Pico (2024)

Were you looking for the song or the week?

“Society sucks, but you don't have to kill your classmates to stand out.”
― Pico, Pico's School

Pico is the tritagonist of Friday Night Funkin'. He is the antagonist of Week 3, a supporting character in Week 7 and the future playable protagonist of the upcoming level against Darnell. He's been confirmed to also be selectable as a general playable character in Freeplay in the future. His tracks as an antagonist include Pico, Philly and Blammed, and he has 3 confirmed future tracks as a player character: Darnell, Lit Up and 2Hot.

He was teased alongside Tankman, Cassette Girl and Hank J. Wimbleton on the 15^th of November, 2020. He was added to the game with the release of Week 3 on the 11^th of December, 2020.

He is the second guest character introduced to Friday Night Funkin', the first being Skid and Pump and the third being Tankman.

Appearance[]

Pico is a young, light-skinned man with rounded ginger hair and distinctive white eyes with no pupils. He wears a green shirt, beige pants and a pair of maroon sneakers with orange laces, orange buttons on the sides and light beige soles. He wields a gun loosely based on an Ingram MAC-10 pistol^[4] in one hand and holds a microphone in the other with his thumb pointing out. He is drawn in a chibi style.

During the last track of Week 7, he is seen crouched on top of the speakers that Girlfriend normally sits on. He now wields a pair of guns, which he twirls around and shoots in a flashy manner.

Origin[]

Pico originates from Pico's School, a point-and-click Flash game created by Newgrounds founder Tom Fulp in 1999. It is the third installment in the Pico series. In Pico's School, Pico must stop a group of goth kids who have perpetrated a school shooting. Due to the game's popularity at the time, Pico's series quickly became a fan favorite around Newgrounds.

Since then, Pico has been appointed the site's first mascot and has made other cameo appearances in many Newgrounds Flash films and games, and he continues to remain a popular character on the site to this day.

Newgrounds also has a holiday named after him known as Pico Day, a day centered around celebrating him and other famous figures in the Newgrounds community. It is usually celebrated on the 30^th of April, which also happens to be Tom Fulp's birthday.

Personality[]

Before the events of Pico's School, Pico was described as popular, curious, confident and friendly by his peers, being the first one to raise his hand in class and often speaking up whenever possible. During the destruction of his school, he is shown to act quite reckless and takes action immediately despite the danger he could be running into.

After the events of Pico's School, Pico has developed an aggressive and homicidal side, rarely showing any fear and ruthlessly fighting anyone standing in his way. He is an exceptional gunman and is usually seen dual-wielding his weaponry with remarkable proficiency. His weapons of choice are automatic weapons such as a MAC-10-like pistol or the M16 rifle. He also has tremendous unarmed combat skills, as seen in Pico 2, the unreleased sequel to Pico's School. He is also shown to be quite paranoid as he isn't too trusting of others and is always armed. Despite this, he has proven himself to be a very trustworthy friend and ally to those he does trust, betraying Daddy Dearest twice to spare and even save/assist Boyfriend when instructed to kill him.

In Pico 2, Pico has an unstable personality. Throughout the game, the player can choose from different dialogue options, with Pico usually throwing an insult, sarcastic comment or backhanded compliment into his responses. Pico is described by Darnell as having a non-confrontational, reserved and shy side to him at school, but in public, Pico isn't afraid to confront strangers in his way and even threatens to stick a plastic bag over his local record shop owner's head for refusing to serve him. He is apologetic after his outbursts, and it is implied that he has a hard time controlling his temper.

Pico enjoys marijuana and is seen smoking it 3 times throughout the Pico series. Pico also dreams of becoming a professional DJ. In Pico 2, his interest in DJing is a plot point, and he regularly practices on the turntables with his best friend Darnell.

History[]

Set 6 years after Pico's School, Pico is hired by Daddy Dearest to kill Boyfriend for humiliating him after their sing-off in Week 1. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Pico is sent to kill his ex-boyfriend. Pico is only given a location for his target, and upon finding out that Boyfriend is his target, he decides to spare him and instead challenges him to a rap battle.

