Pim Pimling is one of the two main protagonists of Smiling Friends alongside Charlie. He is a pink critter that helps out at Smiling Friends Inc.
Appearance[]
Pim is a short, pudgy critter with lilac skin. His eyes are asymmetrical in size; the eye closer to the viewer is always smaller. He also has huge, scribbled, circular pupils and an exposed nerve ending that appears as a single, thin hair. He wears a white buttoned shirt, indigo shorts held up with a black and yellow belt, and black shoes.
Personality[]
Pim is a happy-go-lucky critter who has a passion for cheering people up from their sadness. He is a bundle of joy and always loves to help friends, family and even strangers alike. Pim also likes to show gratitude by kissing people. Despite his good nature and being the moral compass of Charlie, his best friend, he’s shown to be naive. This is displayed in many moments, such as when he was on a mission to make Desmond smile and he yelled “I LOVE KIDS!!” in public. Charlie noticed this and told him it wasn’t a good idea to yell that in public.
He is very devoted to his job, as shown by his willingness to help outside of his typical duties, such as fetching firewood for the office Halloween party and denying himself a relationship with Jennifer if it meant making Shrimp, one of his clients, happy.
Pim has been portrayed as a hopeless romantic who wishes to start his own family numerous times. Along with Jennifer, Pim also fantasizes in “A Silly Halloween Special” about settling down with his “exotic wife” and younglings. This partially is due to Pim’s dysfunctional childhood family that was introduced in “Desmond’s Big Day Out”, as well as the partygoers that shame Pim for his old age, reminding Pim that he should be going back to his wife and kids.
Pim is not above feeling negative emotions. In "Enchanted Forest," Pim becomes incredibly envious of Charlie's new friendship with Mip and all the questing he's done. This gets to a point where by the end of the day, Pim devolves into a spiteful and bitter husk of his former self who wants to deliver Mip's gift to the Princess. However, Pim immediately comes back to his senses upon Mip’s death, apologizing to Charlie for behavior and abandoning his jealousy for the sake of his job and friendship.
Unlike most of the characters in the series, Pim doesn't swear. The strongest word he's said in the series is "dammit" in "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil!" as well as "fudge" in "A Silly Halloween Special." He also says "Jesus Christ" in "Enchanted Forest". While he is shown to be pretty clean-cut in his general everyday behavior, Pim possesses a more reckless and thrill-seeking side to his personality that is exacerbated by peer pressure, drugs and alcohol, as shown in the party montage from "Charlie, Pim, and Bill vs the Alien" wherein Pim smashes a satellite out of orbit and injects a strange black goo into his arm without being asked to by the Alien Dudebros.
Background[]
As seen in the episode "Desmond's Big Day Out", Pim comes from a very dysfunctional environment, having a particularly tense relationship with his sister. It's been shown in that episode that Pim's father typically has yelling arguments with Pim's mother.
He would later get a job at Smiling Friends Inc. and develop friendships with his fellow employees.
Relationships[]
Charlie Dompler[]
Charlie is Pim's best friend and workmate at Smiling Friends Inc. Though they bear vastly different personalities and sometimes clash with their personal methods of making their clients smile, the two get along fairly well outside of work. Pim, an optimist, will on a rare occasion express his annoyance with Charlie's cynical and unmotivated attitude, as seen in "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back", and is capable of carrying a heated debate with him. Despite that, Pim values his friendship with Charlie to the point where he became increasingly jealous of Mip's influence on him in Enchanted Forest, even turning into a wrathful Gollum-like creature. When Charlie was killed by a falling tree, Pim was horrified and devastated by the loss of his closest friend but was ecstatic when God resurrected him, even going so far to hug him completely naked. The two have known each other for 7 years, as revealed in a line from "Charlie, Pim, and Bill vs The Alien."
Mr. Boss[]
The Boss is Pim's superior at Smiling Friends Inc. Pim looks up to the Boss a lot and goes out of his way to satisfy his needs, even if it means going into a spooky forest to collect firewood. Pim expressed concerned for the Boss's mental state when the Frowning Friends Inc. were established across the street and was horrified upon seeing his superior savagely feast on the dead Forest Demon's arm on Halloween.
Allan Red[]
Allan is Pim's workmate at Smiling Friends Inc. Pim seems to hold Allan in high regard, as he was very excited at the prospect of sharing an adventure in "Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut)". Though they work well together, Allan's disinterest in giving clients his full effort is juxtaposed with Pim's desire to go above-and-beyond with every client, demonstrated by Pim's desire to get Gwimbly's whole career back on track while Allan just wishes to find him a place to sleep and call it a day. Pim has also eaten Allan's compost worms and accidentally shot him in the eye with a cap gun on past occasions.
Desmond[]
Desmond is one of Pim's clients. Pim was surprised by the state of Desmond preparing to shoot himself over his family leaving him and tried desperately to prove to him that life is worth living. Despite having dinner with his family, attending a house party and having fun at Daveland, Desmond wasn't convinced and went on a depressing nihilist monologue about how eventually the world will be destroyed and that living life was for nothing. This put Pim in a catatonic state of shock and depression that lasted for several days.
Grim and Gnarly[]
Grim and Gnarly were Pim and Charlie's rivals who worked at the short-lived company Frowning Friends Inc. Pim objected the duo's negative influence on people and attempted to reverse it. Despite that, Pim was surprised when Grim and Gnarly were pelted to death by arrows fired by The Renaissance Men.
