Man behind iconic 'succulent Chinese meal' meme dies aged 82 (2024)

Jack Karlson, the man who shot to fame after being arrested for enjoying a ‘succulent chinese meal,’ has died aged 82.

The 82-year-old, whose encounter at a Chinese restaurant in Brisbane is considered to be the quintessential Australian meme, was a serial prison-breaker and small-time crook who went under a number of aliases throughout the course of his life.

He shot to fame after a news clip of his arrest at China Key restaurant in 1991 was uploaded on to the internet in 2009..

In the now-infamous clip, which has been described as ‘the most iconic piece of improvised theatre in Australian history’, Karlson can be seen getting escorted out of a restaurant by several police officers, who usher him into a nearby car.

‘I’m under arrest? I’m under what?’ Karlson booms theatrically as he resists the arresting officers. ‘What is the charge? Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?’

‘Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest’ he declares- before bellowing at an officer to ‘get your hands off my penis’ moments later.

Chris Reason, the Channel Seven journalist who reported Karlson’s arrest 33 years ago, paid tribute to him on Twitter, announcing that ‘Mr Democracy Manifest has died’.

Karlson died at 6.31pm on Wednesday, in a hospital bed surrounded by his family.

In a statement, his niece Kim Edwards said Karlson spent the last few weeks of his life in hospital, where he ‘had a few attempts to escape and pulled his cords out a couple of times and asked us many time to sneak in his pipe’.

Edwards said her uncle was ‘battling many ailments but what got him in the end was [systemic inflammatory response syndrome]’.

‘As a final send off, we gave uncle a last taste of red wine through his drip just before it was removed,’ she said.

Karlson died the day after his 82nd birthday- or so it is believed. He had gone by a series of pseudonyms throughout the course of his life, ‘Jack Karlson’ merely being the latest one, and had changed his date of birth on several occasions.

Heath Davis, a filmmaker who is producing a documentary on Karlson’s life, said he expects ‘huge amounts’ of information about his identity and exploits to surface following news of his death.

Among the stories already uncovered of Karlson’s prison escapes include fantastical tales of him picking the lock cuffing him to a sleeping officer and leaping from a moving train and swimming off a prison island before being rescued by a benevolent fisher.

‘A regular person who experienced his life would have passed away years ago,’ Davis said.

‘But Jack just had this zest for life that made you go: this guy is made of mercury … he might just live forever’.

Stoll Watt, the police officer who arrested Karlson back in 1991, said there are many different versions of the story floating around out there.

Speaking to Davis during the making of his documentary, Watt said Karlson was ‘some sort of trained actor, he learned that in prison, but he was also a natural showman,’

‘He bluffed his way out of a court in Sydney, said he was a detective, and to do that he must have been a very confident showman … and a bit of a conman as well’.

‘He said to me that I was the only copper he never hated,’ Watt added. ‘He called me “comrade” and he said “come up and spend the night with me and we’ll have a few”, he calls it, “the juice of the red grapes”.’

Davis described Karlson as a ‘wordsmith’ who could’ve been a millionaire if he’d found a way to trademark the many phrases which have become everyday parts of the Australian lexicon.

Yet despite his viral fame, Karlson was not tech-savvy and shunned the internet, never truly understanding the true impact of his role in popular culture.

‘He is folklore and doesn’t even know it,’ Davis said.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

MORE : New bombshell lawsuit reveals ‘terror and mental anguish’ of Titan passengers

MORE : Mpox could be declared a global emergency after WHO calls urgent meeting

MORE : British dad admits scratching his and his children’s initials on Pompeii wall

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.