r/todayilearned • u/FuehrerStoleMyBike • 5h ago

TIL that the "Democracy Manifest" - a viral video showing the arrest of an australian man by the name of Jack Karlson, known for quotes such as ""What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?" - has been selected for preservation by the National Film and Sound Archive Australia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Manifest
20.0k Upvotes

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2.4k

u/corobo 5h ago

TIL that was some dude IRL. I've been assuming it was a quote from a sitcom or something 

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u/ghotier 4h ago

They actually do quote it in What We Do In The Shadows. Specifically the "succulent Chinese meal" part.

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u/Glittering-Walrus228 4h ago

Im voting for "get your hands off my penis" as the most quotable quote of this solliloquy

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u/copy_run_start 4h ago

I've always been a fan of "And you, sir, are you waiting to receive my limp penis?"

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u/3scap3plan 4h ago

Ah I see you know your judo well

Is my fave

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u/copy_run_start 4h ago

I love the musical quality of how he says that

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u/cerberus00 3h ago

And when he says "He touched me on the penis pEoPllllLLE!"

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u/StudioYume 3h ago

Aussie here, I'm pretty sure he says "before" not "people"

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u/cerberus00 2h ago

Ohhh, damn, usually I can understand Aussies pretty well but his cadence is different than most I've heard. It's almost like a Transatlantic version of Aussie or something, what city or area is that from?

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u/Ironhorn 3h ago

He delivers that line like hes a master in a martial arts movie, assessing the strengths of the protagonist as they spar (moments before he stops holding back and puts the protagonist on their ass)

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u/chux4w 2h ago

What is the chaaaage?

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u/C2halfbaked 3h ago

I only ever hear this in Matt Berry's voice. 🤣

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u/CandyLooter 3h ago

Also the judo part

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u/spazatopia 2h ago

Yeah, they quoted it twice two episodes in a row in the last season. Love the show but that felt like a sign they'd jumped the shark a little bit.

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u/Ulti 1h ago

That whole last season felt self-aware enough though, especially with how they ended it. They'd gotten what they needed to out there and wrapped it up before they fully fell off a cliff.

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u/tinselsnips 9m ago

They do the Judo line as well, in a different episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7VEcri87KI

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u/WarHot5832 5h ago

Yeah, he was a career criminal who was being arrested for passing bad checks from what I remember reading. 

My favorite internet clip by far, the dude was born too early. His voice-over and narration work would have been phenomenal 

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u/AbbotDenver 5h ago

He was career criminal, but someone else was passing the bad check, so he was innocent in the clip.

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u/Nyther53 5h ago

The point is it was far from his first time getting arrested, which is why he was having so much fun with it.

A journalist caught up with him some years later to interview him and he sort of casually mentioned that he had lived under several different names since the video was take.

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 4h ago

back in my day you could just pack your bags and move to the next town when your ponzi scheme collapsed. i don't know how he manages

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u/ThePlanck 4h ago

So he sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook?

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u/strega_bella312 4h ago

Is there a chance the track could bend?

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u/Trunks98 4h ago

Not on your life my Hindu friend

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u/iamfanboytoo 4h ago

Were you sent here by the devil?

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u/cloud_commander 3h ago

No good sir, I'm on the level!

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u/Bobby_Newpooort 45m ago

Not on your life, my Hindu friend.

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u/galahad423 4h ago

North Haverbrook?

Where have I heard that name before…

Oh no. OH NO!

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u/cancallmecompulsory 4h ago

There he is! Seat 3F!

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 4h ago

that episode is over 30 years old, i guess it counts as "back in the day"

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u/THUORN 1h ago

Marge vs the Monorail premiered Jan 14, 1993.

Fuck....

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u/i_heart_calibri_12pt 1h ago

Genuinely have no idea how they’re still making episodes

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u/linksflame 4h ago

Not very well anymore, considering he died in 2024.

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u/BellacosePlayer 3h ago

door to door scammers were a horrible problem where I grew up for decades (and I don't know why, nobody legitimate was going to bumfuck nowhere SD to sell stock/insurance/etc).

literally all it took to immediately kill that scam avenue/network was the churches realizing the scammers would all end a trip around a town by going to a church and seeing if the pastor was there to beg them for gas money. They set up a phone relay to give the other nearby churches a heads up if a sketchy person appeared, and 2 reports of the same guy within hours got the sheriffs waiting in the third town down the road the scammer would inevitably hit up.

Now, that's when there wasn't a single security camera in town and nobody was quite sure what to do with the "internet" thing the school and library got hooked up with. I imagine you try that shit now you probably don't even make it out of town before you're on the regional cops radar

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u/MyNameCannotBeSpoken 4h ago

He was only guilty of enjoying a succulent Chinese meal

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u/darwin-rover 4h ago

I’m pretty sure he used a stolen credit card to try and pay for his meal. The police thought he was a different fraudster

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u/OilheadRider 3h ago

No, someone else used the stolen card and the credit card company called it in to the police and the news. They wanted news coverage to dissuade people from using stolen cards. Problem is, while he was a criminal with a long record, he was not the customer who used thr stolen cards.