Shrimp[]
Shrimp is one of Pim's clients. Pim went out to find his ex-girlfriend Shrimpina to help Shrimp reconnect with her but mistook Shrimpina for a human cafe worker named Jennifer. Pim fell in love with her and decided to lie to Shrimp about not finding Shrimpina in order to date her himself. He met Jennifer at a club but saw Shrimp crying over his failed relationship at the bar. Pim had a change of heart and introduced Jennifer to Shrimp. He was surprised to learn that she wasn't Shrimpina the whole time.
Mip[]
Pim was very distrustful toward Mip and became envious of his budding friendship with Charlie, to the point that he got skinny and gangly. Pim also believed that Mip was robbing him of completing his first Enchanted Forest quest, which he dreamed of as a child. Charlie and Pim's fight over Mip's package to the Princess led to Mip getting fatally impaled on a spear. Upon Mip's death, Pim was instantly regretful of his actions and his suspicious demeanor toward the Dwarf and vowed to complete the quest for him. However, his opinion of Mip was immediately shattered upon learning that he was the Princess's stalker and that the package they gave her was a makeshift bomb.
Jennifer[]
Jennifer is an employee of a cafe whom Pim was briefly infatuated by, mistaking her for Shrimp's ex-girlfriend Shrimpina, whom he was tasked to find and help Shrimp reconnect with. Pim imagined a life with Jennifer in which they married, had children, watched their children get married and have children of their own before dying together from old age. This was never to be, though, as Jennifer went on to date Shrimp due to Pim's own misunderstandings.
Forest Demon[]
Pim encountered the Forest Demon while he was collecting fire wood for his company's Halloween party. Pim was terrified of the creature and made a great effort to escape its pursuit. However when the partygoers beat it to death and ripped him to pieces, Pim looked on in shock and disbelief.
Steven Pimling[]
Steven is Pim's father. Though nothing is known about their current relationship, Pim appeared to have a loving bond with him as a child. Though Steven claimed Pim wasn't ready to go into the Enchanted Forest, he said he might be someday, which boosted Pim's confidence and prompted him to kiss his father on the mouth.
Amy Pimling[]
Amy is Pim's sister. Though Pim claims they have a good relationship, Amy openly contests this by claiming she genuinely hates Pim and has no love for him in any shape or form. However, this may have been done to impress her boyfriend, Alpha.
Glep[]
Glep is Pim's workmate at Smiling Friends Inc. Though the two have had little to no interaction. The only time they directly interacted on screen is in "Shrimp's Odyssey," where Pim greets Glep and Glep grunts in response.
President Jimble[]
During his Presidential campaign, Pim acts as his unofficial political strategist and campaign manager, becoming increasingly hopeless and distressed as Jimble's ineptitude causes his chances at victory to decline rapidly. When Jimble concedes from his original game plan and accepts the fact that being liked by everyone isn't the answer, Pim finally regains faith in politics - until his candidate's seat in the White House is usurped by former client Mr. Frog.
Oscar[]
It's revealed in "The Magical Red Jewel (aka Tyler Gets Fired)" that Pim knows Spamish from his penpal Oscar. Pim helped Oscar through tough times regarding his insecurity about his eye, making a friend that would ultimately save Pim and Mr. Boss from death.
Voices in Different Language[]
| Language | Voice |
|---|---|
| Latin American Spanish | Marc Winslow |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Yuri Chesman |
| European Spanish | Artur Palomo |
| French | David Macaluso |
| German | Jan Makino |
Trivia[]
- In the episode commentary for "Enchanted Forest," it's revealed that Pim is 33 years old.
- A running gag in the show is that Pim will randomly give anyone and anything a kiss, such as Desmond and a bird. When he was younger, he once kissed his dad on the mouth which made Charlie uncomfortable.
- "Shrimp's Odyssey" reveals his eyesight is somewhat poor, as he mistook a bowl of worms for a bowl of peanuts, and he read the address for Shrimpina's job wrong. He did wear glasses as a child as shown in "Enchanted Forest".
- In the same episode, it is revealed that the "little hair" on his head is actually an exposed nerve ending. This is probably why he didn't want Mr. Frog to pull it and why it hurt so badly when he did.
- In Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut), Pim says that he had been playing Gwimbly's games, "since [he] was a tadpole." This implies that he had been playing the games since he was very small, since using the term tadpole is fairly popular to describe babies or kids in some parts of Pennsylvania.
- He appears to have an Australian accent (just like Michael Cusack himself) and shares it with his family, implying they might be of Australian origin.
Episode appearances[]
Season 1[]
- "Desmond's Big Day Out"
- "Mr. Frog"
- "Shrimp's Odyssey"
- "A Silly Halloween Special"
- "Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?"
- "Enchanted Forest"
- "Frowning Friends"
- "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back"
Season 2[]
- "Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director's Cut)"
- "Mr. President"
- "A Allan Adventure" (cameo)
- "Erm, the Boss Finds Love?"
- "Brother's Egg"
- "Charlie, Pim, and Bill vs the Alien"
- "The Magical Red Jewel (aka Tyler Gets Fired)"
- "Pim Finally Turns Green"