Billy Herrington (Wrestling Series)

About

Billy Herrington is an American actor affectionately nicknamed “Big Brother” (兄貴, aniki) within the Japanese video-sharing community Nico Nico Douga. He is the subject of many MAD movies based on various clips from “Workout Muscular Men 3” and other productions where he is seen wrestling in panties, which are often used as a bait & switch video for comical relief.

Origin

Online interest in Billy sparkled when 2chan users began posting some of his videos like “Workout Muscular Men 3” on YouTube and Nico Nico Douga in 2007:

In similar vein to RickRolling, Billy Herrington’s homoerotic wrestling clips became a popular source material for bait & switch trolling; one of the most notable examples depicted Billy practicing what the Japanese call “Gachimuchi Pantsu Wrestling,” in which the loser must allow his pants to be taken off as penalty.

Spread & Development

A few months later, the first MAD movies were produced using the footage in various ways such as spanking sounds for rhythms in music based MADs or videos featuring a 3D model of Billy himself. Some of the videos are also known as “Gachimuchi”.

Billy Herrington wrestling videos are deliberately tagged with misleading labels like “Wrestling Series (レスリングシリーズ resuringu shirīzu))”, “Forest Fairy” (森の妖精 mori no yōsei) and “Philosophy” (哲学 tetsugaku).

The nickname “Fairy of Forest” (森の妖精 or “Mori no Yousei”) comes from a scene in one of his works, where he appears as a fairy coming from the forest. In Japanese, the term “forest fairy” can be utilized as a jargon label for “homosexual.”

Derivatives

Kirby Version:

Touhou Version:

Hentai Game Opening Parody:

Caramelldansen Version:

Eureka Seven Version:

Toradora! Version:

Naruto Version:

Bleach Version:

“Toxic” 3D Model Version:

Vocaloid / Initial D Version:

K-On! Version:

Bayonetta Version:

Billy’s Reaction to his Internet Fame

Billy would eventually be asked to visit Japan to participate in a live Nico Nico Douga online event, between the 13th and 14th of February 2009. At the event, model kit makers Good Smile Company announced they would manufacture a limited-edition Herrington figure to be released in July 2009.
It became the subject of many blog posts, including a YouTube video of an interview prior to the show:

Here is a translated version of the original Japanese article about it.

A transcript of the event divided in 3 parts, can be found on YouTube as well as Nico Nico Douga. More than 10,000 fans gathered to see their idol:

There was also a night talk show from the same day, divided in 4 video parts on Youtube:

Sources

On Nicodouga (japanese / free registration required) :
- ordered by recent comments : http://www.nicovideo.jp/tag/レスリングシリーズ
- ordered by view count : http://www.nicovideo.jp/tag/レスリングシリーズ?sort=r
- ordered by upload date : http://www.nicovideo.jp/tag/レスリングシリーズ?sort=f
レスリングシリーズ, in Nicodouga encyclopedia (japanese) : http://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/レスリングシリーズ