Chris (Simpsons Artist)

Caroline Desrosiers:

Any man can be a father, but it takes a special man to be a feather.

Will Butler:

You're listening to Say My Meme, the podcast that describes the internet's best memes for a blind audience. I'm your co-host Will Butler from Be My Eyes, and I'm joined by Caroline Desrosiers from Scribely. For those of us who listen to Say My Meme, and I guess that's you and me for sure, jury's out on who else that is, they might remember a particular meme from a couple of weeks ago with the mailman. Can you jog people's memory in case they don't Carolyn?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. That meme was from our Weird Memes episode, and it's amazing. It's one of my favorites, and it's just a weird kind of like comedic illustrative meme. It's just a suggestion about how you can give back to your mailman, and just show your appreciation

Will Butler:

By sucking on his fingers

Caroline Desrosiers:

By sucking on his fingers.

Will Butler:

Yeah. So, we're here to explain that meme, but inspired by the weirdness of that meme, we did a little bit of digging and turned up this meme artist named Chris Simpsons, but that's not really his real name, is it? Carolyn, do you want to tell us a little bit about our meme artist of the day?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. So, he goes by Chris (Simpsons Artist), and he's an anonymous UK-based comedic cartoonist, and also an author, that was kind of inspired in his style by the Simpsons show. So he's taken that style and then he's created his own characters. Some are fictional, some are real, and he just has like a cult following at this point on the internet.

Will Butler:

What is it about his illustrations? They're really kind of... They remind me of airplane, evacuation illustrations, or weird birthday cards, what's going on here?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, that's a good way to describe them. They're basically simple illustrations, using a lot of muted pastel colors. They're very simple, it's all about, kind of this childlike style that he has. Also, I feel like a lot of the characters have very cartoonish faces that are kind of strange or off-looking.

Will Butler:

It looks like a technical guide. There was really no artistic talent, they just are trying to convey a message, but in this case his messages are just quite strange and a stream of consciousness.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. So it's a little bit about the visuals. But also, they're like stories. And maybe you're just kind of on this stream of consciousness journey. There's often a lot of text on his images, and they lead to these strange and nonsensical observations about life that are pretty fun.

Will Butler:

So, if we don't overdescribe the images, it's because they're pretty simple illustrations, but get ready for some weird folks. Because there's just some strange ones.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Pretty weird, right?

Will Butler:

Should we hit them with the first Chris Simpson's meme?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, sure. And I'm going to use kind of a different style with these. Because I feel like because he has a stream of consciousness approach, I'm going to describe the works in that way. So, follow along with me. So we have, with this first one, a beautiful, partly cloudy day, and a woman walking towards us on a grass lawn. And she's simply looking back over her shoulder, over at a small boy, who's walking just a few paces behind her. And above this, there's texts that reads, "Let go of the things in your life that are holding you back, like your boring son." And then the woman says, "See you in hell." The child responds, "Mama."

Will Butler:

It sounds really dark when you describe it like that.

Caroline Desrosiers:

It does.

Will Butler:

But it's just because the illustration is so light and bright and the grass is green and the sky is blue, and it looks like a mother and her child walking in a lovely outdoor day, and it's like, "Goodbye son."

Caroline Desrosiers:

"See you in hell."

Will Butler:

"See you in hell."

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, just totally unexpected.

Will Butler:

Yeah, yeah. The message does not fit the meme. Okay. That's the tone we're going with here. Chris Simpsons' very strange and very kind of out of pocket memes. The second one I think is probably the most bizarre one, but, maybe not so bizarre when you think about it.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes, yes. I agree very bizarre. Still you kind of have to use your imagination with this one. So this is a story about the milkman, and we have a side view of a man on all fours, and he's just staring at you. And he's wearing, what looks like one of those official, black and white milkman's hats and has this generally pleasant expression. But next to him is a woman and a girl, and they both have milk mustaches and vacant expressions. They're each holding up a glass of milk and the little girl is giving you the thumbs up. So the milkman has texts that reads, "Who wants some milk?" And he's shooting milk into a bottle, a milk bottle from one of the udder teats that are just hanging down from his stomach. So he actually has like an udder, and he's filling a bottle with milk.

Will Butler:

I was wondering, when you were going to mention that he has a full onset of like a cow's udder with five teats?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes. Like flesh colored teats.

