Seamus Coughlin (born: March 24, 1995), better known online as FreedomToons (formerly CartAnimation), is an American animator, who mostly makes right-wing political cartoons.
History[]
Cartanimation & Creative Services[]
Coughlin first created his account under the name CartAnimation on April 9, 2012. He created his account to upload animations he and his friend Lino made. All of these animations were part of a series called Creative Services. Episodes of Creative Services were likely all universally weird and wacky. Some of these plots included him and Lino being attacked by angry snowmen, and him and Lino finding out that the British band One Direction was a coalition of demons. Creative Services ended some time in early or mid 2013.
In 2014 the duo also released "PBR Trailer 2" on Vimeo, which appears to be the trailer to an action movie called Paper Beats Rock[1]. It is unknown if this project was ever completed or even made it past the drawing board.
On May 25, 2013, Coughlin and Lino uploaded "XBOX DEAD!" which has since been removed from the channel. This is likely not canon to Creative Services. Since then, for unknown reasons, he has stopped working with Lino. Before late October of 2018, only two episodes of Creative Services were still seeable to the public. Unlisted, but still visible. In late October of 2018, those two episodes were privated with the rest.
Shift to Right-Wing Politics[]
On October 1, 2014, FreedomToons, then known as CartAnimation, uploaded a video called "How Government Works", which was a criticism of Democracy. On November 20, 2014, he started making more political videos by uploading "HOW THE MEDIA WORKS", which was a criticism of the mainstream media, with one of the more noticeable jokes being the nicknames for both Fox News and MSNBC, calling them Socks News and MSNBS.
On April 30, 2015, he began flirting with Libertarian ideas, by uploading a defense of Libertarianism called "What Libertarians Actually Believe: Habeas Corpus". In this video, he explained that in a court setting, the Libertarian view is innocent until proven guilty. On July 7, 2015, he made it official that he was a Libertarian, by uploading "What Libertarians Actually Believe: Stereotypes".
On January 28, 2016, FreedomToons uploaded "UPDATE VIDEO!!!!!!!!" In this video, he made it official that he was moving to politics.
On June 15, 2017, he uploaded a video called "Terry Mcauliffe Gun PSA". After that, his channel experienced a brief hiatus. On July 27, 2017, he uploaded an update called "SUMMER 2K17 UPDATE!!!!!!" In this video, he announced that he would begin a schedule of new videos every Thursday. On August 17, 2017, he began the new schedule.
On September 28, 2017, he uploaded a video called "Is Media Turning Kids Straight?"[2] This video kicked off a mini-series featuring Dr. Mac, a leftist journalist on the network MSNBS with a show called The Echo Chamber. This video was the reimagining of Dr. McNamara Coughlin, a character Seamus had created for TCS News[3] back in 2014.
On November 23, 2017, he uploaded a video called "Thanksgiving with Ben Shapiro" which was wildly popular. It drew praise from Shapiro himself, who said, "This is a documentary."[4] As of 2024 this video has 2.6 million views and remains one of FreedomToons' best known projects. The video also inspired a series of popular conservatives hosting Thanksgiving, such as Jordan Peterson[5], Tucker Carlson[6], and Matt Walsh.[7]
On April 25, 2023, he began exploring LGBTQ+ related topics with his first video on the issue, "why do you CARe so much??"[8]
Guest Stars & Impressions[]
FreedomToons has featured the voices of Michael Knowles, Tim Pool, Eric July, Michael Malice, Ashley St. Clair, Ian Crossland, and Matt Walsh.
Seamus voices most of the characters, including some female ones. His impressions include Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin, Alex Jones, Cenk Uygur, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, Bernie Sanders, Liz Cheney, Rand Paul, John Fetterman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Justin Trudeau, Brian Atlas, Sam Harris, Stefan Molyneux, James O'Keefe, and Dylan Mulvaney.
Tim Pool voices Dr. Fauci.
Michael Knowles performs evil laughs, including Elon Musk's.
Eric July voices Kanye West.
No Soup 4 Knowles (a woman named Britta, last name unknown) voices Kamala Harris, Mikhaila Peterson, Candace Owens, and most other female voices.
Embracing Catholicism[]
In an episode that premiered September 29, 2020, on The Babylon Bee Podcast, Seamus announced that he was no longer libertarian but instead a conservative Catholic[9].
Since then, he's also shared that he came to embrace his childhood faith after graduating art school and regularly attends Latin Mass.
Beyond FreedomToons[]
Beside FreedomToons, Seamus founded an animation services company called Smartoon LLC[10]. It is unclear whether he is still involved with the company.
He also has collaborated with the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) to create Commonsense Soapbox[11], an animated series uploaded biweekly.
Seamus has also been appeared on several podcasts and shows, such as the Babylon Bee Podcast[12], the Mikhaila Peterson Podcast (where he was forced to deliver his Jordan Peterson impression in front of Jordan Peterson)[13], Pints with Aquinas in 2021[14] and again in 2023[15], and Yes or No with Michael Knowles[16].
He is a speaker for the Young America's Foundation. His most recent talk, "How Being Catholic Made Me Conservative", was delivered in April 2024[17].
Seamus hosts his own podcast, Shamer with Seamus Coughlin[18]. He has not uploaded to that channel since November 2023.
Seamus also appears occasionally on Timcast IRL. In 2022 he took advantage of Tim Pool's absence and renamed the show "Shimcast", which he hosted until he was overthrown. While Seamus was a popular guest who represented Catholic and conservative views, racist fans of Timcast IRL did accuse him of stealing spoons from Tim Pool and others, simply because he is Irish. There is no evidence that Seamus has ever stolen spoons.
Fulfilled Prophecies[]
Seamus claimed that "HOW THE MEDIA WORKS" (a video depicting a liberal and a conservative calling each other 'puppets') was actually prophetic, because during a 2016 presidential election debate Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton did the same thing[19]. This prophecy took 23 months to be fulfilled.
More recently, he posted a video called "Why The Pride Flag Keeps Changing (seizure warning)", speculating that the pride flag's constant evolution was actually a plot to make money[20]. A mere three and a half weeks later, he tweeted, "that was fast!" in response to a tweet portraying the new pride flag[21]. This prophecy took 19 days to be fulfilled.
Trivia[]
- He had two previous accounts named MrSeamusCoughlin, used from an unknown date to early 2012, and Seamus Coughlin, a side account used from November 2012 to November 2014.
- He is a Practicing Roman Catholic.
- He has Irish heritage.
- He guest hosts on TimCast.
References[]
- ↑ https://vimeo.com/95040999
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97sCPPAnGLo
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/@tcsnews1427
- ↑ https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/933748368127361024?lang=en
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcPgpwdwyqw
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur9-v76kCAc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed1ieuA1oRE
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q3iDWmFrxA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieNJWXfxv3w
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/seamus-coughlin-a444b4aa
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/c/commonsensesoapbox
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieNJWXfxv3w
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtZAlhq4iQA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhlG9fLnIpM
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLcvW1tCa3E
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjtFOjUrWpY
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4lCUefRcds
- ↑ https://rumble.com/c/Shamer
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvFguCeRzqI
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FO8LhD5lbc
- ↑ https://twitter.com/seamus_coughlin/status/1785395056599289857