Star Wars Kid

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About

Star Wars Kid is a viral video featuring Ghyslain Razaa, a Canadian teenager who filmed himself fighting against imaginary sentries with a golf-ball retriever, as though it were a double-sided light saber such as the one Darth Maul uses in Star Wars: Episode I. Over the last decade, it is estimated that the original, unmodified Star Wars Kid video has accumulated over one billion views.

Origin

On November 2nd, 2002, Razaa recorded an 8mm movie of himself pretend-fighting with a club in his high school studio, but forgot to take the cassette tape home with him. Unbeknownst to Razaa, the footage was eventually discovered by three of his classmates on April 19th, 2003 and posted online via Kazaa, a popular P2P file-sharing network, on April 14th, 2003.

Spread

Within days of entering circulation on April 22nd, Bryan Dube ^[1], a game developer from Wisconsin, discovered the video and blogged the first CGI-edited version of Razaa’s video, now equipped with a glowing lightsaber and appropriate sound effects.

On April 29th, 2003, Andy Baio ^[2], a popular blogger from Oregon, published both the original and CGI-edited versions on his website, naming the video file as “Star_Wars_Kid.wmv.” As the viral video continued to spread across the internet, this name stuck and the phenomenon permanently became known as the “Star Wars Kid.”

In May 2003, remix videos of Star Wars Kid began surfacing on internet humor sites like
Albino Black Sheep ^[3], FARK ^[4] and Newgrounds ^[5], further triggering a new series of parodies, mashups and other CGI-edited videos.

Beginning on May 19th, 2003, Star Wars Kid started receiving coverage from major tech-related blogs and forums like Metafilter ^[6], BoingBoing ^[7] and Wired News ^[8].

Legal Battle

On July 16th, 2003, following the mass exposure on Star Wars Kid, Andy Baio and over 400 fans of the video raised $4,334.44 in donations and sent Ghyslain a 30GB iPod, a gift certificate for an electronics store and a “Thank You” letter ^[9]. However, Razaa’s parents filed a quarter million-dollar harassment lawsuit against the families of his schoolmates for emotional sufferings and psychological damages, raising serious concerns of privacy invasion for the first time in a new age of the Internet.

Notable Examples

Star Wars Clone Battle:

Drunken Jedi Version:

Star Wars Kid 2.1:

Versus Agent Smith:

Versus Seeker Drones:

Star Wars Kid vs. Yoda:

Star Wars Kid Goes Canoeing:

Significance

The Star Wars Kid phenomenon coincided with the adoption of broadband internet subscriptions in the United States which jumped 23% between 2000 and 2003. Having first gone viral before the emergence of popular video-sharing sites like YouTube in 2005, the Star Wars Kid phenomenon may be seen as one of the first instances of a massively consumed online video, a forebear to a now robust online video culture supporting a much deeper dimension for regular feedback, mashups and parody. In 2006, the video was estimated to have been viewed over 900 million times by The Viral Factory. ^[10]

Aftermath

By the end of May 2003, the viral video of Star Wars Kid had received extensive coverage from the mainstream media outlets including The New York Times ^[11]. Unfortunately, Ghyslain was humiliated and finished school in a psychiatric ward.

Excerpt from MSNBC article:

Ghyslain, devastated by his sudden celebrity and the relentless teasing that came with it, dropped out of school and reportedly finished the semester in a psychiatric ward. His parents sued the families of the teenagers responsible for the video’s world premiere, in a suit that maintained, “Ghyslain had to endure, and still endures today, harassment and derision from his high-school mates and the public at large.” Also, he “will be under psychiatric care for an indefinite amount of time.” It also stated that the stigma could make it difficult for the kid to continue his education, find employment, and might necessitate that he change his name.

Where He Is Now

On June 1, 2010, Motherboard.TV revealed that Ghyslain is now the president of the Patrimoine Trois-Rivières, a society dedicated to the conservation of his hometown. He is also currently studying law at McGill University in Montreal.

External References

^[1] Bryan Dube – Shoalin Monk? You Make The Call / 4-22-2003

^[2] Andy Baio – Finding the Star Wars Kid / 5-13-2003

^[3] Albino Blacksheep – Star Wars Kid Remix / 5-26-2003

^[4]FARK – The Star Wars Kid Enter The Matrix / 5-29-2003

^[5] EbaumsWorld – Star Wars Kid – Attack Of The Clones / 8-10-2003

^[6] Metafilter – Star Wars Kid Suing / 5-30-2003

^[7] BoingBoing – Star Wars Kid Found, Geeks Launch Online Fundraiser / 5-15-2003

^[8] Wired News – Star Wars Kid Gets Bucks from Blogs / 5-19-2003

^[9] Waxy – Finding The Star Wars Kid / 5-13-2003

^[10]BBC News – Star Wars Kid is Top Viral Video / 11-27-2006

^[11] New York Times – Compressed Data; Fame Is No Laughing Matter for the Star Wars Kid / 5-19-2003

^[12] MotherBoard.TV – After Lawsuits and Therapy, Star Wars Kid is Back / 6-01-2010