Probably related to a prohibitively expensive health system in some way.
Not quite, some just refuse to get treatment… or were diagnosed later in life, when you can’t really force anyone to go to a psychiatrist, esepcially if he/she does no harm.
That and humans in general are all crazy in some way. “Normal” is a standard we can try to achieve, but it’s neither realistic nor ideal. At some point a person is sane enough that you have to say “why criticize someone for being themselves?” instead of questioning or distrusting it.
Tricycle Santa!
Toronto had Zanta, a guy who wore red boxers, black boots and a Santa hat and did pushups on top of mailboxes and flexing while shoutting at passersby. If you knew him it was a fun spectacle but for most people he was aggressive and basically a creep.
He was mentally ill for sure, and had a pretty long sad story.
Any Zanta experts please speak up if you’d like to add more context. Pretty sure someone wrote a book or comic about the guy.
What about the singing guy?
Kitten Guy.
Dude was a little strange, but otherwise a good person. He just kept taking in strays, and if he had kittens in need, they went everywhere with him. Most of them ended up at new homes, but he had a few who stuck around. Wasn’t unusual for him to be feeding two or three kittens and have two more sitting on his shoulders.
It was an extremely small town, so he stuck out like a sore thumb. They went everywhere with him. Never caused any trouble.
That’s awesome, sounds like a cool dude!
A bit strange… but yeah, if he isn’t doing any harm 🤷.
My hometown’s got the yellow man. Some random dude who’s wearing nothing but yellow clothes, riding a yellow bicycle around the place. I wonder what his favourite colour might be…
Does he by chance have a small, rather curious monkey with him?
I’m afraid I don’t know the reference. Care to explain?
Curious George’s “friend” is a dude who wears exclusively all yellow.
We have a yellow lady in Montréal.
Is it red?
Brooklyn has artist Elizabeth Sweetheart, the Green Lady. I met her in the subway once and told her I’d seen her interview on Youtube, and it brought me joy to know of someone just loving a color so much and expressing it so fantastically. She gave me a hug :) Genuinely lovely human!
That’s very wholesome. Thank you for sharing.
Helsinki has the laserskater.
Considered a local superhero.
Manchester has Boom Box Barry.
You’ll see him riding around and people smile and wave at him. He is, as we say up here, a sound lad (no pun intended).
There are a load. There’s the guy with a flashing massive speaker in his wheelchair; there’s Jesus tax guy; there’s Johnny Cash; there’s purple Ackie; and there are deffo a frw more that I can’t quite remember at the mo. Barry is the OG though.
Edit: I can’t believe I forgot that guy who dances like Jake the Dog on Piccadilly gardens.
Ass-man of Szeged, in Hungarian ‘Szegedi Picsaember’. He wears very-very tight jean shorts. Even during winter.
Here is an article about him: https://444.hu/2013/05/03/holgyeink-es-uraink-a-szegedi-picsaember
He is pulling it off.
He gives dean from community energy
Those are the tightest shorts I’ve ever seen. He does have amazing legs though.
carrot man in melbourne, australia
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/12/melbourne-fitzroy-carrot-man
And Baba Desi the Belgrave wizard.
I either live in the right part of the world, or the wrong part, because I’ve never seen this stuff.
IDK, we have a few legends like that around here, I presumed every place has at least one.
This one is sad because she was obviously mentally ill and not getting the help she needed, but it’s the best example I have of the city I grew up in.
We had “Toonie Lady.” She would roam around downtown begging for a Toonie and would get very upset if you gave her anything else, even if it was more.
For the non-Canadians, a Toonie is a $2 coin.
This is amusing to me because we have the “20ct guy” in my city who always claims he only needs 20ct and as soon as he sees any more money he’ll steal it from you.
We had one woman like this everyone called “dime bag Debbie” because she always asked for “ten dollars for chicken”
Not happy (but still accepting) if you gave her anything other than $10, and a few people I knew apparently tried to buy her raw and cooked chicken, as well as chicken sandwiches from various restaurants and that was also unhappily accepted.
I think the $10 thing is a coincidence, and people call her “dimebag” because they assume she does drugs. No idea if she does or not though.
Pallet guy. Very few know his face, but we all know his tiny car and stack of 10 pallets on top speeding down the interstate.
Are you a trucker? Or is this a meme? If it’s the former, I’m impressed and worried that that’s common enough to be recognizable.
, just a local.
RIP Sailor Dan of Saskatoon
Austin used to have Leslie. He was frequently seen riding around Town Lake on his bike, sporting naught but his hot pants or brightly colored thong. RIP
What happened to Leslie?
Poop-man here in Gothenburg, Sweden.
A dude that has been banned from all music festivals in Sweden and many others in neighboring countries because he covers himself with shit and bathes in urinals. He has also smeared shit all over the walls in multiple places, including one of the ferries here. He never drinks or does drugs apparently, he’s just fucked up. Been well known since the 90s.
Dude needs a therapist
Scatman… yeah, like it better.
He was a jazz singer before ever became the Scatman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MUhl26mAZM