Salad Fingers - Characters

Characters

Salad Fingers

The main character is a bald hunchbacked humanoid with light-green skin, and no visible nose or ears, who speaks with a distorted Northern English accent. His long, strangely shaped fingers are his most notable feature. They were the focus of the first episode of the series, where Salad Fingers is shown getting pleasure from rubbing various objects, particularly rusty metallic ones such as spoons, a doorbell panel, and a kettle. Salad Fingers is unable or purposely unwilling to distinguish between living beings and inanimate objects, and is frequently found talking to various inert articles (notably his finger puppets and in two cases a human corpse). He also talks to his radio in one episode. Furthermore, he often assigns such objects proper names and appears to believe that they can communicate with him directly, sometimes voicing their perceived thoughts himself.

He lives alone in a small shack (containing, among other things, an oven, bedroom, safety cupboard, radio, phone, and table) with the number 22 on the door. Salad Fingers appears to be masochistic, as he can be seen taking pleasure from impaling his finger on a hook, rubbing nettles on himself, or stepping onto a bear trap. His talents include playing the flute and speaking French. He also seems able to use Morse Code, as shown in episode nine, where he must inform others of his strange and eerie condition. It is implied that the desolate world Salad Fingers inhabits is the aftermath of the "Great War", a conflict which is referenced several times in the more recent episodes. He is quite articulate, however he often spouts peculiar English sayings and phrases in situations where they do not fit or even seem relavant.

Salad Fingers takes up various habits, including a regular measurement of the distance between his house and a tree, tasting of the dirt ("floor-sugar"), and listening to his radio. Sometimes he also displays a raspy asthmatic-like breathing when he becomes mesmerized at something or experiences extreme pleasure. These symptoms could be from the "Great War." The name "Salad Fingers" was invented by Firth's co-writer, Christian 'Crust' Pickup, who described Firth as having salad fingers while playing the guitar.

Hubert Cumberdale, Marjory Stewart-Baxter and Jeremy Fisher

Finger puppets who appear variously in episodes two, three, five, six, seven, eight and nine. They often appear in Salad Fingers' fantasies as life sized beings. Jeremy Fisher is thought to be named after the Beatrix Potter book The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher. In episode 2, Salad Fingers tastes these puppets, claiming Hubert Cumberdale tastes like "soot and poo" and Marjory Stewart-Baxter tastes like "sunshine dust". Jeremy Fisher is not tasted, which is revisited in a later episode. Salad Fingers has also referred to Jeremy Fisher as having been out fighting "The Great War". In episode five, Hubert Cumberdale is temporarily renamed Barbara Logan-Price. In episode six, Salad Fingers eats Jeremy Fisher in a moment of forgetfulness, and the puppet has not appeared or been mentioned since, indicating that he was killed off. In episode eight, Salad Fingers calls Cumberdale a "dirty immigrant" after dropping him in a chamber pot. In episode nine, Salad Fingers talks to Stewart-Baxter as if she is his partner and the mother of their 'child', Yvonne.

Harry/Milford Cubicle

Appearing in episode three, Cubicle is an aggressive, armless human-like being who wears an apron identifying him as being employed at a "BBQ". Though his name tag reads "Harry" and indicates that he is "Happy to help", Salad Fingers calls him Milford Cubicle. He bleeds to death after repeatedly banging his head on Salad Fingers' door. Salad Fingers then finds him and drags him inside his house and hangs him on a meat hook, believing him to be alive and conscious.

Bordois

Appearing in episode four, Bordois is a woodlouse which Salad Fingers accidentally kills by attempting to pet her. He refers to her as "little sister". Once he squishes her, he says "You've gone flat, little sister. And you're all gooey. I shan't play with you again until you've had a wash."

Aunty Bainbridge

Appearing in episode one and episode nine, is a yellow bug-eyed creature who owns many rusty objects (which Salad Fingers strokes) and a small house. While Salad Fingers calls it Aunty Bainbridge in the ninth episode, he also calls it a "young child" in the first, intimating that he does not, in fact, know it at all. This is further evidenced when she backs away from Salad Fingers when he tries to hug her in the ninth episode. It is difficult to tell whether this is a person and what its sex is.

