Farewell Francis of the Filth

On the 29th of December of 2017, George Miller tweeted out to his fans that he would no longer be continuing his activities on YouTube as Filthy Frank and would be shifting all of his focus into his music.

After watching the Harlem Shake blow up, I could not help but feel amazed by the fact that four guys had successfully amassed a critical following with only jumpsuits and a weird dance routine. But it happened, and the brains behind it has finally decided to switch off. Gone with it are the Japanese 101s, the Life Hacks, the Crawfish races and other game changing bits, that shook the ideals of the internet to its very core. Out here, we walk tight ropes bound by societal leashes, but over there, on the Filthy Frank Show, the voice of reason was “prejudice equality” – everyone gets flack and today, I lay it down for George Miller a.k.a. Filthy Frank.

The announcement of Filthy Frank's retirement has ushered in streams of undying love and respect for George Miller's antics,but what I found most ironic about the whole ordeal was the lack of shock value tied to the retirement of the most prolific shock comedian of this generation. That's my first gripe with this event – the lack of proper mourning. One minute, Frank is in Realm 0 of the infinite Omniverse, while in the next minute, he's just gone. If you have followed his work up until now, then you probably know that he made a plea to his fans three years ago, stating that he would cut down on the vicious antics. But the toxicity and greed of the fan base stopped him from taking the break he wanted.

So can I blame him for going out the way he did? Not even for a second, but it doesn't answer the unwarranted nature of his exit. Everyone had assumed that George finally found the balance between his music and YouTube careers, but we all failed to see the big picture. This just goes to show that no matter what, incentives are what keeps a person going and George had found his incentives in the music that he was making. He found what he had lost with Frank – he found love.

Despite everything, my biggest gripe is the realisation that, Joji isn't a fictional character. Joji is Miller himself and yet we disallowed him for so long to properly express himself. Characters of Frank's Omniverse are all versions of George – the lore is what gave these characters' credibility, not George. But now, he is responsible for his own actions, his music has nowhere to hide behind but for himself. He is now human, destructible. He can make a mistake and he's gone.

This the scariest part. We fueled the existence of monsters like Pink Guy, Salamander Man and Chin Chin, only to see them torn apart by Dr. Frankenstein himself. But now we act like village folks, with knives and pitchforks hoping to bring them back alive again. My last sense of discomfort is my own sense of hypocrisy so all I can say is – it's time I let go off Frank's demons and perhaps address my own.

I'll miss Frank's unapologetic universe. I'll be here if Frank does decide to come out of the closet. But till then, this is goodbye to the boss who made and broke YouTube on a daily basis, and who took away the boundaries of memes and humor for our generation. Farewell Francis of the Filth.

Asif Ayon's favouritecolour is a particular shade of ash but he tells everyone that his favourite colour is blue. The alliteration in his name bothers him a lot too. To inquire more about what else keeps him up at night, hit him up at asifayon@live.com