The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
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"Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope." |
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Classic indie comic series which ran from the late 60s to the early 90s. Written and drawn with exceptional talent by Gilbert Shelton, it followed the Gonzoid, gleefully profane adventures of the titular brothers- Fat Freddy, Phineas and Freewheelin' Franklin. Invariably broke and struggling to avoid a hippy fate worse than death -- having to work -- these adventures were usually based around attempting to score a large amount of drugs without falling foul of Norbert the Nark and his dastardly government friends. Hilarity Ensues.
Read one way, it could be seen as a vicious dig at the decline of the alternative culture at the end of the 60s- it is made painfully clear that the brothers are ageing, impulsive, ignorant and utterly amoral, invariably subscribing to counter-culture beliefs only as far as it will net them free pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, it is a mark of what a Crapsack World the Brothers inhabit that they themselves come across as harmless, lovable buffoons. The real targets of the comic are right wing politics, surveillance state invasiveness and the mundane, destructive hyper consumer culture the Brothers' Slapstick existence runs completely at odds to.
A film version has often been touted but has never materialised.
Compare and contrast Cheech and Chong.
- Angrish: From issue #7:
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Phineas: Uh-oh! Here comes her father! He appears to be too engraged to speak articulately, and he has a pistol in his hand! |
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- Art Shift: Usually used to illustrate particularly bad trips. In one notable example, the Brothers decide not to take drugs and end up trapped in an incredibly boring faux-photo comic style.
- While Phineas waits in his car for an endless parade of pedestrians in his path, they become cartoony duck-men.
- Bloody Hilarious
- Corrupt Corporate Executive
- Deadpan Snarker: Franklin and the Cat both live this trope.
- Everybody Must Get Stoned: Everybody starts off stoned.
- Fat Idiot: Freddy, who has stolen radioactive waste, fed acid to bears, and is regularly outsmarted by his own cat.
- Immune to Drugs
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The relentlessly enthusiastic and naive Norbert the Nark.
- Inherent in the System
- Jury Duty: Fat Freddy gets called for jury duty and eagerly anticipates the easy money, but his roommates warn him that potential jurors are sometimes dismissed based on their looks - so he slicks down his hair and puts on a suit to look super-straight...and the freak defense attorney dismisses him over his looks.
- Malignant Plot Tumor: Every story usually starts off with the Brothers attempting to score drugs. By three quarters of the way through, they may be in the middle of a gold rush, trying to find their parents, or attempting to foil a military coup of the planet.
- Mister Seahorse: A particularly nightmarish adventure of Phineas's.
- Mushroom Samba: Frequent.
- My Girl Is a Slut: Virtually every woman is an airheaded, balloon boobed bimbo, although in fairness the men don't come across any better.
- Police Are Useless: Fortunately they are also the villains.
- Refuge in Audacity: How the Brothers' escape every sticky situation.
- Shout-Out: During Fat Freddy's wake, we see several comics creators mourning his death. Some of these, including Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Spain Rodriguez, are drawn in the artists' trademark styles (which makes sense considering that Crumb and Kominsky are known for their autobiographical work).
- Sinister Surveillance: Every rooftop bristles with antennae and dishes, and the narks are always listening in.
- The Smart Guy: Phineas, who once became the most powerful man on Earth through the use of a modem.
- Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Fat Freddy's cat, who in between sleeping on his master's face and defecating in his clothes wages war with the fascist cockroaches living under the fridge.
- The Stoic: Franklin, although such are the situations he regularly finds himself in he's less stoic than he'd like to believe he is.
- Strawman Political: The state governor is called Rodney Richpigge.
- What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Nothing on the scale of the complexity and attention to detail of Shelton's artwork was ever accomplished whilst stoned.