Flat Eric is a puppet character, created by Quentin Dupieux (better known under his stage name Mr. Oizo), from Levi's commercials for Sta-Prest One Crease Denim Clothing, built by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. His name comes from an idea for a commercial that involved having a car run over his head and flattening it. The idea was not used, but the name stuck.

In the commercials, Flat Eric would ride with his friend Angel (played by Philippe Petit) around California, evading the police as a wanted criminal. As of 2025, Mr. Oizo still uses Flat Eric as a mascot.

Background

Flat Eric was based on a dog-like monkey puppet called Stéphane that was similar, but with ears and the hands were fixed. Stéphane appeared in some short films by Mr. Oizo (including a video for the track M-Seq), and had a small cult following in the United Kingdom and France.

He was made by Janet Knechtel for Jim Henson's Creature Shop, in the United Kingdom, and was performed by Drew Massey for all the Levi's commercials. The Levi's adverts took three days to shoot.

thumb|Flat Eric toy posed with a tablet

Appearances

He was featured in the music videos for "Flat Beat" and "Viandes Légumes Véhicules" by French musician Mr. Oizo and he also appeared as a prop in Series 1 of the 2001 to 2003 BBC Comedy, The Office. In August 2004, he co-starred with David Soul, in a five-million-pound commercial for Auto Trader. He has also appeared on The Big Breakfast. The puppet also featured heavily as a prop for more than ten years on SIC Radical interactive chat show Curto Circuito, being usually named as "Boneco Amarelo" (Portuguese for "Yellow Puppet"). A Flat Eric stuffed toy appeared briefly in LFO, a film that makes heavy use of and nods to synthesizers.

Flat Eric has also been featured in many magazines, including Arena, Cosmopolitan, Heat, Melody Maker, Ministry, Mixmag, Muzik, NME and The Face.

Flat Eric was introduced as an unlockable character in the mobile game Crossy Road in a 2016 update, being free for a limited time.

References

  • Flat Eric Fansite, Germany
  • Flat Eric's Adventures