Allan Red (commonly misspelled as Alan) is one of the two Smiling Friends deuteragonists alongside Glep. He is a tall red creature employed by Smiling Friends Inc.
Appearance
Body
Allan is a tall red creature with long, thin limbs and a hunched, elongated body. It has a prominent nose, large almond eyes and a slight overbite. Similar to his co-worker Glep, Alan’s face is generally seen in profile, although a frontal view is occasionally visible (most often when he turns his head).
Clothes
Alan usually never wears any other item of clothing except a light blue tie. In “Frowning Friends”, he dons the darker blue security uniform of a rival company. In “Charlie Dies and Won’t Come Back”, the tie is replaced with a scarf of the same color. In “A Silly Halloween Special”, his costume resembles that of Joker the Clown from Joker (2019).
Personality
Alan is generally uptight and callous, often playing the part of the straight man when it comes to other characters’ antics. He is something of a neat freak as seen in “Desmond’s Big Day Out” when he is obsessed with a missing paper clip. In the same episode, he is also shown to love cheese, as seen looking for his missing tiny piece from his stash, and Mr. Boss acknowledging his desire in “Frowny Friends” and telling him to go look for some. In general, Alan comes across as a highly organized, somewhat eccentric character who obsessively keeps track of his things and takes his work quite seriously.
Compared to Pim’s optimism and Charlie’s cynicism, Alan’s priorities are more self-centered when it comes to his duties as a Smiling Friends employee: in “Gwimbly: Definitive Remastered Enhanced Extended Edition DX 4K (Anniversary Director’s Cut)” the only reason he chooses to do so is . help Pim help Gwimbly smile because he wants the mascot to stop hanging around the office.
Background
Alan’s background and life outside of work have not been revealed yet.
Relation ships
Charlie Dompler
Like Glep and many other supporting characters, Alan has not yet appeared in any extensive interactions with the other Smiling Friends, nor has he had any clear comedic or emotional dynamics with them. Based on what little is shown of them together, Alan is perfectly fine with Charlie and likes him based on their brief interaction at the end of “Desmond’s Big Day Out”, in which they laugh together about Alan’s love of cheese. .
Pim
Alan seems to be tolerant of his colleague, but so far he has not been seen to interact with him more intensively in the series. He gets upset when he shoots Pim in the eye with a peanut in “A Silly Halloween Special”, but has otherwise not been seen speaking to Pim in any meaningful capacity.
Boss
Alan is respectful of his employer and cares enough to check on him during the events of “Frowning Friends”.
Goof off
Alan is tolerant of Glep, although he appears to be mildly frustrated with him in “Desmond’s Big Day Out” after the latter chews him out for disturbing him while he is watching a video.
Details
In the director’s commentary for the Smiling Friends Season 1 DVD, Zach mentions that Alan’s name was actually spelled “Allan” in their scripts – but was inadvertently changed to “Alan” after being misspelled in the episode descriptions and credits on HBO Max.
Later in the director’s commentary, Zach also reveals Alan’s last name as ‘Red’.