Technoviking

About

Technoviking is the star of a viral video from Berlin’s annual techno event known as the “F**kparade”^[1] in July of 2000. The video features an unruly man shoving a woman before being grabbed by a shirtless man with a beard who pushes him away. The shirtless man is then handed a water bottle before walking down the street dancing to techno music.

Origin

The original clip, titled “Kneecam No. 1,” was produced by the German visual artist Matthias Fritsch at the annual street techno festival “Fuck Parade” on July 8th, 2000. According to Matthias, the original intention behind publishing the Kneecam video was to raise the question of its authenticity.

The video was first uploaded to YouTube by user subrelic on October 10th, 2006. The video has over 14 million views as of July 8th, 2011.

Spread

According to the YouTube graph, the video went largely unnoticed until some time in 2007. The first YTMND^[2] page was created on September 21st, 2007. A week later the video was posted to the video site Break^[3], and the social news site Digg^[8] on September 27th.

The Technoviking Archive

In 2009, Mathias and a team of artists curated an installation exhibit titled “Technoviking Archive”^[3] in Karlsruhe, Germany, which presented the best of Technoviking remixes, parodies and re-enactments in real life. More recently, the Technoviking Archive released a website^[4] with an official compilation of parodies and response videos created by the fans.

Search

Google insights shows a strong peak in searches for Technoviking beginning in September of 2007, peaking one month later. The corresponds with first creation of the first YTMND page.

Identity

On May 5th, 2010, the blog Dead End Follies^[5] posted an article claiming that Technoviking was the Munich bodybuilder Hans Schlepkopper.

A man appeared on a Raab Gefahr^[6] “Bodybuilding” episode named “Harry the old Teuton” on February 20th, 2009. A YouTomb^[7] page claims the man is Technoviking.

Derivatives

More can be found in the video gallery below.

External Links

^[1]F**k Parade

^[2]YTMND – Technoviking

^[3]HFG Karlruhe – Technoviking Archive

^[4]Technoviking.tv

^[5] Dead End Follies – Analyzing Technoviking

^[6] TV Total – RAAB IN GEFAHR – BODYBUILDING

^[7] YouTomb – Technoviking on raab in gefahr

^[8] Digg – All Hail Technoviking