SurrealTube: Salad Fingers Ep 1-4

Chris and Emma are joined by artist Dustin Rutledge continue their newest series SurrealTube, a look at surreal, weird, and strange YouTube content, with a look at David Firth's Salad Fingers.

You can follow Chris Stachiw @Casualty_Chris, Jess Byard @writerjessbyard, and the podcast @ScaryStoriesWT. Alex Malnack of Blondo provides the music for the podcast; that track is "Stay Here." The album artwork is provided by Maggie the Odd.

For more episodes of Scary Stories We Tell along with many more podcasts that are guaranteed to be your new favorite audio obsession, check out Weirding Way Media at weirdingwaymedia.com.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Weird. Hello everyone, and welcometo Scary Stories we Tell. I am

(00:48):
your host, Chris dash You andI am joined as always by my co
host or one of the hosts ofthe show, one of the hosts of
this show, your friend and mineEmma. Hello, I'm one of the
hosts of the show. I mean, more often than not, if you're
listening to this show, you're oneof the hosts the show. But speaking
of more often than not, whenyou're listening to the show, they're hosting
this show with me. If youwere to listen to the Bollywood Cinema Club

(01:11):
and you were a fan of Indianaction cinema, you might have heard my
good friend Dustin, who's joining uson this episode, all the way over
there. But he was on anepisode of this show a long time ago.
I think we're talking like July oftwenty twenty one, like a long
time ago, right, sounds aboutright. Yeah, So we were talking
spooky, weird stuff. Then we'retalking spooky strange shit on the Internet,

(01:34):
otherwise known as surreal to which isan idea that Emma came up with and
we covered a whole Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared Season one and a whole.
Don't hug me. I'm scared.Season two. So if you're here
now listening to this and you don'tknow what this is going to be,
well don't worry about it, becausethis is the first episode we're doing on
Salad Fingers, So you don't needto know about anything else. All you
need to know is this is thestarting place for yet another venture out into

(01:59):
the strange depths of Well, thisis on YouTube, and this started on
YouTube, right, Actually it startedon new Grounds. Boy, Dustin,
do you remember new Grounds? Ido? Okay, So the three of
us are all happened. Okay,so the three of us are all varying
ages, but more or less withinten twelve years of one another. So

(02:19):
I'm curious before we talk salad Fingers, Dustin, what was your entry point
to new Grounds? Oh? Jeez, it was more something that we would
just stumble upon. When I firstcame about it, like just perus it
like there. I think there wassomebody in the class above me in high
school that told me about it,and so I went on internet probably just

(02:44):
shortly after dial up stopped, andstarted just looking around new Grounds. It's
I wouldn't say there's one thing,do you guys, So actually, you
know, Emma ask you did youhave a specific entry point to new Grounds.
If I did, I don't rememberit. I was definitely around at

(03:04):
like the I was young, butI was around for that peak time when
people just like found out about likea couple of interesting websites and those circulated,
like I mean, for me,it started with like webkins and neopets,
and then eventually, obviously like YouTubegot into the mix. And then
I don't know if you guys rememberall Buy No Black Shape. That was
like a couple of like flash gamesand like weird videos, which I think

(03:28):
was basically a watered down version ofnew Grounds. And then like so I
think probably something from there or tryingto search something from there probably at some
point brought me to new Grounds,but I was I was young. Most
of the new Grounds stuff that I'veseen, I saw it as it being
re uploaded to YouTube. Okay,so my entry point to new Grounds was

(03:53):
Assassin, which was where you itwas like it was weird. There was
like a subset of flash games,and again I think they got rid of
them because we're all sitting here lookingat new Grounds as I kind of scroll
around. Well, it wasn't likeflash Dad or something. Well, no,
it was. It was well likeit was a it was a series
of It was a style of gamewhere you could kill a celebrity or Osama
Bin Ladden or Sadam saying there wasThe one that sticks out to me was

(04:16):
Bear in the Big Blue House andit was like, yeah, so it
was like murdering the like the butthey were like they were like murderous you
know, all the all horrible people, the worst people, just a solid
and Ladden Bear in the Big BlueHouse. It wasn't it was like bad
people. It was just like itwas. It was celebrity. So like

(04:40):
again, like I don't know howelse to explain it. It was.
It was something that's pretty transgressive ifyou think about it now, and there's
like a much logic, was toomuch, But it was one of those
things where like it would definitely notexist now. And like I bet we
could look Bear in the Big BlueHouse Assassin new Grounds. I wonder if

(05:06):
it's a thing. I think ifwe were to see this, Okay,
so we can actually see this andyou guys can see what I'm talking about,
Like this is pretty I would saytransgressive in a way that like I
don't think you can be anymore.So this is a game and someone's going
to play it, and I'm gettingto introduce you guys to something that's super

(05:26):
fucking insane. What the fuck amI looking at? So what we're watching
is literally like them talking about likethe characters from Big Blue House, but
they're like the perverted versions of them. So there's like it's like again like
it's it's it isn't homosexual, honorTitty the Mouse, and like it's and

(05:47):
like it's really offensive in a waythat's like things can't be of the time,
right, it's pretty transgressive. Imean they used the R word here,
so I right, Like it's it'ssuper weird. And so here is
what it is, crab. Ohthis is so early two thousands, right,

(06:08):
but like this was my specific entrypoint to new Grounds. Fascinating.
So when you say to me,like this was a new Grounds thing,
this is exactly what I'm expecting,Like this kind of strange, transgressive piece
of media that's you literally killing thebear in the Big Blue House. I
mean, yeah, I think thisis pretty peak early new Grounds. You

(06:30):
know, it's funny you reminded methere were a couple of flash games that
I did play on new Grounds,Like I definitely played like a lot of
point and click like escape room games, and I played like one rhythm game.
I think maybe, Yeah, it'sinteresting how watching that brought back some
memories, just like seeing the styleof that like dug up some old stuff

(06:54):
for me, it's I mean,but that's when you say this was on
new Grounds, that's kind of myinternal like brain, that's where it goes
because like new Grounds, I tooka very specific that's a very specific entry
point for new Grounds, a sinwhere you could kill people like just random
celebrities and like people of pop culturefame, like nobody like now in our

(07:15):
day and age, people would beup in fucking arms about that, Like
you would get canceled before it evenexisted. I think it was released for
the correct audience at the time,right, and I think it can live
in the past comfortably. I agree, Like I don't think like I don't
think anybody would even make that anylike that kind of content, just I
don't think anybody's okay making a contentof like no, there are still like

(07:40):
fifteen year olds making content similar tothis, it's just it's stay most for
the most part, it stays onplaces like people are still making content for
new Grounds, and there's like,you know, this unspoken rule that new
Grounds is kind of a fucked upplace. I think, like probably less
so now than back then, butI feel like there's still is, like

(08:01):
those kinds of games aren't kind ofand anything goes almost like anything goes.
Do you remember And I had tolook it up because I couldn't. I
couldn't quite remember the name. Itwas just off tip of my tongue.
But Alien Gonzalez. Do you rememberthis? Yeah, the kid getting taken
out of his family's house. Right, Yeah, there was a like a

(08:22):
flash clip made of Alien Gonzalez andit was like a Budweiser What's Up videos
up? Yeah, And I rememberbeing on new Grounds and I just looked
it up and it's there, sothere you go. Like so, like
I said, there's kind of thisunspoken rule. Most people on new Grounds,
as far as I can tell,don't really out who they are,

(08:45):
and nobody like goes out of theirway to like hunt them down. If
you want this type of content,you kind of have to be searching for
this type of content. It's likeright, like sure, whatever that is.
Wait, do you really not knowwhat why I tmn D is?
Should I, Dustin? Do youknow why t MND is? You're saying
why t nmd y t m nD? I haven't heard it so you

(09:09):
guys can see my screen. Sowhy why? Dmn D is a site
where you make a website hosted bythem and it's often just like a clip
or a like dramatic reading. Soit gets its name from this clip from
a Sean Connery movie. And no, I'm not kidding yo, the man
no goo, the man no goo, the man noo, the man no

(09:31):
go. That's all that is.That's all that is. That's all that
is. Is that. But hereis what I remember it for is the
back Just there's no way to describethis if you know, you know,
as they would say, so it'snot making fun of anyone or anything.

