I'm chubby and a geek. Please send money.

[nickg]

what the F*** is this all about????

hey craze -- these are for you!!
--------->( )

'Star Wars Kid' Gets Bucks From Blogs

By Leander Kahney

A couple of webloggers are raising money for an unfortunate teenager humiliated worldwide after a private video of his energetic lightsaber moves was leaked to the Net.

Webloggers Andy Baio and Jish Mukerji launched a fundraiser Friday for the young man they call the "Star Wars Kid," whose home video has been downloaded millions of times and watched by people all over the world.

The video shows a lone, overweight teenager fighting a mock battle with a broomstick lightsaber. In the two-minute video, the teenager twirls the broomstick ever more energetically while generating his own lightsaber sound effects. The video, which is obviously not for public consumption, is amusing and excruciating.

full story here:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,58881,00.html

[CinaC]

Haaaahhh! Did you see that link, Nick, I posted it here. It's in this forum, maybe two weeks ago? I think it's titled "Darth Vader's Last Hope" or something.

Besides, everyone knows I don't run around swinging a faux lightsaber ...

... I run around swinging a faux sword saying, "There can be only one!" Then I usually decapitate some hapless lamp.

[Deputy Joe]

The first topic about this.

I wish I could make money be waving a broomstick.

[Xanthorius]

I think that website is raising the money as a way of apologizing for being part of this kid's WORLDWIDE humiliation.

I don't see anything wrong with raising the money to help him. It's $1,000 or so, not a full college scholarship.

[nickg]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Xanthorius:
[QB]I think that website is raising the money as a way of apologizing for being part of this kid's WORLDWIDE humiliation.

QB]

---

WORLDWIDE humiliation?? oh brother.

remind me the next time i'm in walmart and i fart and someone hears me, i'll ask the sam walton family to send me 50 bucks for the humiliation.

[Xanthorius]

Some kids stole a personal tape he'd left in the lab, thought, "How funny is this? A fat kid being stupid!" and posted it to the internet. He didn't ask anybody to post that tape. He didn't ask anybody to raise money for him.

I don't know if you read this part of the article, but one website said that 2.3 terrabytes worth of that video had been downloaded from one website alone.

Put it this way- had a tape of something private (but not obscene) and you accidentally left it somewhere, and the next thing you know, somebody on O.com posts something saying, "Look at this jackass, what a dork!" and everybody else laughed, you'd probably be embarrassed.

This kid seemed pretty embarrassed, but he is also pretty level-headed about it. I read some interviews with him, and he seemed to take it in stride.

The end result is that although he is taking the embarrassment well, somebody felt bad that they'd helped to hurt this kid's feelings and is making up for it.

Normally I agree with you on stuff, Nick, but I don't see anything wrong with- "I hurt your feelings, does this make up for it?" True, when people hurt my feelings I don't get $1,000 in computer accessories, but it's the same principle.

[nickg]

if goofin' around with a "light saber" and having other people see it is the WORST thing that happens in your life, be happy.

my 17 year old son has done stupider stuff than this (not bad stuff mind you, just goofy things) and he would NOT be "humiliated" in the least. knowing him, he'd encourage it!! not to mention i've seen dozens of kids doing stupider things.

shoot...after spending years on stage as a musician for almost 30 years I'VE done goofier things than this...and in front of hundreds or thousands of people!! live and in person!!!

if he was caught masterbating his dog or trying on sis's panties and wearing lipstick and THAT was broadcast then yeah, i'd see his problem.

but like i said, if playing "light saber" is this kid's fall from grace then he, his mommy and his daddy have some serious issues ahead of them.

sorry...luke chubbwalker gets no sympathy here.

[n567]

quote:

---

Originally posted by nickg:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Xanthorius:
[QB]I think that website is raising the money as a way of apologizing for being part of this kid's WORLDWIDE humiliation.

QB]

---

WORLDWIDE humiliation?? oh brother.

remind me the next time i'm in walmart and i fart and someone hears me, i'll ask the sam walton family to send me 50 bucks for the humiliation.

---

That's not quite the same as having an utterly humiliating video of yourself being downloaded by millions upon millions of people worldwide...

Not that I'll be sending money, it was his mistake for leaving that tape at school, honestly, I would've uploaded it onto the net too...

[nickg]

from the excerpts i've seen, the kid doesn't seem to be doing much of anything except his saber gyrations.

don't worry. this kid's "humiliation" will probably be soothed in the near future when someone starts making money off of this "video" and the parents will hire a lawyer screaming "that's MY kid in that video and he should be COMPENSATED like others that are making money off of it. because if it wasn't for MY son, none of this money making venture would be possible!!"

the kid will become a celeb for 15 minutes and we'll see him on leno and letterman.

so there ya have it.

[CinaC]

Nick, you're just mad because you run around with a mop saying "Zing!" and "Zang!" all the time, and no one decided to raise a donation for you.

