Ditto, but static.
Otis kicking Nene off of A-Bot and bashing the two Tankmen soldiers with his AK-47s.
Ditto, but static.
Otis shooting at Tankman after being insulted.
Ditto, but static.
Otis' static idle pose.
Shoot back animation.
Ditto, but static.
Ditto, but without the shooting effects.
Shoot back low animation.
Ditto, but static.
Ditto, but without the shooting effects.
Shoot forward animation.
Ditto, but static.
Ditto, but without the shooting effects.
Shoot forward low animation.
Ditto, but static.
Ditto, but without the shooting effects.
Otis
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Spoiler Alert
Otis is the supporting character of Stress when Pico is selected as the player character in Freeplay, taking the place of the latter on the speakers. He is Pico's cousin who arrives at the Tankman Battlefield to save him and Nene from the Tankmen army, shooting many soldiers who get close to him.
He is the fifth guest character introduced to Friday Night Funkin', the first being Skid and Pump, the second being Pico, the third being Tankman, and the fourth being Darnell and Nene.
Appearance
Otis is a young man with light skin, messy ear-length black hair, and distinctive white eyes with no pupils like his cousin. His outfit consists of a blue sweater with long sleeves over a white button-up, grey jeans, and white sneakers with orangish-yellow accents. He also wears a lavender-white backpack. His idle animation depicts him bopping his head up and down while slouching on his knees, wielding 2 AK-47s. He is drawn in a chibi style.
Origin
Otis as he appears in his origin game, Pico's Cousin.
Otis is the protagonist of Pico's Cousin, a point-and-click Flash game created by Marcel "Magna" Lirot in 2003. It is a fanmade spinoff to Pico's School. In Pico's Cousin, Otis finds himself in the middle of a terroristic plot while at the mall, wanting to simply buy a copy of Alien Hominid, so it is up to him to find his way through and save the day from a band of terrorists.
Despite some criticisms regarding the gameplay and the visuals, the game recieved various positive reviews, as well as being considered a worthy successor to Pico's School, with Otis becoming a fan-favorite amongst fans of the Pico series, even receiving support from series creator Tom Fulp himself.
2 years later, a sequel titled Pico's Cousin 2 was released in 2005. In this sequel, Otis has to save his father, grandmother, and older cousin Pico from a shooting at a local retirement home perpetrated by the Neo Goth Punks, a new generation of the goth kids whom Pico once defeated at his school.
Personality
With a love for skateboarding and Alien Hominid, Otis was described as being "wimpier" than his older cousin prior to the events of Pico's Cousin, but when faced with terrorists, he did not hesitate and immediately took action after picking up 2 guns from a trash bin, slowly but surely facing his fears and building up courage to make it out of the mall safe and sound, even when he had never held a gun before. He also has a meaner side of himself, acting foul-mouthed and rude towards people, not taking offense from anyone who steps his way.
Otis shows genuine care for his family, as he was willing to risk his life to save them from an alien invasion. He also doesn't like being deceived, as seen in the alternate ending to Pico's Cousin after finding out that the government staged the mall shooting, calling out the FBI agent that "saved" him for putting his life in danger in the first place.
History
The following events are not canon to the game's actual story; this is only a "what if" scenario.
In Stress (Pico Mix), Pico and Nene find themselves in the middle of the Tankman Battlefield, where they are immediately held hostage by the Tankmen army. In fact, two soldiers on A-Bot hold Nene at gunpoint. The army's leader, Tankman, assumes that Pico is "back for some tasty revenge" (possibly referencing the canon events of Week 7), so he orders his men to fire at the two. The Tankmen holding Nene at gunpoint prepare to shoot at her, but she is rather unamused. She reacts by stabbing the soldier to her right in the eye using her knife, while the one on her left looks at her concerned. She laughs at the stabbed soldier, who is screaming in pain. Eventually, Otis leaps from the sky and kicks Nene off of A-Bot, causing her to fall into Pico's arms, and bashes the two Tankmen with his AK-47s. Tankman is rather annoyed by Otis' arrival, and he insults the latter by calling him a "knockoff" (possibly referencing Otis' original designs apparently being recolored or traced from those of Pico). Otis is mildly offended by Tankman's comment, so he shoots at the latter's feet as a warning, forcing him to rap battle Pico anyway. Throughout the entire track, Otis shoots various Tankmen soldiers that approach him.
Abilities
Much like his ginger-haired cousin, Otis is a skilled gunman, with his weapon of choice being the AK-47, and he isn't afraid of shooting anyone standing against him. He has been described as having a "warrior's gene" passed onto his family from generation to generation, which explains his ability to use guns proficiently even though he never held one prior to the terroristic attack at the mall. He is shown to be quick with guns, as he shoots various Tankmen soldiers throughout Stress (Pico Mix) at a rather fast pace.
In addition to being good with guns, Otis is also shown to be a skilled skateboarder. During the credits sequence of Pico's Cousin, he shows off his skills performing in different places, riding his skateboard on handrails and down a large ramp off a building.
Relationships
Pico
Pico is Otis' older cousin. Otis seems to care for Pico, as he is willing to save the latter's life whenever in danger.
Nene
After arriving at the Tankman Battlefield, Otis kicks Nene off of A-Bot while she was being held hostage by the Tankmen, causing her to fall into Pico's arms.
Tankman
Tankman is annoyed and rather confused by Otis' arrival on the battlefield, insulting the latter in response. Otis takes mild offense to this since he provides a warning shot at Tankman's feet, forcing him to rap against Pico regardless. Otis later proceeds to gun down many of his men.
