About

Bad Day, also known as Man Destroys Computer, is a short viral video featuring security camera footage of a man in his office cubicle who bashes his CRT computer monitor and keyboard in a fit of rage.

Origin

Starting in 1997, a short video named "badday.mpg" began circulating online via email, which showed security footage of an angry office worker (played by Vinny Licciardi) who smashes his desktop computer in a fit of rage. The footage was staged and filmed by the Colorado-based technology company Loronix to promote their digital video surveillance systems and was initially distributed via CD-ROM.

Spread

On June 5th, 2001, Wired^[2] published an article about the video, in which they noted Licciardi had been nicknamed "Vinny the Destroyer." On April 6th, 2006, the video was uploaded to YouTube, which gathered upwards of 396,000 views and 130 comments over the next 12 years. On December 11th, 2006, a parody of the video titled "A real bad day at the office" was uploaded by YouTuber hairycanarie, in which an office worker destroys a printer after being sprayed with ink (shown below, left). Within 12 years, the video accumulated upwards of 2.13 million views and 1,000 comments. On March 29th, 2007, YouTuber killmypc uploaded a parody titled "Kill My PC," which received upwards of 1.2 million views within 11 years (shown below, right).

On September 16th, YouTuber moneeb23 uploaded a parody in which an angry officer worker is viciously attacked by a desktop computer (shown below, left). On March 6th, 2010, YouTuber batmayn123 uploaded a Trololo-themed remix of the original video (shown below, right). On January 12th, 2018, Wired^[3] published an article about the video titled "The Strange History of One of the Internet's First Viral Videos."

Search Interest

External References