Francis of the Filth: An Honest Review

I’ve read a lot of books in the past, yet not a single one of them has come close to the book that is Francis of the Filth, a book based around the Youtuber known as Filthy Frank. Filthy Frank is the persona played by an individual known as George Miller, and the two characters couldn’t be more different from each other. While the Filthy Frank character is known for its edgy and boundary-pushing sense of humor, George Miller, going by his stage name ‘Joji’ delivers tracks speaking of heartbreak and longing. The novel was released as a means to give Filthy Frank fans closure to the lore surrounding the character, and now I have acquired such a piece of literature. I will give my honest review of this book.

Who is Filthy Frank?

The whole character of Filthy Frank is one steeped in filth, vulgarity and edginess. Shock value humor with no filters. Freed from the chains of censorship, Frank gives you only the dirtiest jokes that will make your skin decay and fall off, yet this sense of humor has granted him unparalleled fame on the internet. With no restrictions Filthy Frank, alongside other envelope-pushing individuals like Maxmoefoe and Idubbbz, carved a path of internet infamy from 2013 all the way to 2017. 2017 is where George Miller began his transition from Filthy Frank, edgy internet character to Joji, lofi-singer and rapper of melodramatic tunes.

Does Filthy Frank translate well into written form?

For those Frank fans, the brutal answer is no. Let me explain why: when watching a Filthy Frank video, there’s a lot of visual gags. Frank himself plays multiple characters onscreen. A notable instance is when he’s dressed in his iconic shirt and glasses, then he’ll jump cut to himself into a completely different costume, playing an entirely different character than he was before. We know it’s him playing the character yet your brain registers that it’s a different character all together. For instance, the characters he plays speak in a dialect of nonsense and Japanese. The general feeling of witnessing this kind of gibberish is that the viewer is not fluent in Japanese at all. Therefore, when a character speaks and your brain registers the Japanese language, your eyes see the subtitles which is without a doubt wrongly translated from what you see visually. Here’s a classic example: there is a character that has become synomous with Filthy Frank, and that is Pink Guy. Essentially Miller in a pink latex suit, Pink Guy has become an iconic symbol of the Filthy Frank brand. He crawls on all fours and speaks in grunts and primal growls. When he speaks, the primal sounds he makes are translated in on-screen subtitles. Usually, what he says is nonsensical and funny, made to elicit a chuckle or two, but at least viewers understand the point he’s getting across. In the book, Pink Guy’s words are just that. You don’t hear his iconic semi-wordless noises, you just read his lines as though he himself is speaking.

A Filthy Synopsis.

NOTE: if you are not a Filthy Frank fan, you won’t have a damn clue what is happening here, but just bare with me and revel in the utter chaos of this book.

The Characters
Frank: Our filthy protagonist, he has the ability to multiply his chromosomes at an alarming rate.

Pink Guy: A fellow dressed in a pink latex bodysuit, he communicates through grunts and moves about in a primitve manner. His chosen weapon is a ukulele.

Salamander Man: A humanoid salamander, Salamander Man is known for rubbing his nipples, all the while saying "nyeeees!" He is almost always seen with a flute, which he plays with his nostrils.

Safari Man: An eccentric individual dressed in a hawaiian shirt, glasses, khaki shorts and a safari hat. He often ends his sentences with "ha ha ha!"

Chin Chin: The book's antagonist, he is a figure cloaked in darkness and desires Frank's chromosomes at any cost.

Our story begins with Frank awakening in his apartment with his friends Pink Guy, Salamander Man, Safari Man, Alpha Centurion and Drone. From there, the book delves into Frank’s origins. Essentially, he was born as an orphan who displayed advanced intelligence and he gained popularity amongst the nomadic locals that adopted him. He attracts the attention of a science lab that takes him in. After several years, a creature which will later be known as Dyopetera appears and tears a portal through the lab, sucking Frank into it.