He is later one of the many spectators of Boyfriend's rap battle with Daddy Dearest and Mommy Mearest at The Mall during Week 5.

Despite his previous setback, Pico is later rehired with the simple task of confirming Boyfriend's death after he and Girlfriend are dropped into a dangerous war-zone. However, he finds Boyfriend alive and seeing as Tankman ordered his men to shoot the two, Pico forfeits his mission and jumps to Boyfriend's rescue by killing the onslaught of Tankmen during the Week 7 track Stress.

Due to his betrayal of Daddy Dearest, Pico is now in big trouble with Girlfriend's parents. A sneak peek of an upcoming level shows Pico running away from and fighting his friends, Nene and Darnell, who are trying to kill him.^[2] Pico is seen injured and bleeding in the beginning scene with Darnell. Multiple parts of a bigger image briefly flash in the teaser; when pieced together, these reveal a scene where Daddy Dearest is offering to pay Pico a stack of cash to do something to Boyfriend. In the same image, Darnell and Nene are also seen with stacks of cash. The full image was later posted on Newgrounds, revealing that Daddy Dearest is paying Pico, Darnell and Nene to kill Boyfriend, as indicated by Daddy Dearest's full speech bubble and the "assassins" tag on the Newgrounds submission. Notably, Pico is the only one in the image who is not shown to have accepted any money from the father yet.

Abilities[]

Pico's most notable skill is his proficiency with guns, which are his weapons of choice. With them, he has remarkable accuracy and is capable of wielding both at once. He is most commonly seen with a M10-like sub-machine gun but has used other types of guns such as the AK-47 and M16. As shown in Friday Night Funkin', he can aim his guns at specific targets with precision and can even shoot while rapidly twirling his guns without accidentally hurting himself or anyone he doesn't want to kill. His skill with guns is so great that it allowed him to slay nearly Tankman's entire army.

Pico is strong enough to be able to knock someone out with his bare fists, as seen in Pico 2. He is shown to have a talent for dancing, rapping and using DJ turntables as well. According to Pico vs Bear, he is adept at handling hostage situations.

Relationships[]

Boyfriend[]

Pico and Boyfriend used to date, though little is known about the relationship they had. It is known that the reason for their breakup is "complicated,"^[5] and it has been hinted that they sang together in the past, as Pico raps with Boyfriend in Week 3 due to nostalgia and old habits.^[6] This implies that Pico misses him in some form.

Pico is loyal to Boyfriend in the present day, betraying his employer Daddy Dearest by sparing Boyfriend after being hired to kill him and saving his life when he was hired to confirm Boyfriend's dead body. Boyfriend appears to be fully comfortable being around Pico and even sings with him happily, but it is otherwise unclear how Boyfriend feels about Pico.

Girlfriend[]

Not much is known about how well Pico and Girlfriend are acquainted with each other. It is possible that Pico does not like or care about Girlfriend very much, as he readily kicks her off her speakers in unused frames of the animation where Pico leaps in from the sky in the cut-scene for Stress.

Darnell[]

Pico and Darnell are close friends. In Pico 2, Pico quickly words toward stopping the Ghettobots upon learning that they're threatening Darnell's life, and Darnell invites him to come to his house to practice on a DJ turntable. However, in Friday Night Funkin', Darnell and Pico fight each other for a currently unknown reason.

Nene[]

Pico and Nene have been stated to be friends, though their interactions have often involved her telling Pico about how she wants him to let her die. In Resident Pico, she warns Pico about the zombies and tells him to run, showing that she does care about his safety. However, in Friday Night Funkin', Nene attacks Pico with knives as he runs from her, the reasoning for this being unclear currently. Even though she wants him dead, Pico arouses Nene in the upcoming week.^[7]

Daddy Dearest[]

Daddy Dearest hires Pico as a contract killer, tasking him with killing Boyfriend after the latter humiliated him during Week 1. However, Pico instead decides to spare Boyfriend upon discovering that he is his target. Despite this, Daddy Dearest employs Pico again to confirm Boyfriend's dead body, but Pico betrays the father once more and saves Boyfriend's life. As a result, Pico is in deep trouble with the father.