(09:54):
That is a skit. That's aSpanish language song that for whatever reason,
the guy is making that no waysduring the song. But they put it
over that Batman from sixty seven.Yeah, Dustin, yeah, like see
like Emma, not really but withyou, dust and it's resonating so like
I'll show you soundclip before, right, Okay, so that's where it comes

(10:15):
from. HITTM and D. Interesting. So this is the last one and
Dustin will appreciate this one. Butthis is again this smacks of late nineties,
early two thousands, and you'll seewhy what what that conjures up literally
like the early like two thousand's,right, like that kind of like Arnold

(10:39):
Schwarzenegger on the soundboards fucking Ebombs World. We didn't talk about ebombs World.
Bombs World in the same world ofnew Grounds, right, Like subversive,
transgressive content being hosted somewhere, oftentimesnot their original content, because I remember
on Ebomb's World, we used towatch the parody of Die hall Are from

(11:00):
the Ben Stillers Show on Ebomb's World, which was a TV show episode snippet
that was being hosted there. Soit's like funny that everything ends up being
just on YouTube because like again,like you said, new Grounds is where
Salad Fingers comes from. And Ithink just judging by the screen image that
we're sitting here looking at the quality, there is some of that that is
going to be reflective in the quality, Oh yeah, for sure. And

(11:24):
the quality I think does jump significantlyas we get to some of the newer
episodes. Some of the newer episodescame out more recently. It wasn't like
all, you know, all ofthem are released at the same time.
There were some definitely, there weresome space in between, so you will
see a slight jumping quality. Butthe reason why I wanted to show you

(11:46):
this one specifically similar to Don't HugMe, I'm scared. How many views
does that first episode have? There? Forty three million and it's been on
YouTube for fifteen years. And again, like you mentioned, it didn't start
here, so that in and ofitself quite impressive because who knows the amount
of views it had over at newGrounds. Oh my god. Definitely,

(12:07):
and we have to add those upbecause those are two very different audiences.
But I think it's really important tonote that for me my childhood growing up
with the Internet, when you know, you were hanging out with friends and
you were bored, you know,you'd find like weird shit in your spare
time on YouTube and then you'd showit to your friends and that was how

(12:31):
that was how like most hangouts went. If you had nothing better to do,
you were on YouTube and you weresharing stupid videos with your friends,
and a lot of them were forshock factor at the time, like this
type of media, this very surreal, weird make you question why what the
fuck am I watching? Like thattype of media was huge, and I

(12:54):
mean, like we've talked about likeCharlie the Unicorn, which I think like
really emphasizes it in a way thatI think like a lot of people can
relate to. I would say solidFingers is a little bit less iconic than
you know, Charlie the Unicorn.I think also just asthetic wise, it
reached Charlie the Unicorn reached a largeraudience because salad Fingers definitely if you're not
looking at it, because it's pretty, that's for sure, right, Which

(13:16):
is why I kind of wanted toset the stage here for any of our
listeners who maybe don't know about newgrounds or kind of the expectation of what
we're going to be watching. Becauseagain comparatively too, don't hug me,
I'm scared. Even don't hug me, I'm scared. It's roughest, is
still ten million light years better thanI assume this is ever going to get
because the mediums, while they aredifferent, are like the expectations are also

(13:39):
different. I think it's also importantto note that this was created by one
person, David Firth, I believe, whereas Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared
was at least two people, ifnot a team, like a production team
as well. So I'm pretty sureDavid voices all the characters as far as
I can remember, at least forthe first episode. He's the voice.

(14:01):
So he created it, he drewit, he wrote, he wrote the
story, and he voiced the character. So this is basically a one man
show, and that's also really indicativeof new grounds. So yeah, so
this came out in two thousand andfive. That's insane. Deston what you
were deston? What were you doinginto? Oh, I was out of
high school, I was still incollege. I was fifteen, I was

(14:24):
in high school, was seven oreight. That's so did you see this
in two thousand and five? Thenno. I think I came across it
when I was probably like eleven.That was when I had more control over
my internet experience. At the time, I was too busy learning how to

(14:45):
play innkey doodle on the piano.So wholesome it looks familiar to me,
but I don't think. I mean, if I did watch it, it
was like in passing, I don'tthink I ever sat down, And that's
because I wanted to ask, becauselike, what is kind of your entry
point into these kinds of things.I mean I know that. I mean,
we'd watched a little Don't Hug meI'm Scared, because I was not

(15:05):
that I was worried. But ifyou watch that and you were like I'm
out, like I'd be like,Okay, I get it, Like I
get I get it, Like Imean, I get it. It's it's
it's not for everybody, and it'snot supposed to be like and that's okay,
Like you know, like you're makingsomething that's inherently very much something that
you like and you hope that itfinds an audience once you've released it.

(15:26):
But like something like don't hug me, I'm scared is made for the people
who make you know what I mean. Yeah, I think it's also important
to note that don't Hug me I'mscared. It's like yeah, like it's
weird, but like it's it's one. The premise is fascinating too. It's
like the production quality, all ofthe effort that's gone into like the physical
making of it. I think it'senough to get people enticed and like into

(15:48):
watching it. Obviously the songs thatare very well produced. This is just
weird, weird, and there's nodowntime of that. It is always weird,
So we don't have me I'm scaredas like interspersed with like, sure,
there are like creepy undertones, butthere are a good stretches of time
where she's like, Okay, yeah, this is like a safe point where
I'm not currently feeling uncomfortable. Iwould say Salad Fingers is pretty much uncomfortable

(16:15):
the whole way through every single episode, So buckle up for that specifically.
All right, So on that note, let us take a look at the
first episode of Salad Fingers. AndI don't think we would be really doing
ourselves a service if we didn't watchit on new grounds. Oh my god.
Oh I really hope that this doesn'tjust like nerve the quality for us.

(16:37):
I hope not. Well, we'llsee. So we're gonna be watching
the first episode of Salad Fingers thatwas released in two thousand and four.
This came out July first of fourat nine twenty five in the morning.
East woke up early three million viewson new Grounds, which is pretty good.
It's just pretty good for new grounds, pretty good for new grounds.

