A young man wearing Nike flip-flops and a white robe emerges from a portal with a lit blunt in one hand and a forty in the other. Francis of the Filth has returned from exile to face the evil god who banished him, Chin Chin, and restore balance to the world.
“Why you looking so scared? Why you look so shook my man?” asks Frank.
The concerned looking Chin Chin responds in repetitive Japanese phrases, and the pair engage in an epic duel, with Frank using pelvic thrusts that emit magic blasts toward his opponent.
The battle of the century begins.
That video, which contains this absurd scene, has gained a whopping 2.1 million plays and many, like myself, cannot help but wonder why.
George Miller, known as Filthy Frank, joined YouTube in January 2013 and has amassed 3.8 million followers since, with each of his uploads getting millions of views. Unflinching in his offensive humor and apathy for humanity, the raspy voice of YouTube’s biggest troll has already begun to make a dent in pop culture. If you’re somebody who spends your free time roaming the dungeons of Reddit, then you most likely have had an encounter with a meme Frank inspired or is responsible for creating.
To say Miller’s videos are strange is an understatement; they are the epitome of odd, tip-toeing the edge of full-on disgusting. One of his most viewed videos involves him and his friends baking a cake made of their own vomit. Once they are done baking the ingredients, they attempt to eat the finished pastry in horrific fashion. I wish I were making this up.
Besides his more nauseating works, the rest of his videos are episodic and contribute to the creation of a wacky, fictional world where Frank is a superhero of sorts. His trusty morphsuit-wearing sidekick Pink Guy — also played by Miller — follows him and makes various appearances as an incomprehensible lunatic dunce. However, no superhero is complete without the presence of an arch nemesis; Frank’s is the evil god Chin Chin, who — guess what — is played by Miller.
I have been tuning in to Frank’s channel for a little over a year now and I still cannot make sense of all the things on his show. Every time a new video appears on my feed, I do not know what to expect from his demented alter ego. There have even been times when I’ve tried to introduce his videos to friends, and most of them had no idea what to think. Their confused reactions sum up the experience that most would have upon first watching his videos.
In a 2015 interview with fellow YouTuber The Needle Drop, Miller talks about the off-kilter persona he has created that can be seen throughout all his video skits.
“He’s so over the top with his shit, it’s impossible to take it seriously and that’s the point,” Miller said. “I’m kind of making fun of racism and all that by being overly racist with this character … the fun part is when people don’t get it.”
Miller reemphasized that Filthy Frank by no means represents any of his beliefs, but he understands the mixed reactions of people who stumble across his strange content. He has created a controversial figure that represents the comment stalkers and trolls lurking in the depths of YouTube. Inadvertently, this attracts the very trolls he is trying to parody, as can be seen in the comments section of all his videos. Moreover, his YouTube bio reaffirms the satiric tones his channel consists of.
“Filthy Frank is the embodiment of everything a person should not be. He is anti-PC, anti-social, and anti-couth,” said Miller. “He behaves and reacts excessively to everything expressly to highlight the ridiculousness of racism, misogyny, legalism, injustice, ignorance and other social blights.”
