About

God (Age: 59) (神(59歳), Kami (Go Jū Kyū Sai)) depicts a 59-year-old long haired man wearing a wizard-like outfit while playing a drum. Various parodies posted in Nico Nico Douga (NND) depict him beating the drum in sync with other well known music video remixes, especially with Touhou related material.

Origin

The original video is taken from a short named "People in Order" by Lenka Clayton and James Price. It originally aired on UK’s Channel 4 in May, 2006 and was presented in several film festivals in 2006-2008.^[1] Among them, the Portable Film Festival, an online film festival in Australia^[2], officially uploaded this video to their web site^[3] and YouTube in 2007. The short shows people aged from 1 to 100 playing the same drum one after another, and the video on YouTube became a viral hit around the begining of 2008.

This video was also reported by a Japanese web magazine GIGAZINE^[4], and was reproduced to NND by a reader of that magazine in January, 2008.^[5]

On NND, it hadn't been popular as much as that on YouTube. But some NND users focused attention on the unique looks of 59-year-old man in this video. Because his looks reminded Japanese people of the typical image of god appearing on video games, he gradually became to be called "God" by them.

Spread

The fad of this video on Japanese web was triggered by one MAD video posted to NND in September 11th, 2009, and it was titled "Night of Nights(Knights) by God(Age:59)".^[6] The video depicts the 59-year-old God playing in sync with the music remix Night of Nights (aka Night of Knights). This video has garnered more than 300,000 views in NND.

Since the uploading of this video, many other parodies have been created. And "God (Age: 59)" was established as the nickname of this man.^[7]

"I wish I would pass the exam.", "May my confession of love be acomplished.", "I wish I would get a girlfriend" "I wish I would grow more taller""May Mai Waifu come out from the display.", "I wish I would go to the world of 2D.", "May all happy people die!!", etc…

In addition, many NND users began to make a wish to this "God" by comments in the original video. By this, his scene on the original has been filled with "bullet curtain" of many NND users' comments for wish.

The Brave (Age:15) / The Smile (Age:40)

The 59-year-old God is often accompanied by the 15-year-old teen, aka The Brave (Age:15) (勇者フィフティーン, Yusha Fifteen)^[8], and the 40-year-old man, aka The Smile (Age:40) ((＾皿＾)(40歳), pron. Sumairu YonJussai). ^[9]

The Brave (Age:15) is a male teen wearing a green medieval robe yelling "Fifteen!" while beating the drum. Because He looked like braves in role playing games, He was named like this. And his funny drumming fail was loved by them. The nickname of 40-year-old man "The Smile (Age:40)" came from his distinctive smirk while beating the drum.

As of September 2011, the amount of MAD videos related to the grandad is over 120.^[10] But almost all MADs were made in its first month. This is because people soon got tired of its too simple editing styles that merely synchronized his drumbeat with other music.

Examples

MADs

For more MAD videos, check out this entry’s videos section.

神(59歳)のグルメレース^[11] (See also : Kirby's Gourmet Race Remixes)

F.N.59歳は神なのか？最終勇者フィフティーン・F【神(59歳)】^[12] (See also : U.N Owen Was Her?)

神（59歳）さびた古勇者(15歳)【神さびた古戦場】^[13] (music : Suwa Foughten Field from Touhou Project)

神（５９歳）楽団～ God Ensemble^[14] (music : Phantom Ensemble from Touhou Project)

Images

Search Interest

External References

Editor’s Note: Registration on NND is needed to browse the original videos listed in this section