Mommy Mearest[]

Along with Daddy Dearest, Mommy Mearest tasks Pico with confirming Boyfriend's corpse. Pico is not loyal to the mother, however, as he goes against her orders by assisting Boyfriend. Consequently, he is in trouble with her as well.

Tankman[]

Tankman is very rude to Pico, as he mocks him about the tragic incident in Pico's School. Pico, on the other hand, is excited to kill many of his soldiers, but he doesn't attempt to kill Tankman himself, even after the latter slanders him.

Cassandra[]

Cassandra is Pico's enemy. Although she was seemingly killed by him at the end of Pico's School, Cassandra is set to appear in Friday Night Funkin' in the future. How this will be explained remains to be seen. Additionally, an official Newgrounds site skin made by PhantomArcade depicts Pico with a box of apples from Cassandra, who added a heart to the tag attached.

Trivia[]

• Pico is:
  • Currently the only guest character in Friday Night Funkin' not to originate from an animated series, instead originally being from a game. This will no longer be the case with the upcoming releases of Nene, Cassandra and Ritz The Rat.
  • The second character in the game to have a song named after him, the first being Monster and the third being Senpai.
  • The is also the second character to have a week named after him, the first being Daddy Dearest and the third being Tankman. He is the only character with both a song and week named after him.
  • The second character not to have tuned vocals, the first being Girlfriend.
• Pico means "beak" in Spanish.
• A common misconception about Pico is that he was the perpetrator of the school shooting that occurs in Pico's School; this is false. Cassandra, a shape-shifting alien invader sent to cause chaos and destruction to humanity, is the true perpetrator of the shooting. Pico arms himself with an M16 assault rifle he finds in the janitor's closet and uses it to fight back against Cassandra and her gang to save his school.
  • Tankman pokes fun at this fact in Week 7, where he asks Pico, "Don't you have a school to shoot up?"
• Upon his creation, Pico was originally named "Pogo," but his name was later changed to "Pico" after Tom Fulp discovered that the website pogo.com was already taken.
  • Pico was named after the character of the same name from the 1991 RPG Cosmic Fantasy 2.^[8]
• Pico is confirmed to become a playable character in the future.^[9] This may be a result of the game being promoted on Newgrounds' official YouTube channel and the game's programmer, ninjamuffin99, and Pico's creator, Tom Fulp, being good friends.
  • Pico can be selected as the player character using the Debug Menu, and his unused miss sprites can be seen when missing notes.
• In the 2010s, Pico would be depicted by many Newgrounders with a more lime green shirt compared to the normal green shirt and beige pants compared to the green pants in his other designs. This color choice, referred to by fans as "Brown Pants Pico," is reflected in Pico's depiction in Friday Night Funkin'.
• Pico is neurodivergent, as he is schizophrenic^[?] and an insomniac^[?].^[10]
  • His schizophrenia is untreated, and it causes him to keep his weapons on him at all times due to his fear of being attacked.
    • It is very likely that Pico developed schizophrenia after the events of Pico's School, as trauma is one of the main triggers of schizophrenia.^[11] Despite this, Pico manages to cope and have a happy life with the help of his friends.
  • Insomnia can be brought on by trauma or stress, which could've occurred after the events of Pico's School. His paranoia, stemming from his schizophrenia, could also be the cause of his insomnia.
• Pico's design was directly inspired by an illustration for Children's Tylenol Cold in the 1990s.^[12]
• It was confirmed that the style of Pico's white eyes is heavily inspired by Little Orphan Annie comics.^[13]
• Pico makes a small cameo appearance in the background of the Week 5 tracks Cocoa and Eggnog.
• Pico used to be the mascot of Newgrounds but was slowly phased out of the role by Tankman in 2006.