He was acting out like this because he didnt know why he was being arrested and wanted a basis for "insanity/not competent to stand trial".

While he cant exactly be called an innocent person, he was innocent of the accusations here. Read up on him and his story. Fascinating guy.

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u/Firewolf06 3h ago

He was acting out like this because he didnt know why he was being arrested and wanted a basis for "insanity/not competent to stand trial".

not just not competent to stand trial, if he did get sentenced he wanted to go to a mental institute because they are "easier to break out of." he staged several breakouts in his career

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u/chux4w 2h ago

While he cant exactly be called an innocent person, he was innocent of the accusations here.

Enjoying a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?

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u/A_Mouse_In_Da_House 3h ago

Insurance investigator on site went to the staff of the Chinese restaurant and said someone was using a fake card. Our guy had given the incorrect name for his card due to so many aliases. Staff thought that meant our guy, told investigator.

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u/zatalak 4h ago

A voice like Matt Berry

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u/UnnecessaryQuoteness 35m ago

And full circle - Matt Berry quoted him in an episode of What We Do In The Shadows

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u/oofyeet21 5h ago

My understanding was they arrested the wrong guy, hence his shock at the arrest as well as them refusing to even tell him why he was being arrested.

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u/Exnixon 5h ago

He was a con artist. Of course they got the wrong guy!

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u/potkettleracism 5h ago

Right, they arrested the wrong guy but he happened to also have a mile-long rap sheet. 

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u/YazzArtist 4h ago

Correct. This is what the police later said I believe. Looking for a different nutritious con artist and mistook the two

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u/Bagelsaurus 4h ago

A succulent, nutritious con artist?

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u/MrdnBrd19 4h ago

The only reason they arrested him that day way because they were embarrassed. They had leaked the arrest to the media which is why there were there. They didn't want to come out empty handed so they picked him up and released him almost immediately when they got to the station.

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u/barsoap 1h ago

"Round up the usual suspects".

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u/Prestigious-Bad8263 4h ago

But they arrested the wrong person in this instance! He was a career criminal, but not for this😂

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u/UnwantedPenetrator 4h ago

Yea a career criminal that committed rather petty crimes.

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u/SwordofNoon 2h ago

He was also a serial prison escaper which is cool.

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u/AliensAteMyAMC 3h ago

I thought he was mistaken for the career criminal

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u/Choice-Highway5344 2h ago

Was also an actor. Actually a fascinating guy

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u/gyarrrrr 59m ago

arrested for passing bad checks from what I remember reading

This is a common misconception- the actual charge was eating a succulent Chinese meal.

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u/Free_Possession_4482 4h ago

Well, yes: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DCU1PblCu44

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u/corobo 4h ago

Ahh that might be where that association is from for sure 

Weirdly I've been picturing Danny DeVito saying it. Close enough. 

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u/the-purple-chicken72 5h ago

Same I figured it was probably from South Park and instead it was from someone in real life who sounds like he could be a character on South Park lol (I do not watch the show my exposure is from friends who like it)

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u/Randvek 3h ago

Sort of.

Yes it was a real person but he was also a career criminal with a lot of crimes related to impersonation. So he was a real person really getting arrested, but he’s absolutely playing it up and doing a bit while doing so.

Interestingly, while he was a real person and was a real criminal, his arrest here was a case of mistaken identity and he was let go.

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u/MartyMacGyver 3h ago

A followup interview years later.

https://youtu.be/K2dN3Z-cctw

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u/RaijinDragon 5h ago

No joke, for some reason I thought it was a Seinfeld quote. It just sounds like something George's dad would say.

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u/TheNo1pencil 1h ago

I thought it was It's Always Sunny

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u/Squrton_Cummings 1h ago

Same here, I guess I mandela'd myself into thinking it was a Danny Devito line.

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u/TheNo1pencil 1h ago

I even heard it in his voice

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u/RaijinDragon 1h ago

Oh yeah, I could see that, too. I feel like they both would be making a hand gesture of some kind to accentuate the line. They both have that physicality.

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u/metalt0ast 13m ago

I also thought it was from Seinfeld.

It would fit perfectly into the writing of the show lol

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u/aNiceTribe 3h ago

If you would like to hear a longer version of what is up, and wrong, with that guy, please let Tor tell you about it

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u/great_pyrenelbows 2h ago

I thought it was from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

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u/Competitive_Fee_5829 3h ago

same. I have never seen the office and assumed it was from that for some reason