Allan Red (first name commonly misspelled as Alan) is one of the two deuteragonists of Smiling Friends, alongside Glep. He is a tall, red critter employed at Smiling Friends Inc.
Appearance
Body
Allan is a tall, red critter with long, thin limbs and a slouched, oblong body. He has a prominent nose, large almond-shaped eyes, and a slight overbite.
Clothing
Allan is usually only seen wearing a light blue necktie. Throughout the series, it becomes more crumpled and loose.
In "A Silly Halloween Special," his costume resembles the Joker's clown outfit from Joker (2019).
In "Frowning Friends," he dons the rival company's darker blue security uniform.
In "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back," the necktie is switched out for a scarf of the same color.
In "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil!," he wears a blue polo shirt with tan cargo shorts.
In "Pim Finally Turns Green," he wears a blue speedo at the beach.
He's also shown putting on contact lenses each morning in "A Allan Adventure."
Personality
Allan is generally uptight and deadpan, often playing the role of the straight man amidst the antics of other characters. He is somewhat callous, unemotional, socially awkward, and amoral, often indifferent to many situations and blunt in describing his priorities and how he views others. He is also shown to have a sassy side, as evidenced in "The Magical Red Jewel (aka Tyler Gets Fired)," when he chastises Charlie over failing to keep Mr. Boss’s son Jason from dying, referring to Charlie as a “yellow son of a bitch” who was “talking [his] ear off.”
Allan exhibits traits of an obsessive or hyperfixated individual, as seen in "Desmond's Big Day Out," when he obsesses over a missing paperclip, and also when he spends all day searching for his missing piece of cheese from his stash in the same episode. In general, Allan is shown to be a bit impatient, highly organized, apathetic, and somewhat eccentric. He obsessively keeps things in order, prioritizes company objectives, fixates on small things, acts selfishly, and shows disinterest in many of the situations he finds himself in. Despite this he seemingly has a somewhat active social life, as soon when he's seen waking up next to an attractive woman.
Compared to Pim’s optimism and Charlie’s cynicism, Allan's priorities are more self-centered when it comes to his duties as a Smiling Friends employee. In "Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut)," the sole reason why he decides to assist Pim in helping Gwimbly smile is because he wants the homeless mascot to stop panhandling. In "Frowning Friends," he joins Frowing Friends Inc. simply because they have a better 401k.
Allan has a somewhat bizarre method of talking that diminishes his ability to portray sarcasm, which often makes the words he speaks come off as sarcastic regardless of the tone he uses. This vaguely-sarcastic speech results from his tendency to not soften specific hard consonants in words that would usually be softened in normal speech (such as empathizing the "g" in "-ing")
Background
Allan lives in an apartment complex, as seen in "A Allan Adventure."
Allan keeps worms in the Smilling Friends building for his compost in the fridge when Pim tried to eat them, thinking they were peanuts in "Shrimp's Odyssey."
His exact job position at the office isn't known, but it's been speculated by fans that Allan's job at Smiling Friends Inc. is their accountant/inventory manager, due to his love of organization and taking inventory at the office. It’s also possible he just deals with any type of paperwork overall for the company.
Relationships
Pim
Allan seems fairly tolerant of his coworker, but occasionally becomes irritated or impatient over his antics. He gets upset with him when shot in the eye with a peanut in "A Silly Halloween Special," and also becomes annoyed of his arguing in "The Smiling Friends Go To Brazil!" Although the two work together in "Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut)," this is mostly because Allan wanted to get rid of Gwimbly as quickly as possible.
Allan's attitude towards Pim seeks to prioritize their shared objectives and minimize conflict, such as when he showed indifference to Pim and Charlie's argument in "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back." Their opposite personalities are also shown to work well together.
Charlie
Allan is fine with and likes Charlie based off of their interaction with each other at the end of "Desmond's Big Day Out", in which they laugh together over Allan's love of cheese. However, it was later revealed that Charlie was disturbed by Allan's behavior during this, with the two awkwardly talking it out while taking care of Jason, later getting into an argument and physical fight over who was responsible for Jason's perceived death. Despite this, they work together on various occasions and still seem to get along fairly well in general, but don't do especially well one-on-one. The two are also seen getting over their argument and hugging near the end of "The Magical Red Jewel (aka Tyler Gets Fired)".