Trivia
General
- Otis was previously confirmed to canonically exist in the Friday Night Funkin' universe by PhantomArcade during a live stream from June 2024.[1]
- Otis' design for Friday Night Funkin' was made by mod artist gackt enzo.[2] He originally made the design for a hypothetical[3] mod he was working on[4] that was supposed to feature Otis going against Pico and later the final boss of Pico's Cousin 2, Damien.[5]
- The redesign was originally going to keep the light blue jeans and gray shoes, but gackt enzo changed them because he felt that the color palette wasn't working well.[6]
- gackt enzo revealed that the redesign was based on various designs for Otis' appearance in the Friday Night Funkin': School Grounds mod, which he previously worked on, and a frame of Pico from a draft of the chase scene for the intro cutscene of WeekEnd 1.[7] According to him, this Otis design was supposed to be his own thing but in memory of School Grounds.[8] He also half-jokingly said to think of the redesign as an "apology" for the School Grounds design, due to the backlash it had received.[9]
- The reason Otis wears a button-up in his redesign is because gackt enzo likes wearing them.[7]
- gackt enzo revealed that the redesign was based on various designs for Otis' appearance in the Friday Night Funkin': School Grounds mod, which he previously worked on, and a frame of Pico from a draft of the chase scene for the intro cutscene of WeekEnd 1.[7] According to him, this Otis design was supposed to be his own thing but in memory of School Grounds.[8] He also half-jokingly said to think of the redesign as an "apology" for the School Grounds design, due to the backlash it had received.[9]
- The redesign was originally going to keep the light blue jeans and gray shoes, but gackt enzo changed them because he felt that the color palette wasn't working well.[6]
- Otis wielding 2 AK-47s is a reference to his origin game, Pico's Cousin, where Otis uses them in the final confrontation against Gangrene and in the helicopter to escape (it is believed that they were the same weapons).
- gackt enzo has often drawn Otis with the green ray gun from Alien Hominid. This is a reference to Otis being a big fan of the game.
- Otis' appearance in Friday Night Funkin' shares some similarities with the character Wallace Wells from the Scott Pilgrim series, specifically the latter's appearance seen in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, most notably both having messy black hair and wearing similar clothes.
- Otis is currently the only guest character to not appear in Story Mode. He only appears in Stress (Pico Mix), which is not part of the game's canon story.
- Interestingly, the animations for the shooting effects of Otis' AK-47s are separated from Otis' sprites in the game files.
- Prior to version 0.6.3, the effects were actually exempted in-game, as stated by PhantomArcade during a live stream mid April 2025.[10] Later, in a live stream by ninjamuffin99, the effects were shown to be properly implemented in-game.[11]
- Originally, MindChamber planned on asking Tom Fulp permission to have Otis make a cameo appearance in Pico 2, but it remains unclear how or if Fulp responded to the request.[12]
- Pico's original design was directly inspired by an illustration for Children's Tylenol Cold in the 1990s.[13][14] Coincidentally, there is another illustration that bears a resemblance to Otis.[15]
Lore
- According to Otis' biography in Pico's Cousin, his blood type is AB.
- Otis is a big fan of Alien Hominid.
- Otis was noticeably fatter during the events of Pico's Cousin, but he has since lost a lot of weight. This is because after the mall shooting, Otis' father put him through intense training in order for him to defend himself from anyone who would try to take advantage of his abilities.[16]
Gallery
Concept art of gackt enzo's redesign of Otis.
Ditto, but an earlier revision. Notice the black mouth as well as the light blue jeans and gray shoes similar to his original design.
Concept art of Otis for gackt enzo's hypothetical mod. (1/4)
Concept art of Otis for gackt enzo's hypothetical mod. (2/4)
Concept art of Otis for gackt enzo's hypothetical mod. (3/4)
Concept art of Otis for gackt enzo's hypothetical mod. (4/4)
An early design of Otis' appearance in the Friday Night Funkin': School Grounds mod, which ended up inspiring gackt enzo's redesign.
Otis' final appearance in the Friday Night Funkin': School Grounds mod, which ended up inspiring gackt enzo's redesign.
Early concept art of Otis' School Grounds design, which ended up inspiring gackt enzo's redesign.
Concept of Otis and Pico for gackt enzo's hypothetical mod.
Sketch of Otis' old idle pose.
Sketch of Otis' old shoot back pose.
Artwork of Otis by gackt enzo.
Ditto, but only Otis.
An edit of Otis' idle sprite, depicting him with a different expression and with one of his AK-47s replaced with Alien Hominid's ray gun.
Preview of Otis' full shooting animations, now including the shooting effects.
Artwork depicting Otis in casual clothing by gackt enzo.
Doodle of Otis by PhantomArcade.
Notes
- ↑ Considering that Otis is younger than Pico, as he was revealed to be 11 during the events of Pico's Cousin, which takes place after Pico's School, it was theorized that he would be 17 in Friday Night Funkin'. However, during a live stream in April 2025, PhantomArcade stated that while drawing Otis, he thought of the latter to be 18, until he saw gackt enzo talking about Otis being 17. Because of this, PhantomArcade said to think of gackt enzo's design as 17 and Otis' appearance in the game as 18, putting out the statement that "He's such a quick cameo character that it's not something I would put a lot of thought into, but I always intended it for him to be younger than Pico, so I know that much."
