Image courtesy of Connor Thompson With the holidays approaching hot and fast, it’s time to start thinking about what magical gifts you could bestow upon your loved ones. Do you opt for something thoughtful? Creative? Funny? Well, Connor Thompson and Chris Elphick believe their particular creation can combine all three into one gift that’s sure to keep the good times coming this season of giving.
Cockadoodles: A VERY Adult Activity Book is the brainchild of Thompson and Elphick, two 28-year-old friends hailing from the far-away land of Ontario. Straying from the intricate, fancy, and precise pictures found in the typical adult colouring books of today, these two buddies decided to take a more classic approach with their book, featuring word searches, spot the differences, mazes, and puzzles. There’s just one other noticeable difference.
“We wanted it to be a very classic colouring book, like we remember from when we were kids,” says Elphick. “Except it’s all dick themed!”
In November of last year, Thompson commented to his girlfriend that none of the so-called “adult” colouring books on the market seemed to have any real adult content. As a result, a couple months later when he couldn’t shake — or stop laughing about — the idea of creating a colouring book full of dicks (yes, that’s right, penises), he introduced it to Chris.
“This project has been one enormous year-long dick joke,” says Thompson.
The long and hard journey, made up of hundreds of hours of questionable research, suspicious browser histories, and seemingly never-ending jokes, has paid off because Cockadoodles hit the market at the start of this month. Since then, the pair have been featured on radio stations in Toronto and Hamilton, and have been pleasantly surprised by the response and support they’ve received thus far.
“My parents didn’t believe me at first,” says Thompson. “It was like ‘Hey Mom and Dad, I know we already have a podcast about the 1990’s, but P.S. we’re also making a colouring book full of dicks!’ Now that it’s actually real though, they just think it’s funny.”
Thompson’s parents aren’t the only ones who think so. With a two-four of tall boys in hand, 20 ready-to-colour participants, a stack of Cockadoodles, and a couple hundred Snapchats, their first trial run of the book couldn’t have been better received. Getting feedback and working harder to push the limits of the activity book has left Thompson and Elphick with a strange mixture of emotions, and the realization that it’s too late to pull out now.
“We originally just imagined it as something you’d give to someone else to see the look on their face,” says Elphick. “Something that, when they open the book up, just hits them.”
Cockadoodles also allows plenty of room for creative juices (of colouring, you sickos) to flow. The pictures can be approached simplistically, or tackled in more detail. The list of “Who you can buy Cockadoodles for” that’s been compiled on their Indie GoGo page, ensures that no one can, or will, be left out from enjoying this Canadian colouring book.
“It’s under $20 and makes a great gift,” says Elphick. “We have picture themes of Christmas, and winter already, and (if it’s received well), there will be more pictures coming!”
At the end of the day, this is just a story about two 28-year-olds with a colouring book full of penises.
If you want to help validate Chris and Connor’s past year of looking at thousands of pictures of dicks you can buy Cockadoodle on their Indie GoGo or check them out on Facebook.
You guys are my heroes!