The Boss
Allan is respectful to his employer, and cares enough about him to check up on him during his mental breakdown in "Frowning Friends." He even created rocket boots for Mr. Boss in "Pim Finally Turns Green," which was met with appreciation, and he was proud of himself for it. He also completes his assigned tasks diligently, such as when he went to extreme lengths to achieve a box of paperclips in "A Allan Adventure." However, in the same episode, he doesn't care for the reward that Mr. Boss gives him and hands it to Charlie instead.
Glep
Glep and Allan seem very tolerant of one another, and are often seen hanging with each other. They are shown playing video games in "Enchanted Forest," playing chess in "Mr. President" and going out for karaoke in "Pim Finally Turns Green," although the latter is implied to be a lie by Allan to avoid spending time with Rotten the Snowman. Allan also makes an effort to comfort Glep during Charlie's funeral in "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back." Their close relationship is likely because they both tend to work in the offices of Smiling Friends. Despite this, Glep appears to be mildly frustrated with Allan in "Desmond's Big Day Out" after Allan "accuses him" of taking a paperclip, interrupting him while he watches a video. He also becomes frustrated while playing video games with Allan in "Enchanted Forest."
Mr. Landlord
Allan initially seems to tolerate his landlord, taken aback by his sudden appearance at his apartment in "A Allan Adventure," but quickly dismisses it and politely denies his request to hang out because he has to go to work. However, after Allan embarks on an excruciating quest for his box of paperclips, he is led to Mr. Landlord's apartment, who reveals that he orchestrated the whole day. Initially shocked, angry, and willing to fight him, Allan reluctantly hangs out with him to prevent him from blowing up the building. As they play Burnout: Revenge, Allan finds Mr. Landlord's behavior obnoxious, he accuses Allan of not trying to win and mocks him, exacerbating Allan's frustration further by constantly ramming him in the game. After Allan disables the bomb using a paperclip, he refers to Mr. Landlord as a "psycho" and casually leaves the apartment following an apparent suicide attempt by the landlord as if nothing happened. Overall, Allan has always considered his landlord somewhat eccentric but managed to tolerate him until the events of "A Allan Adventure," which now cement him as a deranged and obnoxious individual in Allan's eyes.
Unnamed one night stand
It is shown near the start of "A Allan Adventure" that Allan had a one night stand with a woman in his apartment room. The woman admires him after the fact. telling him that the previous night was amazing, but Allan is shown to not care that much.
Trivia
- In the director's commentary of the Smiling Friends Season 1 DVD, Zach mentions that Allan's name was actually spelled "Allan" on their scripts, but was unintentionally changed to "Alan" after it was misspelled in episode descriptions and captions on HBO Max.
- Later in the director's commentary Zach also reveals Allan's last name as 'Red'.
- Allan's name may possibly be a reference to the word "allantoid", which means "shaped like a sausage", like Allan is.
- Allan may have scoliosis, as shown by the squiggly detail on his back in certain scenes. This was theorized via a post on the Smiling Friends subreddit.
- Following up this theory is a comment underneath said post stating that 'Dr. Monster' (mentioned in Erm, the Boss Finds Love?) is a chiropractor.
- Allan usually talks in nasal-like tone, but whenever he screams in pain or horror, his voice becomes deep and guttural.
- Some suspect (joking or not) that Allan may be a reference to or based on the Icelandic Starer, a creature of folklore featured on an Oneyplays video.
- To date, the only episode Allan is absent from is "Charlie, Pim, and Bill vs the Alien."
Episode appearances
Season 1
- 101: "Desmond's Big Day Out" - Lead role
- 102: "Mr. Frog"
- 103: "Shrimp's Odyssey"
- 104: "A Silly Halloween Special"
- 105: "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?" (post-credit only)
- 106: "Enchanted Forest"
- 107: "Frowning Friends"
- 108: "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back"
- 109: "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil!" - Lead Role
Season 2
- 201: "Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut)" - Lead role
- 202: "Mr. President"
- 203: "A Allan Adventure" - Lead role
- 204: "Erm, the Boss Finds Love?" - Lead role
- 205: "Brother's Egg"
- 207: "The Magical Red Jewel AKA Tyler Gets Fired" - Lead role
- 208: "Pim Finally Turns Green"