Talk:Carl Bird: Difference between revisions

Line 1:

== Origin and provenance ==

Carl is a pastiche of various characters I have known and encountered throughout my life:

* My father, who is really the genesis of it all. He was a high school dropout at 17, and shortly thereafter was effectively a vagabond for roughly two years. He also spent his 30s playing in unsuccessful Chicago-area bar bands at night and doing manual labor during the day. Many stories of him were told in hushed tones by people in his home town in Tennessee, but all I could reliably gather was that he got involved in a driving shootout on one occasion, which ended in him driving close to the other car so the passenger could hit the other driver with a glass bottle. He also got in a bar fight and hit a dude with a lead weighted blackjack. Among other things, he is spoken of as an expert gambler and legendary pool hustler.

* The various colorful characters who came into and out of our lives as a result of my father's involvement in the Chicago-area music scene. (But hey, at least I got to meet Jim Peterik and Dave Bickler from Survivor!)

* My uncle (on my father's side) who was chronically unemployed and addicted to pain pills for much of his life, and swindled me out of a few bucks as a kid on more than one occasion. His main source of income was collecting scrap and shade tree mechanic work.

* The various colorful characters in my father's home town, with names like Avery, Churd, and Bumper.

* My uncle (on my mother's side) who served hard time for bank robbery and also stabbed a taxi driver while living in Iran.

* "Big Mike", the guy who sold my dad bootleg VHS pornography, who had a habit of drinking and driving which culminated in him crashing his car through a diner.

* The guy at the flea market with a ponytail who sold twelve year-old me any Bowie knife I wanted.

* My wife's uncle, who was in and out of jail for minor offenses his whole life, loved to race stock cars, and was perpetually looking for the next way he was going to get on disability or unemployment.

=== Why Big Bird? ===

That is a question with a simple answer: random luck.

I have a friend who around 2008-2012 had a tendency to bring me loads of junk to look through and keep what I wanted. One day, he had a crate of items, one of which was a toy Big Bird from the 1980s that looked like it had been on the floor of some guy's van for the past decade. I commented, "that looks like Big Bird's older, meaner cousin with a prison record!" We made some quick modifications:

* A name change to Carl (likely partially inspired by Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force)

* Turning one eye inwards to give the appearance of lazy eye

* Sharpie'd on prison tattoos

* A dollar store gold chain

* Surgery to remove the malfunctioning pull string voice box (retconned as an operation to remove his kidney, which he sold to repay gambling debts)

And Carl was born!

== Reputation ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+== Origin and provenance ==
+Carl is a pastiche of various characters I have known and encountered throughout my life:
+* My father, who is really the genesis of it all. He was a high school dropout at 17, and shortly thereafter was effectively a vagabond for roughly two years. He also spent his 30s playing in unsuccessful Chicago-area bar bands at night and doing manual labor during the day. Many stories of him were told in hushed tones by people in his home town in Tennessee, but all I could reliably gather was that he got involved in a driving shootout on one occasion, which ended in him driving close to the other car so the passenger could hit the other driver with a glass bottle. He also got in a bar fight and hit a dude with a lead weighted blackjack. Among other things, he is spoken of as an expert gambler and legendary pool hustler.
+* The various colorful characters who came into and out of our lives as a result of my father's involvement in the Chicago-area music scene. (But hey, at least I got to meet Jim Peterik and Dave Bickler from Survivor!)
+* My uncle (on my father's side) who was chronically unemployed and addicted to pain pills for much of his life, and swindled me out of a few bucks as a kid on more than one occasion. His main source of income was collecting scrap and shade tree mechanic work.
+* The various colorful characters in my father's home town, with names like Avery, Churd, and Bumper.
+* My uncle (on my mother's side) who served hard time for bank robbery and also stabbed a taxi driver while living in Iran.
+* "Big Mike", the guy who sold my dad bootleg VHS pornography, who had a habit of drinking and driving which culminated in him crashing his car through a diner.
+* The guy at the flea market with a ponytail who sold twelve year-old me any Bowie knife I wanted.
+* My wife's uncle, who was in and out of jail for minor offenses his whole life, loved to race stock cars, and was perpetually looking for the next way he was going to get on disability or unemployment.
+=== Why Big Bird? ===
+That is a question with a simple answer: random luck.
+I have a friend who around 2008-2012 had a tendency to bring me loads of junk to look through and keep what I wanted. One day, he had a crate of items, one of which was a toy Big Bird from the 1980s that looked like it had been on the floor of some guy's van for the past decade. I commented, "that looks like Big Bird's older, meaner cousin with a prison record!" We made some quick modifications:
+* A name change to Carl (likely partially inspired by Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
+* Turning one eye inwards to give the appearance of lazy eye
+* Sharpie'd on prison tattoos
+* A dollar store gold chain
+* Surgery to remove the malfunctioning pull string voice box (retconned as an operation to remove his kidney, which he sold to repay gambling debts)
+And Carl was born!
 == Reputation ==

Jon (talk | contribs)