(16:59):
Here we go. All right,we'll pausiti if we need to, but
here we go. We're gonna betaking a look at first episode of sound
Name, Chris. I think youforgot to react. You need a suck.
That is like the term aggressively offputting comes to me. Oh yeah,
I told you. It's a it'sa jump in tone. Oh,

(17:21):
Dustin, I'm gonna Dustin, I'mgonna turn the floor over to you first,
since you're the since you're the newbieyear on the Surreal Tube couch.
What what? What? What didyou think of that? What? Well?
Having done flash animation back in theday, I was taken back to
those like just watching the weird liketwitchiness of the mouth like that that's not

(17:48):
I mean, that takes time tocreate, but it's also just uncomfortable to
watch. And the just the audio, it's there's nothing fancy about it,
but it's just like, you know, it's effective. They're rubbing on the
microphone and yeah, it makes menot want to listen to it, but
yeah, makes makes you want tolisten to it and rubbing on rusty rusty
anything. Yeah, and the babythe shriek is like a door opening or

(18:15):
closing, like is that what wasgoing on? Like a audio distortion.
I have no idea. Noises inthis are just so awful. Oh yeah,
headphones and everything. Well, andthe thing that cracks me up is,
I mean you put it pretty aptlydust and like that that style of
animation that like one year later,like the I don't know, like the
like the what the fuck not thatlike that's the SpongeBob thing, the like

(18:37):
the like what you guys know whatI'm talking about, Like the text on
the screen the world was destroyed.It's like that other flash YouTube video that
was pretty popular where it's like theworld like we destroyed the world or some
shit. I'm flounder. It's anotherone of these kinds of things where it's
like a like an animated ms paintvideo. Oh yeah, yeah, but

(19:00):
it's like a it's like a funnyone, and it's like I didn't like
that for the same reason. Thisis ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny. That's
what it is. I'm glad Igot it because that's that wasn't that's another
really iconic one. At the time, I don't know if I don't know
if that's actually the type. I'ma mantell of iconic media says, it's
like the ce fucking oh of iconicmedia. Because Emma said earlier this evening,

(19:22):
before you joined us, stuff thatsalad fingers is iconic media, it's
iconic internet media. And so Isaid, well, then you need to
name a company called iconic Media andit will go over really well with gen
Z I mean, which which Imean as they say they're here for it,
so I will say it's I willsay this don't help me. I'm

(19:47):
scared. I think the first episodeor two had this problem, and I
don't know how many episodes of thisare going to have this problem. This
feels very much of a time andof a place. Yeah, in a
way that like at that time inthat place. I'm not sure. I
know for a fact this wasn't mything. I don't know why. And
this is gonna sound terrible, butlike I always associated this with like kids

(20:07):
that I always found not weird becauseI was a weird kid. It was
like kids that were just kept likekept not kept to themselves because again,
that's not the case. It wasjust when someone would say this to me,
the person suggesting it, I wasoften like, uh okay, like
like I didn't trust their opinion onthings. Is a probably the way of
putting it. Me and them didn'thave a lot of we didn't have a
lot of pop culture overlap, andwhen they said something like this, I

(20:32):
was like, I'm probably not gonnalike, yeah, you were, you
were a weird kid, but theywere the weird weird ki Yeah I get,
but I don't even want to saythat because like the stuff that I
was into and I'm still into isweird in a different direction, Like this
is weird, but I mean Dustin, you've seen Freaked, Like that's pretty
weird in it's different in a differentkind of way. It's like a funny,

(20:52):
weird movie that has a lot ofesoteric jokes and deep pop culture references
and weird for weird sake jokes,and it's in a lot of ways like
it reminds me of this where you'rejust trying to be weird, Like why
is his name salad fingers? Whatthe fuck does that mean? Like his
fingers look like salad? What doesthat mean? It's fucking weird, but

(21:14):
it's weird for weird sake. Likeyou said, touching rusty things, that's
off putting, in weird in avery relatable way that everybody automatically understands what
that means. It commonality wars.I appreciate. I appreciate the commonality of
the experience that he's getting at thatmakes everybody uncomfortable. What I want to
know and I want your opinion onthis, and I guess we'll sort of
kind of figure this out as wecontinue, because the series does have an

(21:37):
overarching story. But it makes mewonder if this first episode, when David
was creating this episode, did hehave an idea for that story or was
he just creating this for the sakeof creating something weird? And then it
blew up and then he continued itjust like don't have me, I'm scared,
or did he already have because likeyou'll see, like the there is

(22:00):
lord as we continue forward, LikeI expected as much this is. This
is a great intro to set thetone, but it makes me wonder was
that the intention to set the tonefor what he was planning on making or
was this supposed to be just likea one off, I'm going to fuck
around the flash and make something weird. I mean it's weird, like a

(22:22):
chicken or the egg thing. Yeah, I guess it depends on when the
second episode came out. Let methink it this way. The three of
us are all creative types. Iwould wager David Firth is a creative type.
I would wager he probably had itat least an inkling of an idea
where he was probably gone. Imean again, I think to your point,
like, but do you make doyou go in a certain direction?
Because those things are more successful thanothers, though, and that affects what

(22:45):
you're doing right, so right again, like chicken or the like you said
those a chicken or the egg.And again I'm again, I'm of the
mindset that these kinds of people,ourselves included, know what they want,
know what they're trying to get at, and are not going to compromise unless
they have So if I asked youwhat does the first episode of Salad Fingers

(23:06):
mean, what would you respond with, Dustin, I want to hear you
first, Well, if you can, let's just accept the fact that this
is a weird dude that was ina weird place that has weird fingers.
He's got some weird obsession with rustythings. I think it's just I don't
know, it's a it's hard toeven put a bead on it. What

(23:32):
about Chris. I think it's justkind of a weird, like mental and
mentally troubled universe. It definitely comesoff that way. Yeah, yeah,
I don't like, I don't know. I mean as I mean, I
can literally only add to what Dustinsaid about as much as there seems to
be something that draws him to rust. And maybe there's an explanation as to

(23:55):
why that is, and maybe we'llunderstand what it means to have salad fingers.
And the other question that I haveis is this a man in a
green soup whose eyes are sticking out? Or is that just a fucking strange
design choice. Because here's the thingwe didn't talk about. You mentioned the
mouth moving, Dustin, but theway he moves is really off putting in

(24:15):
a way that you can only bedoing it because it's a flash you know,
MS paint flash animation type. Youknow what's interesting? Salad can rust?
Have you ever heard the term rustysalad? No hostile ones? So
if you if you cut salad witha metal knife, it'll cause the edges
of the salad to rust oxidize.Right, Yeah, so that is a

(24:37):
term to have your salad rust.So the fact that he's salad fingers and
he likes rusty things, that's interesting. Well, and I mean when I
mean if you go buy ahead oflettuce from the store, the root party
is brown, right, that's whatwe're talking about. Yeah, So if
I ask you guys to make predictionsor where you think this is headed,

(24:57):
which, to be fair, ithas been a really long time since I've
watched all of this. I onlyremember some of the beats, which is
I try not to rewatch if we'regonna, like if I'm showing this to
somebody, I like re experiencing it, you know, alongside. So I
didn't rewatch it, so I don'treally remember where it goes. I only
reverse some of it. If Iask you guys to make any prediction at

