The employees of Smiling Friends Inc., examples of critters.
Critters are one of the five primary categories of sapient life in the world of Smiling Friends, alongside standard humans, anthropomorphic animals, miscellaneous sci-fi/fantasy creatures such as aliens, monsters and demons and, as revealed in Squim Returns, living food people such as Ice Cream Cones.
Appearance[]
Chart describing critter anatomy
Physical Appearance / Development[]
Critters are distinguished from humans by their unusual and wide range of skin tones, lack of ears, and sometimes a lack of a nose. They also come in various shapes and sizes. Critters also appear to have various sub-races, as there are various characters that look similar to Pim, despite in general not being directly related to him. Charlie, speaking about coming to Salty's when he was little in "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?" implies that the baby stage of a critter is called a homunculus, though Pim refers to his infancy as a tadpole in “Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut).” That may imply that physical development is varied for each type of critter. Indeed, a homunculus is introduced as a man-made creation separate from naturally birthed beings in the episode "Brother's Egg."
Critters and humans seem to be closely related, as relationships between humans and critters are commonplace. However, human-critter offspring appears to mostly result in just more critters as opposed to full-on hybrids.
A poster depicting the anatomy of a critter can be seen in "Silly Samuel" that seems to show that a critter's brain connects to its intestines.
Clothing[]
The apparent necessity/legality of clothing seems to partially relate to the presence or lack of sex characteristics, as evidenced by how Charlie's private parts are blurred in "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back" yet Allan can often be seen without clothes, perhaps due to him lacking any defining sexual characteristics or being much more abstract-shaped like Glep. However, depending on the occasion, such as traveling to Brazil, visiting a Halloween party, or attending Charlie's Funeral, Allan can be seen wearing clothes to fit the theme.
Additionally, if a critter has nipples, they generally have a shirt to cover it up in the same way humans would in the real world. A good example being Charlie and Pim, as both are visually seen to have nipples as revealed in Enchanted forest. As for a character like Mustard though, although she has noticeable cleavage, it might be her species lacks nipples (or is in fact wearing a costume, evident by her legs being both a different color and being the only clothed section of her body, similar to Ketchup).
Critters have a notorious hatred for clothing, however Mr. Boss prefers his employees wearing clothing while on the job for the sake of PR purposes. Since Allan and Glep rarely leave the confines of the office, they wear much less clothing than Pim and Charlie.[1]
Notable Critters[]
- Pim Pimling
- Charlie Dompler
- Allan Red
- Glep
- Smormu James Carter†
- DJ Spit
- Grim and Gnarly†
- Mr. Landlord
- IGBG CEO†
- James
- Mrs. Pimling
- Steven Pimling
- Amy Pimling
- Graham Nelly
- Gleppie
- Duncan
- Fillmore
- Armzo
- Mr. Man
- Jombo
- Plilford†
- Mr. Blingo
- Squiggly Miggly†
- Jason
Trivia[]
- The first episode to directly address critters by name is "Enchanted Forest" when Mip refers to Pim and Charlie as such.
- It seems that at least some type of Critters can live for a very long time, as Glep is 1,696 years old and he isn’t even elderly yet.