Will Butler:

He's actively like milking himself.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes, yes. He is, yeah.

Will Butler:

And it's just labeled, "The milkman." On top. No commentary.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, totally. So you're like, "Wow, that's strange." But then, this is, I feel like a true Chris Simpsons moment right here. The woman's saying, "Thanks milkman." And the kid says, "Malk."

Will Butler:

Malk. M-A-L-K.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Just like malk. Yeah. It's just so a weird little parting thought there at the end, malk, I guess.

Will Butler:

The period on the end of the strange sentence, that we just-

Caroline Desrosiers:

So I guess that would be like the milk that comes from your milkman would be malk, not milk.

Will Butler:

Oh, man, no.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Man milk.

Will Butler:

Okay, let's move on. This next one is... They keep getting stranger and stranger. Actually, I'm going to take back what I said before.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes. Okay. So, here we have a boy wearing a blue shirt and it's tucked into pink shorts, and he's standing kind of like in repose, and holding up a long pale green feather in front of his face. And it looks to me like he's sort of admiring it. And next to this image is a close up of that same feather and the kids' hands holding it. So we see at the end of the feather, just below the tip is the face of a smiling bald man with a double chin. All right?

Will Butler:

The kid's holding a feather, and then when you look at what's in his hand, it's a feather with a guy's face on it.

Caroline Desrosiers:

With a guy's face on it, yeah. And the caption above the comic reads, "Any man can be a father, but it takes a special man to be a feather." And the boy is saying, "I love you papa." And the feather father says, "I love you as well son."

Will Butler:

Is there anything more to this than just the similarities between the words, feather and father?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I think that this is one I might have to think about for a few days, but right now it seems like nonsense.

Will Butler:

But it's one of those things where you're sitting around a campfire and someone's like, "Good news guys, my wife's pregnant." And everyone's like, "Yay." And then it gets quiet and people don't really know what to say, and someone goes, "Well, any man can be a father. A Feather, it's something else entirely."

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. Yeah. Now, that would be something special.

Will Butler:

Okay. I think we've saved the best Chris Simpsons meme for last.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. This was in independently, both of our favorites.

Will Butler:

Yeah, definitely.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes. Best for last. All right. So-

Will Butler:

I feel-

Caroline Desrosiers:

... we have-

Will Butler:

Oh, sorry. I don't want to interrupt, but I feel like with this one, you can almost just lead with the caption, and then describe it later.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh.

Will Butler:

You know what I mean?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

In my opinion, when I was reading the alt text, without having seen it, I was already laughing. Right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

I think this one kind of, the caption speaks for itself.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Okay. All right. Let's try that. So, the caption above the image reads, "When my fingers go wrinkly in the bath, I always imagine that an old man is washing me." And then, it's an image of an older man and a younger man in a bathtub, and the old man is rubbing the man's shoulders from behind, and he just says, "Just relax." And the man responds, "Thank you old man."

Will Butler:

Maybe this is an entirely visual joke because, when your fingers get pruny, it really does look like an older person's hands, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I think it's also like very tactile.

Will Butler:

That's true,

Caroline Desrosiers:

When I saw this, I actually touched my own shoulders, and I was like, "Oh yeah. Actually it would kind of feel like someone's touching you from behind." Like they're not your hands when they get that waterlogged. So, they're like separate from you, and it would feel that way if you closed your eyes and imagined it.

Will Butler:

And the old guy kind of looks like a Jack Nicholson type.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Yeah, he does, yeah. He's kind of balding, I guess. And they're both a little out of shape. I don't know. That also adds to the absurdity, it's just that these two men in a bathtub together. Just that.

Will Butler:

Yeah. Younger guy, full head of hair, but big smile on his face.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

Thank you old man. Well, Chris Simpsons, whoever he is he out there, again, he's anonymous as far as we are concerned. Some really great and bizarre memes, and I thank you Carolyn for bringing these to us today.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh yeah. We're super fans at this point. These are hilarious.

Will Butler:

Definitely. This is going to give me some food for thought for the week, and if anyone figures out what's going on with feather father, you can always write to us at hello@saymymeme.com, and give us your ideas too about what other types of memes you want to hear about, or who you might like to hear on the show next season. So, until next time, thanks for joining us, and [crosstalk 00:13:13] next week.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Later.

‍