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Vice Blog

VANCOUVER - EW!

Animator Mike Geiger made a cartoon called Cuddlesticks. It's playing in the Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted festival and it involves a mom giving her son treats made out of something really GROSS. I had a chat with him about that.

Vice: Mike, I had a look at "Cuddlesticks" and there's a lot of shit going on. Freudian shit. Oh that was a, like, a Freudian slip. Anyway, first off, would you consider yourself passive, needy, and sensitive to aggression?

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Mike Geiger: I'm probably pretty passive, not so needy. I'm not quite sure what the sensitive to aggression is about.

Like if someone's aggro, in a bar, all up in your face.

I hate that…

Because, according to Freud, the oral receptive personality is usually preoccupied with having stuff in their mouth as an attempt to reduce tension. I say that because the concept of sucking is a central fixture in your piece.

I wear a night guard at night 'cause I clench my teeth. Does that count?

Not really. Were you punished harshly during toilet training?   

No, but I remember falling in once at The Bay in the woman's bathroom. Not sure if you'd consider that punishment.

We might be on to something.  People who were punished because they shit their pants as a kid, according to Freud, are considered "stingy, with a compulsive seeking of order and tidiness" and also generally stubborn and perfectionists. Sound familiar?

That sounds about right but I didn't have any trouble pooing as a kid. I think I was taught to wipe while standing up though, so that might be the only weird thing.

So the incident at the Bay didn't traumatize you? Obviously it sticks out in your mind. It must have done something to you. 

I remember it perfectly. I must have been four. I was at the Bay, in the ladies washroom 'cause I was too young to go in the men's by myself and a woman opened the door 'cause I didn't lock it and I fell in. She started laughing and then she left.

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Oh dear. I can see that causing some serious issues later on in life.

I don't really think it has anything to do with my cartoon.

Who would you relate to more: a 14-year-old or a stoner?

A 14-year-old. I don't do drugs at all.

So you're not a stoner and you relate to a 14-year-old's weird potty humour?

I don't even take aspirin.

Come on, it's a little bit weird. But I'm glad it's just your immature humour and not some weird Freudian shit.

Immature?

Um, you made a film about a mom giving her son a Popsicle made of her feces and periods. 

I thought it was brilliant.

ELIANNA LEV