(25:21):
all for where you think this isheaded, place your bets, Well,
he wants rusty things, maybe specificallyspoons. M It seems like this desolate
world, is he going to stumbleupon like a department store and find a
bunch of rusty spoons and just bein heaven. Well, that would be
awesome. Does the baby make acallback the corn baby? It does,

(25:45):
kind of a cord. It lookslike corn. Interesting. So it's what
this was was so esoteric. I'mnot even sure that I have. I
would assume that he encounters more people. I'd be curious if he's the only
one of his kind or if thereare more of these. And again I
go back to what I said,is this. If this is his skin,
then he looks horrifying. If it'shim in a suit, it's not

(26:07):
much better. But I'm curious ifhe's of his own or if there are
others like him. Well, forthe ultimate the ultimate storyline, cop Out
wakes up from a dream and heis part of the don't hug me,
I'm scared in your diverse. Yeah, it all relates back. He was
a puppet all along. All right, he's one of the teachers and this
is his backstory. Oh cock,what would he be teaching? What is

(26:30):
he a teacher? On fucking nightmare? That's so okay? So is the
next episode this one? Let medouble check for you. Next episode actually
is titled Friends. I had opencome on new Grounds. Don't you have
the series in order? Right?What's up with you? Guys? This

(26:52):
is yeah, this is hard toget to while we watch the first one
on new Grounds. Yeah? Well, yeah, we watched the first one
on new Grounds. We can watchif I may mend, I will say
that when you make the YouTube videofull screen, it does tend to lag
a little bit. Put it inmode. Okay, Okay, I don't
think this needs to be full screen? Okay, I mean again, like,
is you guys tell me what itneeds to look like to make it
better for you? So yeah,I would just put in theater mode.

(27:15):
Is that this one? Yeah?Okay? So up, Jesus Christ,
stay put. So, Emma,is there anything you want to tell us
we need to know before we watchthe second episode of Salad Fingers titled Friends.
The only thing I want to tellyou is that you have yet to
put it in theater mode. Okay. Well, other than that which I
will do, I'm not one ofthose teachers that forgets okay, that leaves

(27:37):
that leaves the mouse on the screen. Did I hit the right thing?
I thought? I know that.There you go. Okay, okay,
I have I have nothing. Ihave nothing. I don't remember. Like
I said, I only remember agood couple of beats. Just expect more
of the same. But progression.Okay, fair enough, So here we
go. Second episode of soud Fingers, titled Friends, was posted on YouTube

(28:02):
fourteen years ago and it's twenty fourmillion views. Nothing to say in the
description other than salad Fingers has afew friends over. So we'll leave it
at that and we'll see where itgoes. Oh what the actual fuck?
Oh this is bringing back so manymemories of showing horrible things to my friends
and middles bit like what, I'mnot even fucking sure anymore. Yeah,

(28:29):
it's like really aggressively off putting.Oh definitely. Would you call it surreal?
I would call it a fucking nightmare, is what I would call it.
Hubert Kemberdale, Hubert Kemberdale, HubertKemberdale, smells of soot and poo.
What what I learned? Yeah?What, Dustin? What is your
immediate I don't know. They rampedup dial turned up a bit from the

(28:52):
last one. He's definitely, Ah, somebody you don't want to You don't
want to go in salad Fingers house. That's why he's got finger puppet friends,
I didn't see a fish in theoven. I think I saw something.
Okay, there was like a yellowishOkay, that's what was left in
the oven. The voice. Thevoice, I mean that that's the thing

(29:15):
that echoes through both the episodes sofar is just the voice is something I
don't want to listen to. Well, good news, that's consistent. Oh
great, thanks, I was reallyhoping that was going to be your ansom.
Sounds like David knew the secret sauceof what he was making. Yeah,
I mean yeah, you know likethat, you know, you know

(29:37):
where this idea fucking came from.This came from him sitting one day just
like doing this voice and was like, what does this character look like?
As someone who does a lot ofvoices, some of them like I could
rattle them off and they're not likea specific like imitation thing like I have
often thought like what would the characterthat this voice goes to like look like?

(30:00):
And this is someone who knows howto take it that next step like
and it's like such a distinct uniquething that like if I could, because
I have my voice of my ownthat are like not like this, but
like I could do something that you'dbe like, Oh, it's kind of
this like cute little thing or thislittle other thing, like when he must
have been doing this, he musthave just like he knew, like you
said, Dustin, he knew hehad something. Because it's so it's so

(30:23):
distinctive in a really like just cellularlyoff putting way that it's like you said,
it starts with the voice, andthen everything else built everything else built
out around it is as equally offputting as the voice that David Firth is
just like is conscious evoking. Thereis no respite, No, of course
not. I mean that's the kindof that's the kind of content we're expecting

(30:45):
here. Like I want to justbe bombarded with it, and I don't
want there to be a logical jumpingoff point, Like I want this to
just keep going and going to thepoint where it's like excruciatingly off putting.
Yeah, it's just to the nextthing, the one weird creepy thing happens.
And then he sticks his salad fingerthrough a rusty nail and bleeds out.

(31:07):
He likes when the red water comesout. Yeah, he gets to
sing somewhere over the rainbow in hisbrain while he's bleeding out yeah, I
mean his brain, which is ameat locker, And yeah, don't you
have him beat and then then theand the and the nail as well or
the hook? I guess, yeah, I wonder, like, so,

(31:29):
you know what I wonder coming offof this episode, is there a town
or place that that kid has comefrom that will now be looking for him?
Is like Salad Fingers like a knownthreat to people? Or is he
just again like an agent of chaosin a fucked up world? Because that's
just kind of what it seems like. And Emma, you said that there's
lower and mythology here, Yes,especially as we get to the later episodes.

(31:53):
I think a lot of the earlyepisodes are meant to like introduce you
to the character set, the quirksof the character file, and there are
clearly many, you know, salaFingers is just quirky like that. Well,
and again, like this kind ofthing really benefits from like making this

(32:15):
character as weird as possible, becausethe weirder he is, those zany or
the scenarios he can be put into. Right, Oh, definitely. Yeah.
And and I've mentioned this before,at least to you, Chris.
I don't know if I mentioned onthe podcast. But what I love about
media like this is the creator hada very specific feeling that he wanted to

(32:37):
evoke from an audience, and heevokes it consistently. He does it well.
Whether or not you like it,whether or not you think it's entertaining,
it is achieving exactly what it's setout to do. And I love
media that is able to do thatbecause that's art. Art is setting an

(32:58):
intention for a creative peace and seeingthat intention through and obviously people are going
to interpret it in different ways.I also think that that's art. But
when you look at, you know, a piece of art in the museum
and it makes you feel something,I think that that means it's a successful
piece. It could be a beautifulpiece or an ugly piece, but if
it makes you feel something, ifit makes you think, that is a

(33:21):
successful piece, that it achieved itsintent. It does it beautifully in the
weirdest, worst way, and itonly continues to ramp up. I love
how they continue. David continues tofind just like the right strings of words
and visuals that just make you go, oh God, I love it.

