was better paced than the last episode, which was actually shorter than this one. I had the moment, Yeah, the last one felt longer than this one, for sure.

I had a moment where I wondered if wearance sort of like weird timeline and joke because the flesh boy is the same size as the thing that came bad, it could sellic and he was eating that black porridge. Yeah, couldn't help. But wonder boy, there's some weird connection with the black porridge, either Coverdale or first attempt that you know may it really was his first attempt to making a little companion you mean and you mean two episode was it to it? Or last episode where it's that little thing that pops out of him, Yeah, two episodes ago. Last episode was hoarse after he eats he were Cumberdale.

Good. Yeah. I again, the chronology of the show is not I I have had a question as to what the chronology of the show is. This whole time because it's it doesn't seem like there is any like rhyme or reason, really, like I don't know what takes place after anything else, or if any of this takes place before anything, or again if any of that even matters. It reminds me of that of the theme and Don't Hug Me, where it's like at the end of the episode, everything is put right back to where it was, Like it's like a reset.

Every episode almost feels like a reset anything that's happened to him, you know, we move on to the next episode and it no longer is affecting him. Plays on sitcom logic, right, Yeah, have to come back to the start at the end of every episode. So in that case, there wouldn't really be a chronological order. Each story would just be self contained. But I want to believe that there has to be some kind of right chronology to some of this.

I mean, we didn't think that there was a chronology to don't Hug Me, I'm Scared, but there ended up being one. So maybe it's just a matter of like there iss one but it doesn't matter. Is probably kind of what I feel like it may be. Unless if literally all of this is taking place in his mind is just one massive hallucination, which is not my favorite interpretation, but I don't like any interpretation where he's a hallucination or there's a hallucinatory aspect to it, like that just feels like a copy. That's fair.

But I think like when talking about like, I think it's important to come to the conclusion of is this supposed to be like a supernatural esque world where weird things can actually happen? Or is it supposed to just all be metaphors for mental health? Because I think that is probably like the switch for me, because again, like I said, I think everything with Glass brother and Glass Mother is an extensive metaphor obviously, but I also think like that is an internal struggle within the realm of the show, not an external struggle. And so how much of this is internal? Is he actually living in a dystopian healthscape?

Like are any of the characters that we have met are they even real? Like it really brings into question the reality of this world because that continuity never really felt truly established because that line was so blurred from the beginning, right, But in a way, I think that also is something that it does successfully because it feels more than intentional, Like if the intention was to confuse the shit out of us, it was done beautifully. Ye. Well, and again it always begs the question in my mind. It's like, was it done intentionally to do this or just they were like, well, if we do this at this point, they will have no idea what to think, Like, I guess that's technically the same thing, but at the same time, it's just the intent behind it.

It's if you do it intentionally or if you're just doing it to do it. I feel like at this point they're like, we have the opportunity to really do something with this narrative, and I think we should and I think it works. Like again, they're hitting on the things that they've already talked about, but tying it together in a more satisfying way than they have before. They actually seem like they care about having something in between. The moments were solid finger fingers isn't just being weird.

There are things going on, like and that's very apparent in this episode and has been missing in every other episode. But I understand why thes are what they are, Like this is twenty nineteen. Yeah, look at how good this is now, Like you know, like this is such a far cry from where we were. It's like, I wish that there were more episodes like this, but there's only one more, which is why we got to savor it. I know, I know, I really want to know what happens, but I get the distinct feeling that it's just going to be disappointing, not because it's like not going to be good, but just because I'm at the point now where I do want to see more and there's only one episode much and it's not going to do enough for you.

Well, I don't think it's going to do enough. I think there's way too many questions that have been asked in directions that they've gone to have any sort of satisfying conclusion. Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty open world that they've created, Like this is one of those you paint yourself into a different kind of corner, which is there are too many directions to go, so none of them are going to seem satisfying. Yeah, that's fair.

But I've come around on this immensely, so thank you, Emma. I honestly, I think it's these last two episodes that made me want to share this more than anything, If not for these two episodes. I think I still would have shown you only for the fact of this is internet history. But right I think like this was like, this is what made me want to put it high up on the list. That's fair, which I totally get.

So so what are your final thoughts? Du Justin Kay. I don't really know, but I mean that's said a lot if we watch these, but I do. I am kind of sold on the back that there's some family TRIALO maybe or you see, like we mentioned before, I've sold on that area of things that I still try to search for connection through episode episode It's yeah, I get why people like it for sure, but I think I think maybe the best thing about this is that it is kind of standalone. You can just watch them out of order.

Yeah, you know, don't hug me. I'm scared. There gets a point where you can't watch them out of order exactly. You have to keep watching them chronologically, which is why I keep asking this whole like chronological thing, because if this is its own standalone every episode, that makes us infinitely more watchable than don't hug me, I'm scared unless we're talking like the early stuff, but like every episode of this has been more or less self contained like you mentioned. Yeah, so that is I think a huge plus or you know, check in the pro column for this show, because again, like you can watch a four minute episode and get about as much solid fingers as you would in a fifteen minute I would agree.

So I mean, so we got one left. It's it's really hard to draw a conclusion without the final installment. So right, I'm excited to see what you think of it once it comes to a close, whether or not you think it is disappointing, only for the sake of you know, it was it able to do enough? You know, was it able to neatly tie some semblance of a bow or just give you with more questions than you came in with, because that, I think for a series like this, if the last episode makes you question things even more than you already were, which is a lot, I don't know if that does it justice. I feel like that's more frustrating than anything, because it feels like, you know, like what was I on the jury for right?

Which and again like for me, I have been on this journey. Now it feels like more to just experience a show that I have heard about but never watch like my like I've been saying, like, my expectations, I feel like are very different now than what they used to be with this show. I'm now just enjoying it for what it is, not trying to find some sort of like overarching story or something, because even if they are doing it, they're not doing it in a way that it's like intrusive to everything else, and everything else is still pretty interesting and entertaining and unique. So you know, it's it's singularly solad fingers and that's you know, a good a good and bad thing depending on how you look at it.

It is very unique and yet so reminiscent of its time. Yeah, and it does feel weird that it's like around in twenty twenty two. It's something like this being created recently. It feels very strange, I would agree. Yeah, it's like a holdover of a time past where people were really like this was mainstream, Like this is not mainstream anymore, like in any remote context.

So it's it's interesting, you know. I'm I'm excited to see where the final episode goes. I don't have any preconceived notions of what we're going to get out of it, but it is titled post Man like after Man, So who knows. I'm I'm excited to see where this where this ends up, and I'm excited to see where we go after salad fingers because you know, there's there's more things on the Internet than just don't hug me. I'm scared in salad fingers so shocking, I know.

So so until the next time you hear the three of us doing a surreal tube together. You can find us over at weirdingwie media dot com, where this show is downloadable on all platforms wherever you get podcasts. You can find this show like Rayton View the Show, wherever you get it. Big thanks is always to Alex Malmac, Dustin Rutledge who's here, and Maggie the Odd for all the things that they do behind the scenes to help the show be running, which is you know, the music the album. So big thanks to the three of them.

Thanks to Emma for programming this series, as always, Dustin for joining us, and I think you know. Big thanks is always to our good friend, the former hostess Sightings, mister Tim White. No mystery is closed to an open mind.