He lands in an icy nether realm, and it is here he meets Pink Guy. Pink Guy gives off a bunch of anecdotal guff, with it all ending up with him saying that “we must find the One True God.” They depart, but soon Frank is separated from his pink companion and is assaulted by a dangerous Lemon Man. A reptilian humanoid named Salamander Man comes to his rescue, and they are reunited with Pink Guy. After some traveling, they are met with a peculiar fellow who speaks in an absurd dialect named Negi Generation 4. However, their meeting is cut short as an evil entity known as Chin-Chin appears, decapitating the Negi. He spirits the trio down a mountain and soon they awaken in a place known as New York. With no money and nowhere to go, Frank capitalises on people taking photo-ops with Pink Guy and Salamander Man, using the funds received from the activities to carve a rough but substantial living. From there, he visits a takoyaki bar, where he comes across an eccentric individual named Safari Man. Safari Man informs Frank that they must acquire more ‘chromosomes,’ which are this universe’s form of energy and transferable currency. Frank himself is a natural source of chromosomes, but Safari Man insists that in order to procure more of them they must participate in a ‘crawfish race.’ Safari Man bets his apartment in the race and while he participates in the event, Frank begins absorbing the filth and foulness of New York and it is here where Frank begins his transformation in his ‘Filthy’ persona. Safari Man loses the race and in turn hands his apartment over to Frank and his friends. After resting up, they jump down a manhole and ‘summon coordinates,’ a method of transportation between dimensions. They are transported to a realm filled with strange, slumbering creatures called Negis, and the group are approached by one called Negi Generation 1. Negi reassures the group of Safari Man’s coordinates which spirited them here. Pink Guy accidentally awakens the Negis and the group are set upon by the ferocious creatures. They manage to flee but the Negi horde catches up to them. Pink Guy and Frank are the first ones to defend against this onslaught. Salamander Man, Drone and Alpha Centurion join the battle, slaughtering thousands of Negis, each participant with their own unique way of dispatching their enemies. Negi 1 soon joins the fray with his own unique posse, but their efforts cannot quell the Negi’s overwhelming numbers. Frank eventually uses his own innate powers to stop the Negi attack with a clock, shouting his iconic “It’s time to stop!!” line, which results in the end of the Negi horde. The whole group bonds after the battle, but their celebration is ruined by the arrival of Chin Chin, who takes Safari Man away.

As the group mourn the loss of their friend, they are approached by a weird entity know as a gejigeji (a large centipede) named Gitzon. The centipede throws Pink Guy, Salamander Man, Drone and Alpha Centurion into the fire they had just built, leaving Frank all alone. He wonders for some time and he encounters the corpse of a Negi. Along the Negi’s body are coordinates, which Frank activates, summoning him to a dimensions called ‘Godore.’ Here, he meets a red-clad being named Red Dick, who is accompanied by a muscle-bound giant named Prometheus. Frank and his two accomplices decide to rob a children’s hospital for more chromosomes. They succeed, but not before Chin Chin appears once again, stealing Frank’s chromosomes and sending him to a realm known as the Ricefields. The Ricefields are populated by creatures known as Tatums, one of which Frank kills and barbecues. This alerts a high-ranking Tatum named Tatorium, who attempts to intercept Frank but his efforts lead to the former creature’s death. This sequence leads to another of Frank’s iconic lines being created, one where he wears a sunhat, gets on all fours and shrieks “Welcome to the Ricefields, motherfucker!!” He sights a raft and uses it to sail away.

Upon landing, he encounters a talking tree named Goomba. After some surprisingly sincere conversation with the tree, it suddenly transforms into a hideous beast known as a ‘Chimchilla,’ forcing Frank to kill it out of self-defence. Spurned by the lack of peace, he shouts out new coordinates and he lands in a place called Fukui. Here he is approached by a man and a woman, who shelter him and allow him a small moment of peace and recuperation. His peace of mind is instantly shattered when he discovers Salamander Man’s trademark flute being displayed in a local merchant’s stall. Upon being questioned of the flute’s origins, the merchant points Frank to an individual named Dr. Sack, who informs Frank of the whereabouts of his companions. He leaves Fukui and makes his way to the Condemned Plain, a form of hell in this universe. He encounters an older member of Salamander Man’s race, tied up, decrepit and left for dead. The Old Salamander informs Frank that Salamander Man sold his precious flute as a means for more chromosomes, as a means to sustain Frank should they ever meet again. The Old Salamander tells Frank that Salamander Man will return in 1 million years, and Frank obliges to wait for that duration. After those 1 million years pass, with Frank changing during that time, Salamander Man finally arrives, albeit in a disheveled state. Frank hands him the flute, which manages to heal Salamander Man’s mental state. Frank uses coordinates to teleport himself to Safari Man’s apartment, and it is here where we flash back to the intro of the book. Frank awakens in the apartment, and is approached by Chin Chin, who steals his chromosomes. After the dark lord leaves, Frank’s friends all come out of hiding, still alive but shaken. They all embrace and celebrate. After some time passes, Frank is struck by a revelation to find the ‘one true god.’ He gathers Salamander man and Pink Guy and he teleports the group to an unknown realm, where they are beset upon by angry scorpions and an aged but equally irate Lemon Man. They escape and then encounter the corpse of Negi Generation 1. Frank uses his chromosomes to revive the Negi, but before they leave, Chin Chin appears once again. Frank looks at his old nemesis, and the two have a standoff. Frank tells Chin Chin off, and the dark lord takes his leave. The group huddle in celebration of Frank’s victory against their enemy, and they return home.

