I know that he's a pretty terrifying concept to wrap your mind around. In the midst of panic, we're prone to developing conspiracy theories to fill in what we cannot otherwise grasp. But basically, the answer is: well, probably not. Even if he is a hoax, he's still a huge fuck-up for a number of reasons…

The evidence seems to show that Chris is a real person. He spends our tax dollars on video games, assorted gaming trinkets, and collectible card games. His spare time (and since he is unemployed, that means all of it) is spent menacing shopkeepers that sell collectible cards and being that inappropriately old guy that hangs out at stores that sell collectible card games. There's quite a bit of evidence to back up his existence from candid photographs taken at nerd stores and elsewhere, personal testimony from those who have dealt with him, and public records regarding his run-ins with the law.

Most of the evidence for him being a hoax isn't so much as manufactured as completely misinterpreted. For example, his artwork is so bad that it must be professionally bad. Perhaps a right-handed person with no talent in the first place set out to draw/trace artwork with their left hand and color it with low-quality crayons while heavily intoxicated. Their intent was to create something that a six year-old would be too ashamed to hang on the fridge as part of a greater piece of Internet performance art.

In a way, I kind of like this idea, but I still doubt it. If we look at the proportion of talent-free and delusional people, the Venn diagrams overlap pretty heavily. Fortunately for those of us watching the endless nosedive of Chris Chan, he's also at the intersection of shameless, egotistical, and self-promoting. The end-result is the magnum opus of Sonichu…

But you ask: isn't Sonichu is much the same? It's professionally bad. This one I'm not going to really deny all that much. It is a work of negative genius and it's so amazingly funny that I continue to laugh at it to this day. It's the marriage of two things of great importance to autistic people all around the Internet… but really, it's just coincidence and I'm sure many children have imagined the exact same thing. Except they were children…

Another interesting fact is that his brother is a writer. Well, he's a film critic, but he is nationally syndicated and of some minor importance. While it is clear that Chris has no talent, his family does seem to have some potential for it. You may ask if this guy is behind it, and I kind of doubt it. This project (Chris) would be far too intense for someone already working full-time… it really does take a full-time freak for the output he once had.

I'm afraid not. I actually hoped there would be more evidence of it being some piece of performance art, because otherwise Chris is just so sad…

Basically, it boils down to money. It was funny at one point, but now it has been going on forever and all we're really waiting for now is either the next sad turn or the obituary, whichever comes first. If it was supposed to be a springboard to a more lucrative line of marketing, then wouldn't we have seen him bail by now? If it's for art and nothing more, that's just suicidal dedication.

What if he bails now? He looks at charges of defrauding SSDI… unless he's been living on a trust fund or something. Which is doubtful.

His parents would have had to be complicit in the project as well given all they've contributed to what we know of Chris. Their confusion is either high caliber acting or genuine. Given the consistency of their performance, it looks genuine… again, sad as shit.

Even if it was just art, then he's still wasted his life. Literally any other line of work would have been more lucrative than living on welfare and making youtube videos.

So, probably not. The sad beast lurches on to his final end somewhere in the distance…