Mable

Appearing in episode five, Mable is a scuffed, grubby, scarred young girl who goes to a picnic with Salad Fingers. She is the first character other than Salad Fingers who can communicate in English, and she is the first person other than Salad Fingers to actually speak— something that seems to shock and dismay Salad Fingers. When she sees Salad Fingers looking at her in dismay she says "What's wrong, Mr. Fingers? Do you not like my mouth-words?" While this is going on, she is seen with her eyes gouged out.

Kenneth

A decomposing corpse found in a hole (one which was apparently dug up completely by Salad Fingers' finger puppet, Hubert Cumberdale) near Salad Fingers' house in episode seven; Salad Fingers claims that it is his younger brother, "back from the Great War," and invites him in for dinner before eventually putting him back while singing "We'll meet again".

Roger

Appearing in episode eight, Roger is a broken radio that speaks in a robotic, aggressive manner (much like a Dalek) and scares Salad Fingers into the cupboard twice. Roger, according to Salad Fingers, must be given 'sustenance' (in the form of small brown pellets which appear to be beans, BBs, or marbles). This distress caused by his radio has him eating his hair collection.

Horace Horsecollar

A toy horse with which Salad Fingers indulges his senses.

Penny Pigtails

A character Salad Fingers' imagination created while hiding from Roger in the safety cupboard. She is nothing but Salad Fingers' hand 'walking' across the ledge. Salad Fingers imagines that she is denied raspberry jam by a market trader, who bases his actions on the grounds that her legs are "too long" and "made of cotton", which upsets him greatly.

Mr. Branches

A tree 21 yards from the house. Salad Fingers measures this distance, and then comments to the tree that it's "barely shuffled an inch all week"—implying that it moves (or, at least, he perceives it to) and that he regularly keeps track of this measurement. In episode nine, Salad Fingers bites one of its branches, causing it to cry in pain (with Salad Fingers imagining it with a face). It begs Salad Fingers to be let inside in the voice of a young boy/young girl, but is told that it has to "grow out of branches" first. Mr. Branches then proceeds to tightly wrap its branch around Salad Fingers' stomach - although, it is implied that this entire scene was a fantasy, and not reality.

Yvonne

A black slimy object that Salad Fingers 'gives birth to' out of the front of his stomach in episode nine. The object may be a tumor that has caused Salad Fingers sickness as he feels better after 'giving birth' to it. It is implied that it is his long-awaited child, saying that he 'yearned for day' it would arrive. He cradles it and reads it a poem, during which he names it "Baby Yvonne" and tells it that it has its mother's eyes, when in fact it has no human features at all. Unhappy with it, Salad Fingers decides to give it to Aunty Bainbridge, but ends up forgetting that it's his daughter. He then proceeds to clean Aunty Bainbridge's window, believing it to be a sponge. After "washing" (when in fact he actually leaves the window dirtier with black residue) the window, Salad Fingers takes a "lunch break" and is seen eating a large submarine sandwich with a coffee cup nearby. As the slimy black object is nowhere to be seen, and judging by the trail of black slime leading from the window to his resting place, the sandwich is most likely an illusion and he is actually eating the black object/ "baby" instead.

Crow: The crow steals sald fingers' spoon

Salad Fingers also ramblingly mentions he has an "old pal" named "Charlie" as well as a daughter, though neither of them are seen. It could be that neither of these characters are real or may have died in the supposed "Great War".

Unnamed Characters

• A young, relatively normal looking child, wearing a varsity-type jacket whom Salad Fingers appears to have accidentally cooked in an oven in episode two.
• A big-eyed, grotesque, small mutant creature who falls in love with Salad Fingers in episode four. It has a large stitch across its forehead, and as such, many refer to it as "Stitch-head". This character was originally created by Jimi Hollis, who refers to it as the "bug-eyed kid". It uses a bear trap and a grubby tap to capture Salad Fingers, then cages him and proposes with a ring topped with a human molar.