Neurotically Yours
Collection Volume One
by Scott Hefflon
Foamy rules, the Foamy cult is growing daily, and creator Jonathan Ian Mathers is far from going soft and fluffy. If anything, popularity just makes him (and therefore Foamy the Squirrel) more irritable. It was one thing to lash out at annoying bands and customers in his 4-Y Records comic strip, but Foamy Fan Mail videos contain scathing replies to fan mail, and the idiots who write them. He does what most writers haven’t the sack to do: He attacks his fans. That’s cool.
Neurotically Yours Collection Volume One is a collection of 40 animated shorts staring Foamy, his Goth Chick bagel-bringer, Germaine, and a few other squirrel buddies and random counter workers at the coffee shop. Germaine used to be more of the focus, with Foamy, her hilarious sidekick, in tow. She’d write terrible Goth poetry (is there any other kind?), and Foamy would nyah-nyah her when she got a stalker. Foamy now dominates most of the shorts, ranting and raving about anything that enters his little squirrel mind, and Germaine is his tasty, scantily-clad sounding board. No complaints there.
If you live under a rock and have never seen any Foamy toons even after Lollipop had Foamy and Germaine on the cover of the magazine and the mp3 CD, and has had squirrel tee shirts, buttons, and stickers for a couple years now (never questioned it? Never wondered why a rock mag used an illustration of a crazy squirrel? Do you accept all aspects of life so passively?), you’re missing out. All the cool kids know, so brush up, loser.
Topics of the toons range from bands to sitcoms to movies to general human stupidity to bagels to stalkers, farting, sleeping, and the meaning of life. Most toons have a few grins’n’giggles (or it’s just fun to hear teasing squirrel banter), and there’re usually a couple vicious comments that’ll make just a couple drops of pee get pushed out from laughing so hard. Sure, some of the stuff is shit any human with an IQ in the triple digits gets pissy about, and what Foamy is railing about is kinda “yeah, no shit,” but all is forgiven when you pee yourself.
I’ve gotten emails from people I don’t know with Foamy quotes in the signature. I’ve joyously joined in as “all the right people” in the room started singing from “Squirrel Songs.” I’ve had beautiful women grab my shirt at a bar and demand to know where I got it. People are more fanatical about Foamy than any band I can think of. It’s kinda freaky. When you ask if someone’s ever seen a Foamy toon, they either stare at you blankly or they reply “I LOVE Foamy!” Stop staring blankly: Go to the site, check it out, and worship the master, you bastards.
(www.illwillpress.com)
