|
Ghyslain Raza (born circa 1988) is a Québécois teenager from
Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada who, at the age of 15, became known
throughout the Internet in late April 2003 and May 2003 as the "Star
Wars Kid"
The famous video
On November 8, 2002 Raza had made a video of himself acting like the
Star Wars character Darth Maul, using a golf ball retriever to represent
his lightsaber. It was filmed at the studio of his high school (Séminaire
St-Joseph). On April 19, 2003, a few of his classmates stole the tape
from a locked storage unit and uploaded it to the Kazaa peer-to-peer
file sharing network as a prank.
The video file spread across the Internet extremely quickly; within
weeks it had been downloaded millions of times. Within days, artists all
over the world began making modifications to the original video, adding
music, visual effects and sounds, combining it with other well-known
videos or scenes from films, etc., for comical effect. Among the many
renditions is a Matrix video, with Ghyslain as Neo.
An Internet petition to get Raza a cameo role in Star Wars Episode III
received more than 140,000 digital signatures. But the film contains no such cameo
and there were never any plans to do so, nor is it at all clear that Raza himself would have wished it.
At the height of the video's popularity, two webloggers (waxy.org and
jish.nu) began a fundraiser to buy the overly-embarrassed Ghyslain an Apple iPod. In less than
a week, they raised over $3,200 and shipped him a 30GB iPod and a $2,600
gift certificate.
Cultural references
In 2004, an episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends featured a
story entitled World Wide Wabbit, which may have been based on this
incident. Unlike Ghyslain Raza, the character caught on tape actually
benefited from it by creating awareness of the foster home.
In 2004, the video game Tony Hawk's Underground 2 featured three
references to Ghyslain Raza. In the Boston level, an overweight kid with
glasses can be found inside an apartment; the player can approach him
and make him dance around and make wooshing noises as Star Wars like
music plays in the background. He can also be found in the hidden area
of the Triangle level in which he can be seen standing atop an operating
table fending off alien doctors. And as the player progresses through
the game, the boy can be unlocked as a playable character.
In 2004, the TV-series The Venture Brothers featured a lightsaber attack
by Monarch Henchman 21 that is a takeoff on the infamous Star Wars Kid
video.
In 2004, the TV network G4 featured Dave Navarro in a spoof of the Star
Wars Kid on their annual awards show G-Phoria.
In 2005, the TV-series Arrested Development did a spoof on the Star Wars
kid video. The character caught on tape in that instance also benefited
from it, as his ex-girlfriend reconciled with him after seeing the
video.
In 2005, the Swedish TV-series 100 höjdare (100 Highlights) ranked
Raza's video clip as the 60th funniest moment in the world.
In 2005, the TV-series Veronica Mars featured a reference to the Star
Wars kid. In the episode "M.A.D." a character states that she fears a
sexually explicit video of herself will be posted online, turning her
into an internet joke similar to "Paris Hilton or that Star Wars kid."
In 2005, the San Francisco Giants, when playing at Pac Bell Park, played
a video of the Star Wars Kid on the Jumbotron alongside the away team
pitcher whenever the catcher and coach come out for a meeting on the
pitcher's mound.
In 2005, C|Net lists the Star Wars Kid as #8 on its Top 10 Web Fads
list.
In 2005, the TV-series American Dad, in the episode "All About Steve",
had a geek that resembled Ghyslain Raza jump out at the sci-fi
convention and swing a broom stick at Stan Smith in Ghyslain's trademark
style, then fall over clumsily. Putfile has a long video clip showing
this sci-fi convention scene.
In 2005, the animated series Teen Titans had an episode where a
geek-stereotype villian named Control Freak swung a lightsaber like
device very much in the way that Ghyslain Raza did in the video.
In 2005, MAD Magazine made a brief reference to the Star Wars Kid. A
section of the October 2005 issue details the pros and cons of new media
releases, and for the Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith DVD,
the MAD writers lament that "The only special video we were really
looking forward to was that one with the fat kid having the lightsaber
battle all by himself."
In 2005, World of Warcraft made a reference to the Star Wars Kid. In the
end-game raid instance, Blackwing Lair, certain monsters make Star Wars
Kid gestures with their weapons when moving forward or attacking.
Star Wars Kid Variations
|