[ 05-20-2003, 03:01 PM: Message edited by: CrazyinaJeep ]

[FLLawdog]

Well, this Jedi Nerd is mired in a long line of those who have been "humiliated" on the 'net.

Included are:

www.uglypeople.com

The Bungee Jumper who crapped his pants.

The guy who got caught shaggin' some rather large and apparently drunk woman on a city street (hey, 2 lawsuits for the price of 1!).

The endless streams of "Priceless" spoofs.

I'm sure PETA will be coming into the picture on behalf of all of the animals himilated by chasing flashlight beams, getting the bejeezus scared out of them and hitting the walls and all of the other morally degrading pictures that their owners think are "cute".

Oh, yeah, I forgot all about "diaper man", who looks oddly like Qui Geek Jin here.

It brings me back to one of my old sig lines. "If you're gonna be dumb, you'd better be tough".

[ 05-20-2003, 07:03 PM: Message edited by: FLLawdog ]

[FLLawdog]

From e-baum's world-funny site! comes Diaper Guy . Does anyone else see the resemblance?

[Evnings]

I'm in my early 40's, graying, have an ex wife, and have to pay child support. Please send me money.

Give me a break.

[CinaC]

From National Post

http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id=392

Fame cuts both ways for Quebec Net sensation

Mary Vallis
National Post, with files from The New York Times

An enhanced clip of the teen, identified only as Ghyslain, has drawn more than one million hits on Web sites.

A Quebec high school student who took a video of himself energetically wielding a golf ball retriever has become an international sensation, with at least two million people downloading the clip after his friends leaked it on the Internet 31 days ago.

Stories about Ghyslain, who has been identified only by his first name, have appeared on Web logs, in tech magazines and, yesterday, in The New York Times.

Wearing baggy khakis and an untucked button-down shirt, the 15-year-old wields the golf ball retriever like a Star Wars light sabre and glares into the camera as he spins and lunges, slipping and nearly falling at one point.

He twirls his light sabre with an utter lack of self-consciousness and appears to concentrate entirely on his performance.

"This one really caught on because a lot of the geek world seemed to identify with Ghyslain, this geeky-looking kid that was obviously very free with his body and his own personal space," said Jish Mukerji, a San Francisco biologist who hosts a Web log. "I think we've all played air guitar and wished we were rock stars. For him, it's being a Star Wars guy."

But the Grade 10 student never meant to become the celebrity known worldwide as the "Star Wars Kid." He let loose in the privacy of his school's studio and never meant for anyone to see the clip.

Software developers quickly got hold of the video and enhanced it, adding music and making the stick glow and sound just like the double-bladed light sabre used by Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Several remixes are available on the Web in addition to the original video.

"I think it's one of the fastest spreading videos in the Net's history," said Andy Baio, a Los Angeles computer programmer who hosts the clip on his Web log, waxy.org. "This goes down as one of the biggies."

The clip attracted so much interest that Mr. Baio posted a request for more information about it on his site. Three of Ghyslain's schoolmates claimed responsibility for the prank. The clip was recorded on tape on Nov. 4, 2002. Ghyslain returned the borrowed videotape to a friend. Months later, his friend discovered what was on the tape.

The friend digitized it and uploaded it to Kazaa, a file-sharing service that allows users to download video clips. By May 13, the original video and the souped-up version had been accessed more than 1.1 million times on Mr. Baio's site alone and that number has probably doubled since then because of all the attention.

Reactions to Ghyslain's antics have been pouring in. Mr. Baio fielded more than 300 comments about the clip on his site in a matter of weeks, much of it from nasty people saying "really unkind things" and making fun of Ghyslain.

"I thought it was hypocritical, considering where the traffic was coming from," Mr. Baio said. Most of the viewers were finding the video through links on Star Wars fan sites, video game sites and Web pages devoted to technology.

"These are geeks and nerds and dorks. I thought it was strange and sad that these people were trashing one of their own."

Mr. Baio has removed most of the negative comments from his site. Using the information Ghyslain's friends provided, he asked Mr. Mukerji, who speaks French, to contact the teen and interview him about his unexpected fame.

The two men have become protective of Ghyslain, closely guarding his contact information and refusing to reveal his hometown. Last week, they began a campaign to collect money to buy Ghyslain an iPod digital music player for his troubles.

Hundreds of people responded, raising more than US$2,000 -- enough to buy the Star Wars Kid a laptop computer instead of an iPod. One donor sent US$500.

"[Ghyslain] only did what we have all done at some point in our lives, most of us just never got caught," one supporter writes at waxy.org. "I have developed an affection for this kid.... He represents a part of me that is still inside waiting to be caught."

But Ghyslain would have preferred the video remained private instead of receiving all this unwanted attention. He said he made it for a school project he had directed and was simply acting out some of the moves he had in mind for the actors.

"People were laughing at me," he said in an e-mail. "And it was not funny at all."