Fleming pictured at the Wilbur Theater in 2017.
"Back to my thesis question: 'Am I a man?' Let me answer this anecdotally: I was walking around the streets of Clinton, Massachusetts a couple years ago, and a guy pulls up in a pickup truck. You know, real Buffalo Wings kinda guy. He rolls down his window, he looks at me, and he just goes: 'Nope.'"
Chris Fleming
(born January 29, 1987 in Stow, Massachusetts) is a comedian and internet personality most famous for his web series Gayle. His routines draw heavily on his life experiences, making liberal use of snarky, semi-surreal humor and rambling, absurdly specific descriptions to skewer his topic du jour.
His roles outside of his channel include:
- BIGTOP BURGER (2020-) as Cesare
- Adventure Time: Distant Lands (2021) as New Death
"Those tropes are for babies." "I know they're for babies, but I need them."
- Alternative Character Interpretation: In-universe. He proposes that the events of "You're The One That I Want" actually depict Danny Zuko undergoing a complete and total Freak Out.Chris: (after John Travolta makes a particularly odd noise) NOT GOOD! [...] That is a howler monkey warning others— I don't think Zuko ever comes back. When he drops out of the frame, they have to CGI the rest of the film!
- Ambiguously Gay / Ambiguous Gender: Invoked and often played for laughs. Chris frequently jokes about how his androgyny draws odd reactions from people in certain walks of life, and, while discussing his wildly vacillating self-esteem, mentions that when, at the height of what he calls the "Self-esteem Tower of Terror", he feels like going to the DMV to change the job on his license to "queer icon".
- He dated Melissa Strype, actor in and director of the Gayle series."'This guy has a girlfriend?' Yeah, we met on Waze."
- He dated Melissa Strype, actor in and director of the Gayle series.
- Arc Words: In the "Davis" videos: "We made a deal! One viral video in 2015 for a lifetime of servitude!"
- Broken Record: One of his routines discusses the "unseen, malevolent force" preventing Elton John from ending "Bennie and the Jets."
- Deal with the Devil: Or rather, with his "he-niece" Davis (apparently, everything's relative to the niece in Hell).
- Derailed Train of Thought: A staple of his comedic style; he'll often cycle through several in rapid succession. See "Am I a Man?"
- Game Face: Parodied in "Polyamorous" when the creepy couple that invite Chris to dinner flicker and appear as Uglydoll-like fanged pink monsters after they reveal that they're polyamorous, leading to a Chase Scene."How long have you been hunting me?!"
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: He takes a brief moment to clarify during "Crazy Pete" that the eponymous nickname wasn't something they called the guy, but something he called himself.
- Odd Couple: One of his videos imagines Sufjan Stevens and Ben Folds sharing a one-bedroom apartment.Ben Folds: (reading off a list of Top 100 Girl's Names in 1980 while pounding piano) SARAH!!! ANNA!!! NICOLE!!!Sufjan Stevens: (singing quietly to an understated string instrumental while cradling a tambourine) Fearful and sad / Ben's hurting the piano / I want a nephew so bad
- Person as Verb: Chris enjoys using this kind of phrase."My mom will email me from like, nancy@octopus.com: 'Hey Chris, did your dumb ass know that an aquarium octopus Andy Dufresned out of a sink drain and started over in Akron, Ohio and opened up its own Subway franchise?'"
- Self-Deprecation: Often.
- Trophy Child: "Adorable Father Son Duo" has Chris playing a Stage Dad on an Idol-type singing competition performing a duet with his young son:The only reason I had you / Was to save my career / So if we harmonize and I gaze into your eyes / Like I don't do at home / My career can take off and I can finally / Cheat on my wife
- Troubled Fetal Position: Every time he portrays Sufjan Stevens.
- Wacky Startup Workplace: Exaggerated in "Google Office," where the "office" is just a beach."Here at Google, they take care of you. Every day at noontime, they send by your high school crush to tell you how awesome you are. ... Every day at 2:30 it rains Belgian waffles and bichon frise puppies."
- We Named the Monkey "Jack": The protagonist of "Google Office" names a puppy after himself.
