Steve Chapman's 'ridiculous talk about a pointless project' turns out to be about lost cats
The artist's TEDxRoyal Tunbridge Wells talk sets out to do something only because it could, and ends up asking what makes us human.
TEDx TalksStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 47,874 views a day, 118 times a normal first day on this channel (404).
A ridiculous talk about a pointless project | Steve Chapman | TEDxRoyal Tunbridge Wells
Steve Chapman calls it, right in the title, a ridiculous talk about a pointless project. Eleven hours after it went up on TEDx Talks, it had passed 31,000 views. On this channel, a new talk usually gathers a few hundred in its whole first day.
The contrast is clearest beside its neighbors. The same day brought five talks from TEDxSanDiegoSalon, on peacemaking, hunger on college campuses, store design for neurodivergent shoppers, conversation as a survival skill and giving yourself grace. The busiest of them, Lisa Gralnek's talk on grace, had about 1,500 views. The talk that admits it has no point drew far more than all five put together.
The premise is set out in the description: sometimes the only reason to do a project is because you can. Chapman tells how one such project grew into what the description calls a heartfelt exploration of lost cats, and of what makes us human. The tags point toward street art, humor and connection, so expect a talk that is funny before it is anything else.
Chapman, who also goes by Steve Xoh, is billed as an artist, writer, podcaster and three-time TEDx speaker. The description says he has exhibited alongside Pablo Picasso and David Shrigley. He hosts Creative Adventures, which he calls an accidental podcast and a meandering audio scrapbook of his mind. His own bio ends with the line that best explains this talk: he is at his best when he is not quite sure what he is doing.
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- Channel
- TEDx Talks
- Subscribers
- 44,700,000
- Channel views, pace per day
- 2,902,758 (on a normal day: 2,130,483)
- Video published
- October 2, 2026
- Video views so far
- 31,503 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 47,874
The numbers
Within hours, a talk billed as pointless had found far more viewers than a new TEDx upload usually does in a full day.
💡 Test your knowledge
David Shrigley's giant thumbs-up sculpture "Really Good" stood on the Fourth Plinth of which London square?
The Fourth Plinth, which hosts rotating artworks, is in Trafalgar Square, where Shrigley's "Really Good" was unveiled in 2016.
