David Firth

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David Firth
Born	David John Firth (1983-01-23) 23 January 1983 (age 38) Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England
Other names	Locust Toybox Doki66 Shady Piez Jerry Jackson
Occupation	Animator, writer, director, musician, actor, voice actor, video artist, broadcaster
Years active	1998–present
Style	Black comedy, psychological horror, animation, surrealist, satire, absurdist humour, Comedy
YouTube information
Channels	David Firth Fatpie2 Fatpie3 Fatpiemusic
Years active	2006–present
Genre	animation music
Subscribers	1.4 million (combined) (March 8, 2020)
Total views	206 million (combined)
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2011[1] 1,000,000 subscribers 2018[2]
Musical career
Genres	Electronic
Years active	2002-present
Labels	Brainfeeder
Associated acts	Aphex Twin Flying Lotus Zack Fox
Musical artist
Website	Fat-Pie.com

David John Firth (born 23 January 1983^[3]) is an English animator, director, writer, musician, actor, voice actor, video artist and broadcaster. As a cartoonist, Firth's work is largely distributed via the Internet, most notably through the popular Adobe Flash animation website Newgrounds and his own personal websites. Several of his works in Flash animation, along with multiple music videos and works of video art, have garnered large followings.^[4]

Early life[]

David Firth was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1983. He is the son of Graham and Rosemary Firth, both of whom are retired art teachers.^[5] Firth developed an interest in animation and filmmaking around the age of 13, and began producing online content around 1998, creating humorous websites and videos with help from friends, which were hosted on Geocities and Tripod. He briefly studied at the Hull campus of the University of Lincoln, but left without completing his degree ^[6] and is currently living in Leeds.^[7]

Animation[]

Notable animation sequences from Firth include Salad Fingers,^[8] as well as the comedic Burnt Face Man series.^[9] A number of Firth's works have been featured by the BBC in the UK, and the BBC has hired Firth on several occasions. He also created a Flash animation series called Jerry Jackson in which a cartoon character claims to be a professional animator, even though the animation is intentionally poorly crafted. The character was based on Firth's perception of Internet users who would leave hateful comments on his videos.^{[10][failed verification]}

Firth's work often contains a large amount of dark imagery and tends to explore topics of a disturbing or surreal nature, such as depression and mental illness.^[11] Firth has stated that it is not his intention to upset or offend.^[12] Some of his work may be described as dark humour, while much of it is simply experimental, using many different styles.^[13]

Firth has produced several animations for the BBC Comedy^[14] website, including his Musical Predictions 2009^[15] and the Jerry Jackson series in 2009. In 2010, he created a new series for the BBC based on a character called Drillbithead.^[16]

Filmography[]

One of Firth's most notable and productive projects has been MC Devvo aka Darren Devonshire.^[17] The Devvo series has been described as "a pill-munching, northern scallie that seemed kind of like a documentary.. " but "...far too harrowing and depressing for the main character to ever be real."^[18] Though commonly misattributed to Firth, Devvo is voiced by Christian Webb, who provides voices in Firth's cartoons and co-writes the Salad Fingers series. Firth instead features as the cameraman and occasionally appears alongside Webb as DJ Shady Piez. Firth has also produced short films for "Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe", televised on BBC Four.^[19] As of 2012, Firth has been working on his first animated feature film under working title The Meadow Man.^[20] In August 2019 Webb was fired from his job as a teacher at Thorne King Edwards Primary School in Doncaster when his previous YouTube notoriety came to light.^[17][21]

Firth directed the music video for the Flying Lotus song "Ready Err Not",^[22] which premiered on Adult Swim on Halloween night 2014.^[23]

Firth continues to post regularly on Fat-Pie.com and YouTube. On March 30, 2017, he created a Patreon page where fans can support his work.^[24]

On 30 May 2017, Firth uploaded to his YouTube channel the short film Cream, produced by Flying Lotus for his production company and record label Brainfeeder, which had debuted at a London screening in November 2016.^[25] It is sometimes shown as an opening short to Kuso, a surreal horror-comedy-drama movie directed by Flying Lotus. Firth contributed animation, writing, and a voice role to the movie.

Music[]

Firth composes electronic music under the pseudonym of Locust Toybox, and has released thirteen studio albums to date, most recently Toyboxica (2019), which was released through Flying Lotus's Brainfeeder label.^[26] Firth is a fan of Aphex Twin,^[27] and has used his music in his work. Amongst other notable influences are Boards of Canada and Brian Eno. Firth has also created a videoclip for the Aphex Twin song "Milkman" from the Girl/Boy EP.^[28] Firth also releases music as Stegosaurus Trap,^[29] I'm The Manager, and is a part of English psychedelic pressure-pop band the Grape Digging Sharon Fruits.^[30] Most of his music are available as free downloads and have frequently soundtracked his animations.

Discography[]

All records are self-released except where noted:

Locust Toybox:

• Old Pagger Ballads (2002)
• Dead Wasps (2003, initially released under DJ Foyf)
• A Kettle of Wealth (2004, initially released under Foyf)
• Scribble Beats (2005)
• Powdered Brethrens EP (2005, Wyrd Skies)
• Mangled Tape Memories (2006)
• Felt Crayons (2007)
• Remixes & Other Crap (2008)
• Inkbrush (2009)
• Noon (2011)
• Stringland (2014)
• Lost Pop EP (2015)
• Drownscapes (2017, Brainfeeder) Length: 1H 27M 4S
• The Eyelid Recording (2019)
• Toyboxica (2019)
• When We Implode (2021)

Grape Digging Sharon Fruits:

• Flower Festival (2003)
• The Insurance Band EP (2004)
• It's Way Past Your Bedtime (2008)
• Grappling Head Songs (2010)

I'm the Manager:

• The Manager's Files EP (2005)

Stegosaurus Trap:

• Miniature Maze (2009)
• Melt (2010)
• Trainwreck (2011)
• Invaders (2012)
• Songs For Seven Lizards (2020)

Games[]

Firth has voice-acted as two of the antagonists in the indie psychological horror game The Cat Lady^[31] and its sequel, Lorelai.^[32] He was also a caller, Radio Doctor, on FlyLo FM, in the action-adventure game Grand Theft Auto V.^[33]

Firth's most famous character, Salad Fingers, has been featured in numerous video-games such as Newgrounds Rumble and Chaos Faction 2.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• "Devvo". Archived from the original on 19 March 2008. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
• Interview with David Firth at Personal Halfquake
• BBC Comedy – David Firth animations
• Interview with David Firth on Red Bar Radio
• David Firth at IMDb
• Firth's work as Stegosaurus Trap
• Firth's work as Locust Toybox
• David Firth's Patreon Page