Why Damon Lindelof Owns a Drawing of Robert Kirkman Masturbating Sasquatch

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | June 3, 2016 |

By Dustin Rowles | Celebrity | June 3, 2016 |

Back in 2011, before The Walking Dead was the huge juggernaut that it now is, Robert Kirkman appeared on a live version of the Nerdist podcast, where he was joined by Lost showrunner and friend, Damon Lindelof. On that day was born a piece of Nerdist lore, a moment that is still referenced on the podcast (including the most recent one, in which Kirkman appeared for the third time).

I speak, of course, of “Sasquatching.”

It came about because a fan from the live audience asked Robert Kirkman what he’d do in the event of an actual zombie apocalypse. Kirkman said that he’d basically kill his family and himself, which he believed to be a better outcome than living during a The Walking Dead-style apocalypse.

Matt Mira, however, offered that his biggest fear about living in the zombie apocalypse would be going up North and discovering zombie Sasquatch.

“Wait, Sasquatch is around,” Kirkman said. “I retract my answer. I’ll go hang out with Sasquatch, and then hang myself … while masturbating each other … getting jerked off by a Sasquatch foot sounds pretty good, right?”

It was then that Damon Lindelof offered $1000 to anyone who would draw a picture of Robert Kirkman and Sasquatch masturbating each other with nooses around their neck.

And thus was born Sasquatching. But the coda is what makes the story so great.

Years later, a writer on The Walking Dead, Curtis Gwinn, went to work in the writer’s room on The Leftovers, which is when he discovered a drawing in Damon Lindelof’s office of Robert Kirkman giving Sasquatch a handjob. Not knowing the backstory, he took a photo and texted it to Kirkman and asked, “What the hell is going on here?”

It turns out, Lindelof actually paid $1,000 to not one, but three people who drew Kirkman and Sasquatch jerking each other off (one of whom was in tears because she was able to use the money to pay her student loans).

If you are curious, yes: Those drawings do exist. In fact, Damon Lindelof turned them into T-shirts and put them in this bag for the Nerdist guys.

Thanks @DamonLindelof for the @RobertKirkman Sasquatch handy shirts! http://tumblr.com/xpq3p331ln

— Jonah Ray Rodrigues (@jonahray) July 25, 2011

Here, via Imgur, are the other Sasquatch drawings.