• A popular head-canon within the Friday Night Funkin' fandom was that Pico is Boyfriend's ex-boyfriend. This headcanon gathered so much traction that Tom Fulp, the creator of Pico, Tweeted jokingly that "this is official Pico 2 canon,"^[14] leading people to believe that it was true. ninjamuffin99 initially said that this was a joke^[15] but later changed his mind and confirmed it was canon.^[16]
  • ninjamuffin99 and PhantomArcade have confirmed that Pico and Boyfriend are ex-boyfriends^[17] on Reddit,^[18] Twitter^[19] and Twitch^[16] several times.
    • This is alluded to during the cutscene for Stress, where Tankman describes Pico as Boyfriend's "sexually ambiguous, angry little friend."
      • On the 1^st of April, 2021, Tom Fulp updated the original Pico's School game for April Fools' Day, ending with Pico revealing to Cassandra that he and Boyfriend are a couple and everyone at his school accepts them. The day after, this version would be released as a separate game set in an alternate timeline called Pico's School: Love Conquers All]. As Pico and Boyfriend's relationship was portrayed in a positive light, the game indicated Tom Fulp's approval of the idea of them once having been a couple.
        • According to ninjamuffin99, the reason behind Pico and Boyfriend's breakup is "complicated."^[5]
• Pico has an IQ of 127.^[10]
• Pico is American and lives in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Pico is a muso and collects vinyl records from his local record store, 911 Records.
  • Tom Fulp has confirmed that some of Pico's favorite musicians are Joy Division, Gary Numan, Natural Born Chillers and the Cure.^[20]
    • In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, Pico mentions that he listens to Bauhaus, the Sisters of Mercy, KMFDM and Green Day.
      • According to enemy Cyclops and the mid-end 2000s music portal iteration of Newgrounds, Pico listens to techno.
• It is heavily implied that Pico does not have a good relationship with his father; upon clicking a car in an old demo for Pico 2 developed by Tom Fulp, Pico says "My dad loves that car more than he loves me! I hope he crashes the damn thing into a brick wall!"
• It's been debated among fans whether the gun that Pico's been regularly depicted with since Pico's Unloaded is an Uzi or a MAC-10. MindChamber, creator of the forementioned Flash movie, settled this debate by confirming that the gun is based on a MAC-10.^[21]
  • MindChamber has also clarified that the gun is not really accurate to any real gun, but it is loosely designed after the MAC-10, as Pico's Unloaded is a spoof of The Matrix Reloaded.^[4]
• In a Reddit AMA, it was confirmed Pico raps with Boyfriend out of nostalgia and old habits.^[6]
• In a recent teaser, it's shown that Pico has 6-pack abs, implying that he works out.^[22][23]
• According to Tom Fulp, Pico likely would have majored in computer science if he had entered college.^[24]
• Pico may be getting his own Game Over theme in the next update to Friday Night Funkin'; it will likely be used in Darnell's level. A song referred to as "bro" allegedly appears in the files of an accidentally leaked test build of the update. The song uses Amen break samples, which are most frequently used in Pico's songs. The Amen break samples make the track sound similar to the music heard in the sneak peek released for the update.
  • However, recent claims have been made that a song that appeared in a fan-made mod as a Game Over theme for Pico is the character's real Game Over theme in the upcoming level, having been composed by Kawai Sprite and assisted by an individual known as Crisp. Due to mod's main song being fake, it was originally assumed that the Game Over theme was also fake. Currently, the actual purpose of "bro" remains unknown.^[25]
• Pico chokes down exotic marijuana in large quantities.^[26]

Gallery[]

View Pico's full gallery here.

Notes[]

References[]

• This article incorporates material, with modifications, from the article "Pico" on the Pico Wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License (22^nd of November, 2022).