Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers - Storylines and Themes

Storylines and Themes

The use of assorted psychoactive drugs is a predominant theme that runs throughout all volumes of this title. Marijuana is the most frequently mentioned, but numerous other stimulants and hallucinogens are mentioned as well. Most of the Freak Brothers stories include the use of drugs, or attempts to purchase them, for humorous effect, although heroin is notably missing from the list of drugs that the Freak Brothers would condone using. In one adventure, Franklin is shown to refuse, with alarm, an offer of 'smack' when hitching a ride.

Food is a commonly recurring subject. These stories most often involve Fat Freddy and his marijuana-induced "munchies" (increased appetite). The squalor engendered by the Brothers' indolence is often highlighted; several strips feature the household's cockroach population, ruled over by a fascist monarchy whose leader resembles General Douglas MacArthur . Several stories satirise governments, particularly the U.S. government. These stories invariably show politicians and their agents as corrupt, incompetent, or both. The theme of foreign travel is sometimes explored, most notably in the three-part Idiots Abroad series.

It is common for the storylines to begin with an air of realism, but rapidly descend into comic pantomime.

Freak Brothers stories include:

• Grass Roots: The Brothers find a "year's supply" of cocaine and move to the country with the proceeds. They manage to snort it all in two days.
• Chariots of the Globs: Fat Freddy's Cat is abducted by aliens.
• Mexican Odyssey: The Brothers holiday in Mexico, are thrown in jail and escape with the help of shaman Don Longjuan, in a partial spoof of the Carlos Castaneda books.
• The Idiots Abroad: The Brothers are split up attempting to travel to Colombia hoping to score on cheap dope down there, yet none of them manages to even just reach Bogotá; Fat Freddy accidentally joins a group of nuclear terrorists in Scotland before disrupting the International Workers' Day military parade in Moscow, USSR and being subsequently sold to slavery in Africa, Franklin is almost killed by a native apocalyptic South American cult before joining a group of pirates, while Phineas ends up in Mecca and becomes the world's richest man after founding a new religion.