(33:46):
Well they can give me is theydidn't return back to the rest thing I
mean, the rest thing isn't thatit didn't come up, no spoons,
no rest. So like again,like you know, similarly to don't hug
me, I'm scared. They're notjust doing one thing over and over again.
They've already done something different, addeda layer to this character that wasn't

(34:07):
there in the first episode, andagain like it raises more questions than it
answers, and I don't I'm assumingthat they don't ever answer everything, and
maybe there isn't anything to answer bythe end of this anyways, Unlike don't
hug me, I'm scared, whichis asking questions every episode and answering very
little, so you know, knowingthat there's law and mythology and stuff surrounding

(34:29):
this, like I'm interested to seewhat that is, given what we saw
how it manifested, And don't hugme, I'm scared, very organically and
kind of you know, out ofthe periphery of your eye type thing,
to the point where when you andI were watching some of the stuff,
Emma, we were like going backand like scrubbing through the episodes to see
those things that we had missed whenwe watched them the first timing right right,

(34:51):
which is like a fun part ofthis as well. It's makes it
feel more like a shared experience.Outside of the fact that it's the three
of us here watching it together,it still feels like there's more people engaging
with it in a substantive way thanmaybe just some random video on YouTube.
Oh yeah, and like Charlie,the unicorn, which is kind of right,
doesn't ask anything of you, andit's just weird for weird sake and

(35:14):
doing nothing other than trying to befunny exactly. And you can tell,
as I said, as we getinto some of the later episodes, you
can tell, at least at acertain point, there is some sort of
story that David is trying to tell. But I will say he never confirms.
There are a lot of theories,and we'll go through those as we

(35:35):
get a little further. But there'sstill there's still some more things, some
more, some more, some moreways that we're going to set the stage
before we get into that. Ithink definitely Episode three I think covers a
lot of it as well, becauseI mean, so far, if we
had to distill salad fingers into everythingwe know about salad fingers, we know
he likes rust, you know,I likes spoons, specifically rusty spoons,

(35:59):
like drawing his own blood for somereason. He maybe eats children, and
he has finger puppet friends. Ithink that's like a decent amount of information,
but we do get more. Doyou want to click on episode number
three? I do, but dusted. Is there anything you want to add
before we continue our journey into StoneHug something that popped out of me.

(36:20):
I don't know if you're familiar withthe books Scary Stories to Tell in the
Dark? Yeah? Are we familiarwith the books Scary Stories to Tell in
the Dark? He asks the hostof Scary Stories? We tell it was
more for the audience, gross,Can you not take it so personally?
Oh my gosh, triggered, I'mnot just talking to you. Thank you.

(36:47):
That was the response I wanted.If you can recall the illustrations from
those books, this kind of remindsme of that, very like Bodily Fluidy
and Inky and Harry. I woulddescribe it as scratchy. Yeah, scratchy

(37:07):
is good. Dustin, did youknow that old McDougall is dead and his
brother don't know it? Do youremember that from that book? Or the
thing about the thumb the thumb.Yes, yeah, like that, dude,
those books made a lasting impression.I had those books when I was
like eight or nine. For somereason, we've never talked about it on
this show. I don't think Isaid maybe at the first episode, but

(37:28):
like that is where the name comesfrom. Is that series? I mean
yeah, because that series of books. I mean for me, like I
checked those out from the library aton growing up. I mean I bought
them at Half Rice Books. Acouple of years ago. We were like
at Half Rice Books and I waslike, I wanted to get something,
and I don't remember why. Iwalked past this cart and I saw all
three sitting there on the cart,and I just bought him. It was

(37:50):
like five bucks for all three andthey're on, Yeah, that's probably where
I got him. That's gotta beit. I mean that, man,
that fucking smacks different, Like mygod, new series idea, dramatic reading,
scary stories to tell the dark.We'll get in trouble, will we?
Yeah, because that's like a that'slike Scholastic. That's they'll they'll they'll

(38:14):
show us, they'll show us howhow it truly feels to be taken down.
In an instance, I would we'lljust do it with like a voice
distortion and they can't tell like avoice voice of salad fingers. Yeah,
oh good, Yeah that that soundsextra awful. I'd call that pretty dramatic.
Yeah right, so shall we?You guys want to watch the next
episode? Yeah, I think so. This is the third episode of Sad

(38:37):
Fingers titled Nettles, and it hasfifteen million views. I'm excited for this
one. I got it. Bit. You know, what's something I want
to mention before we go any further. The fucking music is really bad in
like a really good way, goodway. Yeah. Yeah, like that
like the like the the old likelike record player with the like and you

(39:00):
can hear the scratch That old seriescan be described as scratchy if the lights
were off in your house and thatmusic was playing in a room. Oh
so you don't go in that room, No sos, no one does it
come upstairs? Gayly? Emm on. I watched that movie together last week.

(39:25):
I thought I showed my boyfriend.It was great. Boy promises made
and apparently not kept for some people. What a fucking shame. But yeah,
let's get back to this fucking nightmare, because this is way worse than
skinimmering in everything. The choice ofwords. Yes, as I said,

(39:45):
he strings together just the perfect wordswith the perfect visuals that make you go,
oh god. Yeah, makes everyepisode he makes the most of every
single word. Yes, I lovehow he said fatigued. Yeah, you
could just say tired. Nah.No, only only big words for salad

(40:06):
fingers. Salad fingers is learning it. I mean you you saw him going
ham on that flute. Yeah,that's another thing we learned about salad fingers.
He can play the flute, andthat he's fucking yoke and he's and
he's he's ripped. God, orhave nipples drages? I have nipples drag?

(40:30):
Can you milk me? That's whatI thought of? Can we clip
that for the sound the sadder?That was pretty good? It does you
torment your family with your with yourbespoke salad fingers in person family? Oh
god, it's it. There's thereis no end in sight with this?

(40:53):
Fucking shit? Is there no insightwith this? I love you seem more
delighted as we continue, though,I'm enjoying it, but it is very
much like an enjoyment in spite ofwhat it is, because oh yeah,
this for me like, Okay,you know what this reminds me of.
It reminds me of something else Icould never get into. Invader Zim like

(41:15):
that like art style, that's fair. I am humor for weirdness sake.
Like again, like it was nevermy thing this kind. I have my
own breed of bullshit that I like. That makes very little sense, tim
an Eric, awesome show, greatjob comes to mind, Dustin. I
don't know if you've seen that out. Oh yeah, it's very strange.
I've seen some clips, right,like is it? Is it your cup

(41:37):
of tea? Emma? I meanI haven't sought it out, so I
guess. I mean, if somebodylike sat me down to watch it,
I'd watch it right, And there'sI'm a lot of wishy. I'm very
wishy washy on certain things. Ifsomebody is like I really want you to
watch this, I really want towatch this with you, then I'm like
here for it. But like otherwise, if I just won't seek it out

(41:58):
on my own, which is honestly, how of how I am with music
too, which you already know,Chris, right, But like it reminds
me in a way, it's likeaggressive with how off putting because like I
think you would agree, Dustin,like Tim and Eric, is very aggressively
off putting, like a lot ofit's just like sometimes it's just them making
the same noise over and over again, like like not even exaggerating, like

(42:21):
literally like the Totino's Pizza boy adcomes to mind. It's like a perfect
distillation of that which I am.I you're looking at me like like you
don't know what I'm talking about.What you can which is which is glorious
because it's so insane and it's likeif you if you resonate with that,
you might resonate with their overall uvraas one might say. But like it's

