Did you know that Jack Karlson – the Brisbane man behind the viral internet meme 'Democracy Manifest' – spent the mid-1970s playing several bit parts on Australian television? In an ironic twist, they were mostly police procedurals, with Karlson's characters brushing shoulders with fictional coppers from shows like Division 4, Cop Shop, Matlock Police and Homicide.

Retrospective viewers can spot earlier traces of Karlson's theatrical flair in this clip from the Homicide episode 'Double Take'. In an amazing display of life imitating art, Karlson plays a character with a line that echoes his later infamous public monologue. ‘… I know it’s a free country, democracy and all that…’ rings like a bell, foretelling his future viral quips from Karlson's real-life arrest some 15 years later, when democracy would once again manifest.

'Double Take' – Episode 493 of Homicide – followed an armed robbery that develops into murder. Karlson plays a man who reports his car stolen to the police. Homicide often drew from real-life cases and is the longest-running Australian weekly primetime drama in history, airing from October 1964 to January 1977.