#28. The Secret Journey of Firey 2.0 - BFDIA (All season long)

This is Firey.

He is the winner of BFDI.

In the first season, he was the mascot of BFDI. He was the one that everybody knew, the famous kid on the block. Now that was because of two reasons. The first reason is that he's a dumbass. 99% of his decisions backfire, and the times he does accomplish something, he just falls backwards into a good situation. Suffice it to say, he's a little bit of an airhead. But that was the reason he was so popular.

The second reason why he was so beloved by the fans is because he was the OC, now the OC bias is a fascinating topic which will be covered later. And by later I mean right now. Firey was the most popular contestant because he represented the creator. And the creators like to see themselves as inconsequencial social butterflies. He was the character who flew by and went without so much conflict. Some other famous OCs in object shows were Nickel from Inanimate Insanity and Party Hat from Brawl of the Objects. All three characters represented a special place in the main producers hearts. And there were times that certain contestants would be favoured instead of the other.

The most famous example is when Nickel was spared from elimination for a reason that wasn't even true. The reason was because people voted "Nickle" instead of Nickel, and that was enough of an excuse to get him safe and replace Lightbulb's spot with him. And of course people were pretty mad and reprimanded him by the next episode.

Of course not all OC bias is as prevalent as that example, but in BFDI his demeanor and general inoffensability was the main reason for his win against Bubble and Leafy. Two characters who were at the center point of drama as Firey sat behind and watched. And since both were villainized in this conflict, it paved the way for Firey to get an easy win against the two.

So now we have the winner of BFDI. A complete airhead who was put in the center stage. The person who was without drama and never really did anything all season. So of course he glided through the game without so much as having to lift a finger. Of course he was going to win in a season that was all about likability. He was the least offensive because he literally had no agency.

So of course as the winner of the season, he would be selected for Season 2 of BFDI. And unlike the first time, the creators had a dilemma. They didn't want Firey to win a second time. But they also didn't want to betray Firey's character. So of course, there was only one way to do both at the same time. And that was to hide him completely from the edit.

What makes this funnier than just making him invisible, is that Michael and Cary intentionally hid him too, almost to send a message that he WILL be hidden and never actually get a frame of time for himself.

And on top of this, Michael and Cary made a precedent that whenever they do show Firey on screen, they have to make him look (more) like a idiot.

And that is how Firey 2.0 was born, you can rest assure that he will be far away from winning this time. That is also because they brought in another OC to replace him.

So yeah, we are going to see a reinvented Firey, one that is somehow dumber than he was already, and barely on screen to be the straight-man in situations.

So now we begin his journey from start to finish. The secret story of Hidden Firey will finally be revealed.

Episode 1 starts us off very strong with intentionally excluding him from the epic drawn out chase scene.

Here he is anxiously waiting for the BFDIA results to appear. Just almost out of view.

And of course the next thing that happens is we get our very famous "Photobomb" screencap, where he's hidden and lost somewhere in space.

Oh and look at what time it is, now we get to hear Puffballs terrible pre-planned musical number. Seriously, who asked for this? It's not good and it's not funny and more importantly it takes away from valuable and scarce Firey time.

But don't forget, this is where we get his first moment of humiliation, as he becomes completely starstruck by singing Puffball. At the time I saw this, I assumed his thing with Leafy wasn't working out for obvious reasons, you know with her being 2763 miles away. I guess Firey just wanted to play the field. Or he is a complete dumbass. This is another instance I would replace "or" with "and".

Do you want to know why I did that? Well in the next scene he has this to say.

That's gotta be some form of "ism". Metalism? Electricism?

Don't believe me? Don't forget BFDI used to be very politically incorrect.

So its not completely out of the realm of possibility that Firey made a little slip up like that.

Even when he talks he doesn't even get to be shown properly. Then probably my favourite example of Firey being hidden. It comes when Pin is convinced to flip sides. Everyone (including Firey) advocate for Pin to switch, so they begin to cheer, and who is the one person conveniently hidden?

So that is where Firey, the original king of BFDI gets shown, he is completely hidden. A little rude to portray like that, but this was one of his good episodes, he's about to get much more hidden and much more stupid.

Episode 2 begins and we don't hear from him for a while.

The bottom right corner is becoming Firey's new home.

Then after Teardrop is kidnapped, I went frame by frame through the little montage, and this was the best screenshot I could find of Firey.

Then he gets another speaking part. Of course it's not all that spectacular, he just gets to play the role of the idiot.

Another classic scene of the moron we have all come to know.

And then he doesn't appear for the rest of the episode. Well, he does in one place.

And that was his whole story in episode 2, say one stupid thing and reclused to the sidelines for the rest of the episode.