Frank has a nightmare, one in which he witnesses Dyopetera murdering Pink Guy. He awakens and finds Pink Guy and his friends alive and well. Struck by his fragile group of friends, Frank loudly proclaims that he will become the one true god. He is cheered on by his friends and while they are asleep, he departs on his journey. He confronts Chin Chin, the latter of which is furious at Frank. The dark lord sends Frank spiraling into space where he is beset by a giant octopus. Before it can kill him, an old friend of Frank’s named Percy the pigeon comes to his rescue. Percy fights valiantly but is ultimately killed, allowing Frank to escape. He is set upon by Dyopetera and Frank teleports away. This results in him being chased by not only Chin Chin, but both the octopus and Dyopetera. He is trapped in space, and soon all three deities converge on Frank. Before they can get to him, a loud voice surrounds him in bright light and saves him from the three god’s wrath. The voice informs Frank of his true nature and it redeems him. He reawakens in New York, and discovers all his friends are fine. Percy the pigeon moves in with the group. It is here that Frank realizes he was the ‘one true god’ all along, and he vows to lead his flock to a new age.

My thoughts.

If you are a fan of Filthy Frank, what you’ll experience in this book will be vastly different then what you expect if you’re familiar with his YouTube channel. Initially, when I first started the book, I was turned off by it, as it had what I believed far too many anecdotes. It was not the style of storytelling that a fan of Frank’s work expects. Another thing that bothered me about the book was it's inconsistent tone. For 3/4 of the book, the tone is a generally goofy adventure, but the latter half decides to ditch that silliness for a more serious tone. Now, capturing Frank's work in written form is no easy task, considering this is the only official piece of the Filthy Frank 'lore,' but even casual viewers who've witnessed Frank's videos know that all serious tones in his videos are often played for laughs and humor. That isn't really the case with the book. Whenever there was a serious undertone in the videos, it was almost always with humor, cascading any wider themes with borderline silliness, but in the book, that humor is nowhere to be found in the latter half, instead taking itself way too seriously.

That being said, the more I progressed into the book, the more it grew on me. When you dive into this book and you’re not familiar with Frank’s characters or the lore and universe surrounding him, you won’t have the slightest clue what’s going on, but honestly if you want an ecstatic, unhinged yet sophisticated in the most unorthodox read, I recommend Francis of the Filth. Obviously, Filthy Frank fans will gain the most from this book as a means of closure to the whole lore. Such followers will at least understand some, if not all the easter eggs and references in the book. When you’ve read enough books like I have, it’s easy to differentiate which works have been rushed and which ones haven’t. This book is the former, and the slap-dashed manner of the book’s themes are proof of that. Most chapters are chock-full of anecdotes and overblown philosophical ramblings. There are little hints of Filthy Frank’s decrepit sense of humor, and this can make or break your enjoyment of the book. I despise saying ‘it all depends on personal interpretation,’ as I believe that is a lazy argument to be had when dealing with a complicated theme, yet that’s the best way to describe this novel.

Regarding criticism, the book’s physical form is very absurd. A blank, hardcover canvas cover, with no title on it or along the spine, save for a single barcode label on the back cover that informs you which way is the right way up.

Unless you have an indicator of what this book is, you’ll struggle to find it on your bookshelf. For some reason, after the book ends and the last barcode on the page passes, there are at least 7 blank pages until the back cover. Now, I ordered the hardcover version of this novel, and it is probably drastically different in terms of physical form then the aforementioned issues I just mentioned.

In short, Francis of the Filth is an absurd read and depending on your personal taste, it is one that is will etch itself in your mind for the right (and wrong) reasons. That being said, I actually enjoyed this read. It was something so crazy that I couldn’t help but smile after I was done reading it. This may stem from the fact that I am a Filthy Frank fan, yet the book’s devotion to unrestrained insanity left a good impression on me.

Those who lived through Joji’s Frank era will get the most of out of this book. Readers with flexible imagination will also reap some kind of enjoyment from this absurdist piece of literature. Those unfamiliar with Frank or any of the lore will be left flabbergasted but irrevocably intrigued by the weirdness they are witnessing.

I recommend.