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What We Do in the Shadows season 6 episode 8 “P.I. Undercover: New York” deals with our Staten Island vampire friends discovering the magic of procedural cop dramas. In the process, however, the show also pays homage to another beloved TV moment that has now been forever canonized as an internet meme.
The installment picks up with Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak) discovering that the street outside his crumbling mansion has been shut down to film the popular TV series “P.I. Undercover: New York.” A police procedural in its fourth season, P.I. Undercover is described as “winsomely compelling copaganda” by online poster CR69 a.k.a. Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch). But, of course, all Nandor really needs to know about the show is that something is shooting right outside his home and he wants to be involved. With Colin Robinson and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) sidelined by a B-plot trip to Colin’s old work buddy and his sexually-repressed wife, Nandor is joined in his mission by Laszlo (Matt Berry) and P.I. Undercover superfan Guillermo (Harvey Guillén).
Upon arriving on set, Nandor and Laszlo’s first stop is to ingratiate themselves with actor Cal Bodian (Kevin Pollak), who plays lead detective Jack Mancuso. Laszlo floats in behind Cal, gestures to food on a catering table and says “Ahhh good evening, sir. Can I interest you in a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?”
For the uninitiated (i.e. the the innocents who haven’t had their brain rotted from years of internet exposure), Laszlo referencing “a succulent Chinese meal” just sounds like Exhibit #9,018,203,193 of Matt Berry pulling off an incredible line read (see also: Neeeewue Yaaallk Cittttaaay). For the rest of us sickos, however, it means something more. Berry even teased the reference well ahead of time, revealing back during San Diego Comic-Con that he snuck “a succulent Chinese meal” into the show’s sixth and final season. Now that moment is finally here and it doesn’t disappoint.
But what, exactly, is the significance of all this succulent Chinese meal nonsense? The phrase comes from a viral video that is filled with enduring earworms such as “Gentlemen, this is democracy manifest,” “Get your hand off my penis!,” and of course: “What is the charge? Eating a meal – a succulent Chinese meal?”
Though this footage first aired on Australian television in 1991, it eventually made its way online in 2009 and quickly found fame due to the detained man’s flowery vocabulary and measured, impassioned diction regarding what appears to be a minor incident with police. The clip went so viral, in fact, that it earned the rare honor of becoming a meme with its own proper Wikipedia entry under the name “Democracy Manifest.”
The Democracy Manifest video is already notable enough for being whimsical, good fun. It also, interestingly, was the subject of much online debate and sleuthing. For many years, amateur investigators tried to identify the man being arrested in the clip. Many believed him to be Paul Charles Dozsa, a Hungarian chess player and a notorious dine-and-dasher. In fact, you’ll see Dozsa’s name in the title of the YouTube video above.
It was uncovered by ABC Australia in 2022, however, that the man in the video was named Jack Peter Karlson. Born Cecil George Edwards in 1942, Karlson was a well-known petty criminal and was being arrested in the video for attempting to pay for his succulent Chinese meal with a stolen credit card. Karlson was never charged with the crime and by all accounts came to embrace his unusual online infamy.
Karlson died from prostate cancer on August 7, 2024, well after Matt Berry was able to smuggle one of his iconic lines into the filming of What We Do in the Shadows‘ final season. Now Laszlo’s offer of a succulent Chinese meals serves as both a winking reference and an accidental tribute to an internet trailblazer.
New episodes of What We Do in the Shadows season 6 premiere Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on FX, culminating with the series finale on December 16.
The post What We Do in the Shadows Pays Homage to an Internet Classic appeared first on Den of Geek.
