A couple of webloggers are raising money for an unfortunate teenager humiliated worldwide after a private video of his energetic lightsaber moves was leaked to the Net.
Webloggers Andy Baio and Jish Mukerji launched a fundraiser Friday for the young man they call the "Star Wars Kid," whose home video has been downloaded millions of times and watched by people all over the world.
The video shows a lone, overweight teenager fighting a mock battle with a broomstick lightsaber. In the two-minute video, the teenager twirls the broomstick ever more energetically while generating his own lightsaber sound effects. The video, which is obviously not for public consumption, is amusing and excruciating.
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Money isn't going to stop the bullying... I sincerely hope there's a Pat Morita sweeping the floors of his school.
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Whatever does'nt kill him will...er...make him bitter and resentful?
The truly sad thing is that he pulls off his Jedi act far more convincingly than Hayden Christensen.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
Probably trained his whole life.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
| IP: Logged
posted
Shouldn't he at least have known enough not to grasp the pole at all locations ranging from the middle to the ends? If it were a lightsaber, he'd've taken his fingers clean off.
Oh, and if you intentionally film yourself being an idiot, don't complain when other people see the film. Dumbass.
[ May 22, 2003, 12:50 AM: Message edited by: TSN ]
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Some people at my school could have used that advice. The three of 'em filmed themselves getting drunk and having sex, then passed this tape around the entire sports team. And they wonder how they got caught and "asked to transfer".
*shakes head*
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
Mary Vallis National Post, with files from The New York Times
An enhanced clip of the teen, identified only as Ghyslain, has drawn more than one million hits on Web sites.
A Quebec high school student who took a video of himself energetically wielding a golf ball retriever has become an international sensation, with at least two million people downloading the clip after his friends leaked it on the Internet 31 days ago.
Stories about Ghyslain, who has been identified only by his first name, have appeared on Web logs, in tech magazines and, yesterday, in The New York Times.
Wearing baggy khakis and an untucked button-down shirt, the 15-year-old wields the golf ball retriever like a Star Wars light sabre and glares into the camera as he spins and lunges, slipping and nearly falling at one point.
He twirls his light sabre with an utter lack of self-consciousness and appears to concentrate entirely on his performance.
"This one really caught on because a lot of the geek world seemed to identify with Ghyslain, this geeky-looking kid that was obviously very free with his body and his own personal space," said Jish Mukerji, a San Francisco biologist who hosts a Web log. "I think we've all played air guitar and wished we were rock stars. For him, it's being a Star Wars guy."
But the Grade 10 student never meant to become the celebrity known worldwide as the "Star Wars Kid." He let loose in the privacy of his school's studio and never meant for anyone to see the clip.
Software developers quickly got hold of the video and enhanced it, adding music and making the stick glow and sound just like the double-bladed light sabre used by Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Several remixes are available on the Web in addition to the original video.
"I think it's one of the fastest spreading videos in the Net's history," said Andy Baio, a Los Angeles computer programmer who hosts the clip on his Web log, waxy.org. "This goes down as one of the biggies."
The clip attracted so much interest that Mr. Baio posted a request for more information about it on his site. Three of Ghyslain's schoolmates claimed responsibility for the prank. The clip was recorded on tape on Nov. 4, 2002. Ghyslain returned the borrowed videotape to a friend. Months later, his friend discovered what was on the tape.
The friend digitized it and uploaded it to Kazaa, a file-sharing service that allows users to download video clips. By May 13, the original video and the souped-up version had been accessed more than 1.1 million times on Mr. Baio's site alone and that number has probably doubled since then because of all the attention.
Reactions to Ghyslain's antics have been pouring in. Mr. Baio fielded more than 300 comments about the clip on his site in a matter of weeks, much of it from nasty people saying "really unkind things" and making fun of Ghyslain.
"I thought it was hypocritical, considering where the traffic was coming from," Mr. Baio said. Most of the viewers were finding the video through links on Star Wars fan sites, video game sites and Web pages devoted to technology.
"These are geeks and nerds and dorks. I thought it was strange and sad that these people were trashing one of their own."
Mr. Baio has removed most of the negative comments from his site. Using the information Ghyslain's friends provided, he asked Mr. Mukerji, who speaks French, to contact the teen and interview him about his unexpected fame.
The two men have become protective of Ghyslain, closely guarding his contact information and refusing to reveal his hometown. Last week, they began a campaign to collect money to buy Ghyslain an iPod digital music player for his troubles.
Hundreds of people responded, raising more than US$2,000 -- enough to buy the Star Wars Kid a laptop computer instead of an iPod. One donor sent US$500.
"[Ghyslain] only did what we have all done at some point in our lives, most of us just never got caught," one supporter writes at waxy.org. "I have developed an affection for this kid.... He represents a part of me that is still inside waiting to be caught."
But Ghyslain would have preferred the video remained private instead of receiving all this unwanted attention. He said he made it for a school project he had directed and was simply acting out some of the moves he had in mind for the actors.
"People were laughing at me," he said in an e-mail. "And it was not funny at all."
posted
"Would I dance like a monkey with a stick on the internet for two thousand dollars?"
If Steve Ballmer can, so can you!
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
The guy shouldn't be so embarassed, there's lots of stupid things people do on camera that make it onto shows like RealTV. Or America's Funnuest Home Video's.
I would also dance like a monkey with a stick to get 2000 dollars.
Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Da_bang80: The guy shouldn't be so embarassed, there's lots of stupid things people do on camera that make it onto shows like RealTV. Or America's Funnuest Home Video's.
Or as inadvertant porn....
Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