(42:42):
the same thing where like if youget it, you get it, and
if you don't, you're gonna belike keep this as far away from me
as possible. It's cursed. Likeyou have to be in this knowing what
you're getting and being okay with thatbecause like I definitely feel like if you
are not open and did for thesake of enjoying this for what it is,
you'll take to You'll watch like twentyseconds and go this is not for

(43:06):
me, and you'll cook away.You have to go into it knowing that
this is weird shit. You're supposedto be weird about. It's supposed to
be uncomfortable, it's supposed to beunsettling. You're supposed to almost hate it.
And but like Chris, like thesame way, like when we were
watching Skimmer Rink and like that trust, Like it's supposed to be long,
it's supposed to be drawn out,it's supposed to evoke those feelings like if

(43:30):
I, as you said, likeif I wasn't geared up for that and
I wasn't ready for that, thenI was going to hate it right right,
And we literally know people, Dustinand I do know people that went
into Skimmer Rink with an expectation thatwas not fulfilled and like they didn't like
it, And it's not really anyfault of their own, because I think
the movies advertising campaign promise something thatthe movie was not. But that aside,

(43:53):
like you said, like if yougo into it with one expectation and
it doesn't meet it, it's veryhard to reconciled the two in a lot
of ways, like if you aren'tif it doesn't even satisfy the base expectation
of what you have, you're probablynot gonna like it, like yeah,
like you've really got to be ableto jump over that jump through that hoop

(44:15):
a couple of times if you're notif you're not into it, like right
and real quick, just to backtrackon skidder, if you want to get
really pissed off, there's a reactionvideo that yeahn my boyfriend uh had me
like clicked through for me because heafter he watched, he was like,
I'm going to watch some reaction videoson this. I want to see what
other people have to think about this. And so there's one of this like

(44:37):
girl who must be around my age, who basically the whole video I think
was like twenty minutes and apparently shewatched like the first like fifteen twenty minutes
of it and then skipped through tillthe end and then said she didn't like
it. If you want to getpissed off, you should watch that react
because I literally told him, like, I can't watch this her her opinion

(45:00):
is completely invalid. Missing she didnot give it a chance. Missing the
quote most mainstream part of the movieto see the most completely bizarre parts too,
like yeah, you're getting a completelydifferent movie, Like yeah, could
you imagine having absolutely no patience thatyou're just like click click click anyway,

(45:20):
So, yeah, it was terrible. This is what staying fuck you like,
if you're gonna have an opinion,can you at least like experience it
otherwise just say like it wasn't forme, Like that's fine, but no,
she was like, it's it's aterrible movie. This is what counts
for YouTube analysis in this day andage. Oh yeah, I think she
had more views than like other people, just because she's like a young girl

(45:44):
with like her face on the thumbnail. People that review like horror movies and
then they're like, this movie isterrible. I hate horror movies. Yes,
watching it, she was like,Tip told me to watch it,
and this was really bad. Iwas like, well, I mean,
are you here if TikTok I meanthe Chinese government, I mean TikTok is

(46:05):
telling you something clearly, these arethe people. I mean that TikTok's not
owned by the Chinese government or anything. We swear week we cannot get yourself
off the list. Yeah, totallywasn't popular in China when I was studying
abroad in twenty eighteen, before basicallyany knew anybody knew about it in America,
but anyway, you know, wethink, but yeah, I was
literally studying abroad in China when peoplestarted using TikTok and let me tell you,

(46:30):
nobody was using it back home yetit was only saw it like Chinese
content. It started as Chinese content. When I go to Barnes and Noble
or places like, I think Iwas at Sam's Club, and they say
I was at Sam's Club, theother fine establishment, the club that Sam
built. It's Wow himself. Wewent there and they had a stand and

(46:53):
it said BookTalk, and that werebooks you could buy that were book talk
books. Because BookTok is a thing. Yeah, book t okay because like
tick because apparently if you want to, if you're in with the kids,
they would say, you know,something talks. So book talk is where
you Yeah, it's I don't knowif you've heard the term like core,
like cottage core. Yes, basicallythe same thing. It's distilling a hobby

(47:17):
or an aesthetic down to like thatcore like term and then there being a
whole section on this app like dedicatedto that. So book talk is basically
all about like book reviews and bookrecommendations. So book talk books are basically,
I guess, trending books circulating onbook talk and I use the term

(47:38):
in the definition. I've never reada book talk book. I don't get
my suggestions that way, I guess, so I don't know if it's any
different than listening to a podcast.I mean, again, like, it
depends on what style of medium you'relooking for, because that's short form,
you folks, And this is notshort form. But you can find our
short form versions of the show ontick where I post random clips from the

(48:01):
episode. So be a nice seguetrying to get in on it. So,
so, speaking of getting in onit, do we want to do
one more on this one? Yes? Yes, before we continue, I
do want to ask, now thatwe've seen three episodes, I asked you
after episode one, where do youthink this is going? I want to
give you, guys another chance toanswer that question, now that we know

(48:22):
a little bit more about the world, know a little bit more about our
beefed up protagonist who plays the madflute plays it, but he's a bit
He's not a bit of he isa pervert. Like, just for clarification,
he is prepared well. In thefirst episode, he mentions that rubbing

(48:43):
rust is orchasmic. So I don'twant to yuck anybody's young. Now,
Okay, there's a lot of thatgoing around. Me get a kink,
I get it. Yeah, hereally likes stinging meddles. Oh fuck,
have you ever held a stinging meddleor or head one? No? Because
it's a does it state? SoI've been in my share of them.

(49:08):
Uh hopyard growing is something I didtoo, And nettles were around and it
hurts they suck. But something interestingand I said this about like the rusty
salad. Uh so nettle leaf,like if you make nettle tea, what's
it? And this is just weirdinformation that I have. It actually is

(49:30):
good for breastfeeding mothers because it helpshelps them lactate. So it's interesting that
that's what is Actually that is areally interesting thing to point out, Like
Ian's right. Yeah, Like youhave to be like, oh, I
guess there was a point to this. Well, and think about like who

(49:51):
made it where they're from, that'sprobably a little more common. Yeah.
The only reason I know about itis because we're I mean, I mean
my wife and I are a littlebit more look for natural things first before
we look outside. Yeah, andso yeah, I just that popped in
my brain. I was like,oh, yeah, that that's supposed to
happen. I guess there. Usuallyyou ingest it, rub it directly on

(50:16):
your teeth. But sold Fingers isa different cat. So really he's just
built different. That's a that's thefucking that's that's the fucking poster line.
Sad Fingers is a different cat,special breed, poland built different. Yeah,
yeah it was. That's the titleof the episode. You better make

(50:37):
that the title was really off footingto see him fucking jacked. I just
want to point this out, likeit not not helping here with any of
this, making him like big doyou think he's malnourished or do you think
he lives? Oh? I thinkhe gets mad games. And I want
to ask now, Emma before wecontinue any for and I need to know

(51:00):
answer. If you've seen it isbecause we talked about it, and don't
help me. I'm scared a littlebit there. You know where I'm going
with this, right do I?There are are there people that are into
salad fingers. I'm sure, ohgod, I'm sure somebody's going to be
like, oh, his fingers arelong, like, come on, oh
god, I just didn't know ifyou knew, because again you knew.

