Who would believe a site composed of exactly equal portions of concentrated whimsy and political commentary could work so well? Behind the three voices of Fafblog lie both devastatingly intelligent satire and bizarre tales of murderous Santa Claus and Gibletsian conquest.
All posts on Fafblog come from one of three personas, and to understand what is being said (for which you must often read between the lines) you must understand their personalities.
Fafnir is the primary voice. He seems to have little relation with the figure from Norse mythology. He always speaks with a bit of a colloquial shorthand, turning words like "traveling" into "travelin." He’s the nicest of the bunch by far, and while seemingly a bit muddled (enough so that his best friend is the irascible Giblets) he’s quite good natured. It’s he who instituted the occasional Friday tradition of reviewing pie. Sometimes he interviews important figures, such as George W. Bush, or God. The person he fears most in the world is Santa Claus, who wants to devour his flesh, every holiday season, for no known reason.
Special hint: Whenever Fafnir talks about politics or the culture, it’s always from the perspective of someone who’s a bit limited, who perhaps doesn’t have a full grasp of the full meaning of what’s happening, but will go with it out of sheer good-naturedness. He’ll agree with the dunderheaded pronouncements of G.W.Bush (and also Giblets) out of pure amiability.
Giblets is another frequent character, often featuring, along with Fafnir, in hallucinogenic adventure tales of reaching the end of the world, or escaping Santa Claus' murderous clutches, or their site being banned from the computers at their local library. Giblets is indeed a very demanding Giblets. Among his most frequent demands are "Bow before Giblets," "Dance for Giblets," and "Bow before Giblets NOOOW!" Giblets would be a mere bully, except that the combination of his incompetence, his playfulness, and his obsessive confidence make him rather likable. He is redeemed, a little, by his friendship with Fafnir. Some of Fafblog's funniest material comes from Giblets.
Special hint: Giblet’s forays into political discussion are always from the point-of-view of political rival, or that of the hidden mind of the powerful. Hence, his candidacy for President of the United States, and his claims that the Bush administration doesn’t go far enough in whatever it does. Overall we get the least insight from Giblets, but we get some of the funniest material.
The Medium Lobster seems to exist on a different plane as the other characters, or at least he rarely interacts with him. He claims to be a transcendent being of perfect knowledge that, due to our limited understanding, appears to us to be just an ordinary, normal lobster. Medium Lobster is the most political of the Fafblog commentators, and never seems to stoop to the base silliness of the other correspondents. He most often examines recent news from the supposedly-wise men of politics, or their blogs.
Special hint: Medium Lobster will often take something mentioned by some pundit or administration flunky and take it to its logical, ridiculous conclusion. His stuff tends to reveal foolishness by taking it as its word and extending that reasoning.
Special bonus hint: None of the characters on Fafblog understand sarcasm or satire, but the person who writes for them certainly does.
Who, or what, Fafnir, Giblets and the Medium Lobster really are is not well explained. It seems they live with Chris, who does not seem to post on the site himself, and who has a job and supports the rest of them, and is ridiculed by Giblets for his generosity. Possibly he pays the site bills as well. Chris may in fact be a real person, perhaps the actual man behind the whimsical trinity of Fafblog.
Because of all the whimsy, I don’t think Fafblog can be categorized as a straight commentary site. There’s a lot there that doesn’t make any political point. I find that endearing myself, and it also serves a purpose in that it helps to better illustrate the essential personalities of the characters, but it’s conceivable that there are people who would disagree with me.
I first found out about Fafblog from Cory Doctorow's bOING bOING posts, and its become a frequent web destination for me since. It’s always hilarious, often sharp, and never breaks character for an instant. It seems they’ve hit some kind of critical mass, enough to be looked at by the big boys, for as of this writing Giblets and Fafnir are being considered by Slate for a regular feature. It'll probably be for their satirical qualities for anything else, but look out world! I’m sure that Giblets cannot be held down for long.