The family of a petty crook famously caught on camera loudly objecting to being arrested after eating a ‘succulent Chinese meal’ has revealed he is suffering from cancer.
A television news crew filmed Jack Karlson shouting at police outside a Brisbane restaurant in 1991 and when footage of his outburst was uploaded to YouTube in 2009 it went viral.
The faded vision showed a moustachioed Karlson delivering a series of Shakespearean-sounding lines as he was reluctantly dragged away from his lunch table.
‘Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest!’ he boomed at the camera. ‘Get your hand off my penis!
‘What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal? Ooh, that’s a nice headlock, sir. Ah yes, I see that you know your judo well.’
Karlson’s arrest was a case of mistaken identity, but the minute-long clip has since become the subject of countless memes and even its own line of merchandise.
Now Karlson’s niece Kim Edwards has launched a GoFundMe appeal after her uncle was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
‘My name is Kim and I am the niece of Jack Karlson,’ she wrote. ‘You might know him as the man who ate a Succulent Chinese Meal or Mr Democracy Manifest.
The family of Jack Karlson, who was famously caught on camera loudly objecting to being arrested after eating a ‘succulent Chinese meal’, has revealed he is suffering from cancer
‘He has recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is also in need a surgery on his cataracts.
‘(The) “I know Jack” video has given a lot of people joy and he has inspired many memes, T-shirts and other things over the years but Jack himself is doing it quite tough.’
Ms Edwards said her uncle lived ‘week-to-week’ in regional Queensland with the help of a voluntary carer and had never had much money.
‘Hoping people can dig deep – I think he’s worth at least a beer, maybe even a six-pack,’ she wrote.
The appeal has so far reached more than $5,500 and has a target of $50,000.
Money will go towards Karlson’s medical bills, transport to and from doctor’s appointments and to help cover general living costs.
Karlson’s story was told in the book Carnage: A Succulent Chinese Meal, Mr Rent-a-Kill and the Australian Manson Murders by journalist Mark Dapin.
The one-time stage and television actor and occasional painter is also set to appear in an upcoming documentary titled The Man Who Ate A Succulent Chinese Meal.
Viral video star Jack Karlson’s niece Kim Edwards has launched a GoFundMe appeal after her uncle was diagnosed with prostate cancer. They are pictured together
To publicise that film, Karlson was recently reunited with one of the officers who apprehended him at the China Sea diner in Fortitude Valley all those years ago.
Seven Network reporter Chris Reason had rushed to the restaurant that day after a tip-off one of Queensland’s most wanted men had used a stolen credit card to pay for his meal.
Karlson was not the suspect police had originally thought but his arrest was so colourful it made great television and has taken on a life of its own.
One of the arresting officers, Stoll Watt, appeared on ABC News Breakfast alongside Karlson in June when the men were asked what they remembered of their encounter.
‘There’s a lot of different versions of the events,’ Watt told host Michael Rowland.
‘A lot of mysteries and misperceptions about the whole thing. But the main thing is Jack should have got an Academy Award and he’s a good mate.’
Rowland asked Karlson’s if one of his best-known lines from the video, ‘Get your hands off my penis!’, referred to something which actually happened or was made up on the spot.
‘Probably made up,’ Karlson said. ‘Can’t remember.’
Karlson’s arrest was a case of mistaken identity, but the minute-long clip has since become the subject of countless memes and even its own line of merchandise
Sunrise also aired a segment on the forthcoming documentary in which presenter Monique Wright read out a text from Reason about the Karlson video.
‘I’ve been doing this job more than three decades now,’ Reason wrote.
‘Covered Mandela, Bosnia, Ukraine, 9/11, all anyone wants to talk to me about is bloody Mr Democracy Manifest!’
Despite being wrongfully arrested back in 1991, Karlson – who is aged in his early eighties – has a long history being on the wrong side of the law.
He is known to have had associations with some of Australia’s most notorious crooks from the ’70s to ’90s, such as Sydney gangster Neddy Smith and Melbourne standover man Mark ‘Chopper’ Read.
Over the decades he was locked up in prisons in Brisbane (Boggo Road), Sydney (Parramatta, Long Bay) and Melbourne (Pentridge), and escaped from custody three times.
In the 1970s, he appeared as an extra in classic Australian television dramas Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police, and in 2020 he starred in a music video for punk rock band The Chats.