(51:21):
Not off, boy, I'm scared. Cheer me out that I don't.
I mean, I know why,but I don't know why. I know,
but I don't know. Okay,tumbler is dust if you're unaware.

(51:42):
Have you ever heard the term tumblersexy man? So are you aware of
the platform tumbler? Yes? Sobasically, UH fandom tumbler, which is
most of tumbler. UH will appointlike unanimously. They will appoint a care
character that they find attractive, andthey happen to often have very similar qualities.

(52:07):
A lot of them like very lanky, thin limbs and dapper I think
are often like perceived as dapper.I think are like have you seen the
Lorax movie, the new one?Well, they came out like yeah,
you know the one sler tumbler sexyman. Okay, Like that don't help
me. I'm scared from that episodefrom the second episode, the clock is

(52:30):
a tumbler sexy man. And Ihad to tell Chris that in the episode
that we covered it because I thinkit's important information to move forward. So,
I mean, look, if somebodyis into salad Fingers. You know,
God, blessed, say it whatever, whatever, don't want to yuck
anybody's that's why they're watching this.Yeah, God damn, they're just they're

(52:54):
just so deprived of content. It'slike watching it. This is like watching
Frankenfurter Talk and Rocky Horror. Everyword is very, very intentional. It's
all so like, Oh, butto answer your question, something something something
roll thirty four. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder how

(53:16):
many pictures we'd have to look atto find his fingers big dicks? Probably
one, one or two? Imean, do they need to be dicks?
Is the question? Almost penis?That's a thing on Reddit, almost
a penis. Do you think he'son them? I don't know. I
don't know. Maybe he's off puttingin every possible way. So on that

(53:37):
note, we'll bring this episode toa close. We'll watch the fourth episode
of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared, just kidding, the fourth episode You
did It Again, I Know.The fourth episode of Salad Fingers titled Cage.
It has eleven million views. It'san interesting watching the view count steadily
go down as they're starting to likefind their niche audience. Right, we've

(54:00):
find it down thus, and asI sit here and gather my thoughts,
what did you think of that?So as a looking at these in a
little bit deeper sense, sald Fingersseems to want connection. Finger puppets,
the little kid that he lures intothe oven, and then when faced with
someone or something that wants a connectionwith him, that's too much. Hashtag

(54:24):
all men, I'm a right,right, not all men. But most
of the time a man he wantsto be in control. He didn't have
control with a little weird black eyedbaby. That's the one thing that I
wanted to point out is was thatmeant to be a baby? Because it
sounded like a baby. I thinklike the vaniness also was very reminiscent of

(54:46):
an infant, but it was proposing, and I think that that is some
cognitive dissonance for me. I likethat Redney, I don't like that Rednecks
single as much as I like CottonEyed Joe, black Eyed Baby. The
scar no dust is just gonna fuckingno sell that one. Fine, fine,

(55:07):
fine. The big scar on thething's head makes you wonder, you
know, maybe it's more just adamaged person. That's more childlike might be
thinking too might be thinking about ittoo much. Though it reminds me a
lot of Eraserhead, David Lynch's movie. I mean, this is all very

(55:28):
like David Lynch, like early weirdbody horror David Lynch stuff. It's just
it's everything about it is very offputting with that like little baby mutated head
character, Like you know, thewhat's the cage of the episode? Right,
the cage is the cage is commitment. It's pretty heavy, heavy handed,
it's pretty heavy handed in my opinion. Well, and sad Fingers just

(55:51):
wants the pleasure, you know,he just wants, just wants to stroke
rust boy. That's awful. That'sall he wants. But it's true,
that's what he does. I meanthat doesn't want to be tied down him.
You can't tie him down. He'sbuilt up. Him jerking off those
bars was an image I did notneed to see. But yet here we
are, so as they would say, I mean, it's again, it's

(56:14):
it's continuing that like off putting imagery. Just they know how to make the
most out of essentially nothing is whatit feels, Yeah, like this is
created out of the air. Imean in a lot of ways, like
it's this is not referencing anything else. This is its own fucking weird thing,
and it's just being weird for weirdsake. And in a lot of
ways, I kind of miss this. I mean, I don't like this,

(56:37):
but I miss this like energy whereit was like I'm just gonna do
weird shit, Like I miss thatbecause it's kind of gone now and everything
is just so sanitized and sammy andnot as exciting as it used to be
in a lot of ways, andnot because oh we've all gotten older,
but because it just feels like someof these things just not that people outgrew

(56:59):
them, but people didn't want thingsto continue to be weird, like there
needed to be some sense of normalcy, and like I like weird. I
think weird is fun and exciting,like this is. People wanted to stop
straying from a formula. And Ithink that this does fully encompass the idea
of just maybe there is a formula, but if it is, it is

(57:20):
not clear. Whereas a lot ofcreative content, you know, people think
that it needs to have you know, the opening, the peak, the
conclusion, the lore, the story, and it needs to be like written
out in a very specific way,and so a lot of media it feels
like nothing new is really happening becauseof those reasons. And this was a

(57:43):
time where people didn't expect to getbig online. This was a time before
people really cared about going viral.This was just creating for creating sake,
And I exactly like I definitely thinkthat with the rise of the Internet,
like this was like peak Internet,like gears in terms of like mental health,

(58:05):
which is hilarious because we're talking aboutslid figures, which obviously it makes
you question the mental health of thecreator. But I think like in terms
as somebody who grew up with theInternet, you're the way that you create,
it becomes affected by how it isreceived. And there was no pressure
before that was normalized. Like sure, like maybe you wanted like a hundred

(58:29):
up votes, but like that wouldbe enough. There was no like that
virality of like this needs to reachevery corner of the globe. I need
to be relevant. It was orit means nothing, or I mean nothing?
Or what I create? What's thepoint? Getting five million views on
new Grounds meant? What did thatmean? Right? Like first five million

(58:49):
views on YouTube? Like what?What? What? Did those two things
mean, because again this got startedon new grounds, So yeah, like
it was even like you said,it was started at a time where like,
could you make a living posting thingson new grounds? I don't think
that was a thing now, Likeyou said, it was kind of an
anonymous, faceless void of people whosome people similarly to like you know,
I would compare this too, andI'm not comparing him to this, but

(59:12):
again, similarly, something like Loganand Jake Paul on Vine escaping the orbit
of vine and making it into YouTubeand becoming YouTubers because again Vine disappeared,
new Grounds didn't disappear. But newgrounds isn't where you would go to make
a living. You can make aliving on YouTube. There are plenty of
people that do it, and thatnumber is going to continue to get bigger

(59:36):
and bigger because there are more peopleexisting with interesting stories to tell or content
to create that haven't been born yetor aren't old enough yet to pick up
a phone or a computer and doit. And there will be more people
being content creators because there will beless people needing to make things and more
people being entertaining is needed for lesspeople working, and so there you go,

(59:58):
you have more entertainment needs for morepeople. And that's what happens with
YouTube, and that's why this ison YouTube, and that's why anything new
for this is going to get postedeither on his own side, I'm assuming,
or youte because where else? Right? Like right, I hope that
we are able to cyclically come backto this idea of creating for creation's sake,