Episode 3 isn't that much better for him. To begin he remains a perfect statue. Not even moving after he celebrates becoming safe.

At least in this episode he gets more lines. But they are still pretty much useless. As they only serve that same purpose of proving he is a idiot. And what two lines does he get?

And that's all he gets this episode, even at a cake at stake he doesn't get to do anything.

Oh but there are a few more screencaps of him being a background character.

Episode four begins and you know the drill.

After that little scuffle, he spends most of the episode being frozen. First being caught by Match and then melting, and disintegrating in how own puddle of frost.

After this is probably my favourite series of images of Firey being blocked.

Alright, back to the episode. He does get one line, and it involves renaming Dream Island. Firstly, you shouldn't be renaming Dream Island because that's what it is supposed to be. And secondly, at least take the time to come up with a good name. Okay, so Ruby is a good choice to name it. Or so we thought, but it's still a better name than what Firey came up with.

Here he is giggling like a idiot at his terrible name.

And that is all he does in the episode once again.

So lets review what Firey has done so far. He's basically done three things. The first is to fade into the background, like all the time. Then all he does is make faces the whole time, and not particularly interesting faces, just regular run of the mill faces. The second thing he has done is be some kind of ist. Currently he says about one stupid thing each episode which the rest of the contestants will openly mock him for later. But this is where the Firey hiding becomes a little less relevant. But nonetheless, I will continue with episode five.

And since episode five is such a large one, I will be breaking up this segment into two parts, the first is a compilation of hidden Firey photos, and the second is a compilation of dumb things he says. So without further ado, it's time to see some ghost Firey.

Now for the second part, all the weird things Firey says and does in episode 5.

This is actually a pretty good episode for Firey, he gets a few more lines that aren't default responses and returning. However his performance wasn't that spectacular. His first line of the episode was an improvement. Instead of saying something random, he actually affects the plot and improves the episode. Giving the audience the return of a fan favourite host, the Firey speaker box. And in the first part he even gives a wisecrack and does something interesting! I mean, it is one line, but one is better than none.

Oh and for his daily dosage of dumbness, he forgets who Leafy is.

Then that's all he gets to do, since he spends a good majority of the episode dead. However, those two lines make up for a lot of his complete lack of screentime. Oh he also does get to teach Gelatin how to tie his legs, but does that really amount to anything? The storyline starts and ends in thirty seconds.

So that is the story of Firey 2.0, a contestant that was completely hidden from the edit in a way that couldn't have been anticipated. He barely got any time to himself at all, instead just sitting in the background most of the time. In fact, he only got 19 lines in the entire show, well below the average of that season.

From looking at the entire compilation of Firey 2.0. There was one point that could be argued was his character arc over the series. (Until it got canned by the cancellation of BFDIA) That character arc being his slow descent into madness. After losing his island, and his closest friends. He is forced to relive the competition that took two years of his life away from him. So of course, we see him slowly lose his mind, and all logic ceedes from his brain over the course of those five episodes.

And luckily enough, we did get a proper ending to his character arc. Because as we see in IDFB, he has completely lost his mind by now. Now left to scream in a cage indefinitely.

So in an amazing turn of events, Firey went from being the main character of season 1, into something like so rare it was like spotting an endangered species. Regardless, this was the shortest journey of a character who was once known as elite, and was now sidelined. Although this is a unpoopular opinion, I would say that Firey 2.0 was a much better incarnation of the character. Going from arguably one of the most boring character to a memorable mess of a personality. And that's probably the best title you can give someone like Firey 2.0; a memorable mess. You just can't beat that.

P.S. This article is directly inspired by one from the Funny 115. He covered the same topic about a contestant which was similarly hidden from the edit. Although it was for completely unreasonable and cruel reasons.

Click here if you would like to read the article.

P.S. This reminds me of a classic scene in Inanimate Insanity, where all the characters go into "background mode" honestly one of my favourite gags the show has ever produced. And the fact that Balloon goes up to confront the wallflowered characters is the cherry on top, a good point at of a boring trope.

P.P.P.S. I really do suggest comparing BFDI and BFDIA Firey's. You also do realize that without all that talking in between, BFDIA reveals just how stupid Firey really is.

P.P.P.P.S. This article represents the halfway point of the Funny 55s, it has been a fun first half of the journey, writing these articles has been hard but entertaining work. I think my writing has improved considerably since the very start. I would cite the Barf Bag article for setting a personal level of quality to top each time. And the Downfall of Pencil is still my longest article to date.

I hope I will be able to finish the series of articles, I'm happy you all have been there for the first half of the journey, and I hope you all will continue to follow the article in the second half of the endeavor.