(01:00:21):
putting it online only so it findsmaybe a small audience that gives a
shit, and that's enough. Imiss those days, honestly, I miss
the days where it was just I'mgoing to make something weird or something fun,
or something that speaks to me,and it's not about you know,
how how well received this is goingto be, how large, how big

(01:00:44):
of an audience can I reach?What's the outreach here? How do I
make this palatable for the widest audience? You know, just creating what you
want to create for the sake ofputting it out there. And that's enough.
And this is that absolute And that'shonestly why I think it is as
iconic as it is. It's itreally is reminiscent of that peak time of

(01:01:07):
content creation. It's so purely selfserving. It definitely feels that way watching
it, because it's definitely not tiedto any master other than David Firth,
because these kinds of decisions aren't madeaccidentally, like you mentioned with the nettle
thing in the last episode, Dustin, you have to know that to make

(01:01:28):
that joke. Right on that note, what do you guys think of solid
fingers? Interesting? This? Fuck? M I mean, I think I
think it obviously exists in such astrange corner of the universe that again,
like I want these kinds of thingsto exist again in the future, because
these things don't exist anymore like this, this still exists, but this is

(01:01:51):
a hang like a hanging part ofa pop culture time that doesn't exist anymore.
I want the new thing of thisand if when people do make it,
such as like skin Marink as anexample, to look at it for
what it is, like we've said, and give it some respect because it's
it is something that was created andit's not necessarily always going to be your

(01:02:15):
cup of tea, but it's thatperson's cup of tea. And check it
out. Oh yeah again, Istand. I stand to someone who's not
the biggest fan of this, butI'm I'm wanting to see where this goes
because and that's why I wanted toshow you, right, I didn't.
I didn't expect you to like fallin love with the characters like you did

(01:02:36):
with Don't hug me, I'm scared, because this isn't meant to do that.
Don't hug me, I'm scared.Is meant to draw you in.
You were meant to have you knowthat like pseudo relationship with the characters,
which which one is your favorite andall of that, Like, it is
very much that purpose because of howit's set up, especially as a kid
show. It's very nostalgic in alot of ways too, And it's meant

(01:02:59):
to be appealing in its own,like weird, creepy way, but it's
meant to be, you know,somewhat appealing. This is not meant to
be appealing, not in any way, shape or form, No, unless
if you are just absolutely into whateverthis is. But it is Internet history
and it is creepy as fuck.And I thoroughly enjoyed seeing your reaction.

(01:03:21):
Well, I'm and I'm glad that. I'm glad that I'm glad that we
were able to watch it together andexperience again something that I've heard about,
Like you said, Dustin, Ihad heard about it in passing, and
now I kind of get a bettersense of what this is. Maybe we
don't know exactly where this is going, but it's it's a very interesting starting
place. It's a very unique startingplace, and it's not a starting place

(01:03:42):
that anything else I've ever seen isstarted from. So the novelty is that
that unique. That's a novelty inand of itself. So I would say,
if it were to remind me ofanything, courage, the cowardly dog.
Yeah, the teeth, the teethfor sure. The wasteland, the
weird stylization, the overall tones ofjust weird and dread and not knowing why

(01:04:08):
anything is actually happening a little bitmore palatable because there are moments of respite
and characters that you can trust tonot be fucking weird, unlike this,
where there is no trust to behappened. Not a single character here is
comforting. Best I can tell,we haven't met a single character that I

(01:04:30):
would say is remotely welcoming. Everythinghas been very awesome. So who's your
salad fingers? Comfort character? Don'thave one, and there isn't one.
God Hubert Cumberdale and whatever is beenat a Cumberbatch whatever his name? Yea,
God? Yeah, so Dustin asas the one who was more or
less shanghaied into this. I wantto give you the final word on on

(01:04:54):
salad fingures to close out this,this first surreal tube with a with a
with a full couch of people asit were, Well you said, you
said his first posted fifteen years ago. I don't think I would have thought
about it the same way then aswatching it now, because hey, I
would have known nothing about nettle leaveshelping your lactation, so very important information.

(01:05:17):
Yeah, yea, So definitely comingat it from a different perspective.
But I don't know. It's uncomfortableto watch, but at the same time
you can't look away from it.And it's that train wreck thing. It's
weird, and I see there's moreepisodes and I kind of want to check
them out. Are you gonna joinus? You gotta join us? Are

(01:05:38):
you gonna jump ahead? Oh?Was there a part two? Toy?
Oh? We are definitely going SERI, what do you think this is one
and done? God? No,what is it? I'm making sure were
at the Apollo Chris is dropped in. I'm yeah, there's I can't leave.
They won't let me leave. Iwant to a Halloween costume. Oh

(01:06:01):
oh Jesus, can you imagine seeingthis coming up to you in the tree,
knocking on the door with your saladsmoving? Yeah, rubbing the rusty
spoon. Oh god, that's oneway to get kicked out of the neighborhood.
Yeah. Right, there's this guywho dresses like this green monster.
He keeps talking about rust and spoons. It's like slender Man fifteen years ago.

(01:06:26):
Yeah, yeah, he vokes slenderMan. I think Slenderman energy.
I mean he kills kids, orat least eats them. Yeah, hey,
that was It was never on screenthat he eat that he ate that
kid. That's what I'm just saying. That's fair, that's fair. Just
just cook them the implications they wouldsay, it's like cooking chocolate chip cookies.
It just makes the house smell nice. Exactly, Wow, aromatic what

(01:06:48):
the fishes gun like. I'm lovingthese impressions. They're coming from a place
of abject horror. I feel it'snot like I've said, Bird from don't
hug me, I'm scared, Duckfrom Dune, I'm scared where it's misgiv
I had to get it in there, just for everybody. Just never forget

(01:07:09):
that. That's the best part.I feel like every episode of Surreal Tube
you have to say pesky b atleast I find a way to bring it.
I got to bring the duck energy, that dickhead, little green duck
energy with the baguettes for mouths.That's what they look like. They look
like rolls. I never said thaton any of the episodes. Keep thinking
it. It looked like rolls.It's like two Portuguese roles. Yeah,

(01:07:29):
I just like that's what it lookedlike. So so until the next time
the three of us talk about saladfigures. You can find us over at
Weirdingwaymedia dot com, where, likewe mentioned, Dustin and I do some
stuff from time to time. Emmais here most of the time. That's
where you can find us, andthat's a that's a good place to go.
As for this show, Scary Stories, we tell dot com big thanks
to you, Dustin for the albumartwork for the Campfire Stories. Yeah,

(01:07:54):
thank you, thank you in person. Jesus, what's that like? And
you know what I didn't ask for? Like fifteen thousand changes and then abuse
you either isn't that weird? Iappreciate it and uh and and big thanks
to Maggie Yott as well for themain album artwork for the show. As
for the music, Alex Malmack ofBlondo provides that music. And if you're
listening Alex, Hello, we'd liketo have you back at some point,

(01:08:15):
but hey, we know you're busytouring the Midwest and kicking ass because Dustin
and I know you. That's weird, isn't it. Yeah, weird,
It's kind of weird. H Andas always, will let our good friend,
the former host of Sightings, misterTim White, lead us out of

(01:08:56):
no mystery is closed to an openmind. End